3 ms·

He used tp-link gadgets to go 80m through some tree to his shed. Glad he's happy but not really that far? 800m would have been more interesting.

unstatusthequo 5y ago
For $100, not bad though. Sure you could do Ubiquiti, but not for $100 and since a lot of Ubiquiti gear is sold out right now, at least he got it done.
- Scoundreller 5y ago
  If you just need one ptp link, you should be able to find a used set of their older stuff. It’s an 80m link and you’re not trying to keep your CPEs consistent like a WISP.
  - mustardo 5y ago
    Thats what I did, used second hand locoM2 units from a WISP for $20-40 each
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
tshaddox 5y ago
It was interesting to me because I had no idea there was relatively affordable consumer gear like this. I was into “cantennas” back around 2005 or so but hadn’t thought or read about point to point wireless connectivity for many years.
gregsadetsky 5y ago
Mikrotik has a number of point-to-point products [0] some of which are pretty inexpensive ($50 per device). Promotional material for the DISC Lite5 mention a ~5-10km range. The LDF [1] in particular is intriguing -- it is "meant to be installed on satellite offset dish antennas" i.e. you can re-use a (potentially already installed) dish antenna as a reflector. Configuring these devices is not exactly intuitive though. [0] https://mikrotik.com/products/group/wireless-systems https://mikrotik.com/products/group/wireless-systems [1] https://mikrotik.com/product/rbldf_5nd#fndtn-gallery https://mikrotik.com/product/rbldf_5nd#fndtn-gallery
- jcrawfordor 5y ago
  Watch out, it's 100% possible to do long ranges over WiFi but the speed tradeoff at long distances can be significant. Devices made for long-range use will either autoselect or allow you to manually select an encoding, which will need to be lower-rate as the range increases. Documentation often gives radio performance values for different encodings, e.g. the Mikrotik DISC Lite5 gives Tx and Rx specs starting from 6Mbps (essentially 802.11a) up to MCS9 (256 QAM) which can do well over a gigabit. We can do some naive calculations to estimate that MCS9 is achievable at up to 5km (really pushing it) while 6Mbps works out to 50km or more! In practice there are other factors that will limit these because you start getting into fresnel zones and such, especially as you get over a few km. The Ubiquiti devices are a bit more expensive but are easier to work with than Mikrotik. They also have higher-end options available for very long range use, 50-100km type scenarios, although the data rate gets very low.
  - gtvwill 5y ago
    Mikrotik has gear for punching that far. Mikrotik > ubiquiti. If the setup is overwhelming you probably don't have the knowledge to legally throw a WiFi >500m and not get arrested. (You need acma license in aus for any links >800m off memory). You shouldn't be doing long WiFi links if you don't know what your doing. On the shorter end of things tho lol mikrotiks new app make setup as pleb as ubiquiti if you need that level of simplicity. Devices cost about 1/3rd too. I don't sell anything else for WiFi or networking unless you need >10gb mmwave....which you don't.
    - mkj 5y ago
      Australia doesn't have a distance limit afaik. Commercial links need a telco license though (or did 10 years ago anyway)
- walshemj 5y ago
  If you have consumer gear with connectors you can add some high gain antennas and get decent distance PTP - you could do this with the old favorite WRT54G Main thing is mount them high up and you need some protective enclosures.
bostonsre 5y ago
Think I've read that these things can go a lot further. Took a look at them a while back and they are pretty neat. Was contemplating getting one for my apartment and one for my backpack so I could work on the lake in front of my apartment.
gerdesj 5y ago
I ran ethernet down to my summer house about the same distance. The first 30m in external grade 25mm plastic round conduit, then underground. 1.5 to 2 spade depth, 2" of gravel/stones/whatever to run water out. I used underground stable plastic conduit, weld glued together. At 0.75ish spade depth, I put a black/yellow warning tape. I ran two CAT6 cables. I ran a SWA (steel wire armoured) power cable down too in an earlier project and have four double IP66 (EU regs for water and dust ingress - 66 is good for an accidental spray from a hose) My garden backs onto a park and my summerhouse has a POE switch with an AP in it. I can get wifi in the park to quite a long range. I also have a DECT extender in the summerhouse. The range I can use my house phones (I have an IP PBX) is pretty mad.
fuzzfactor 5y ago
He also had one of the access points attached to a cat-scratching post in the house. I found the user-contributed installation hints to be helpful: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/08/point-to-point-wi-fi-bridging-between-buildings-the-cheap-and-easy-way/?comments=1&post=40157966 https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/08/point-to-point-wi-fi...

unstatusthequo 5y ago

For $100, not bad though. Sure you could do Ubiquiti, but not for $100 and since a lot of Ubiquiti gear is sold out right now, at least he got it done.

Scoundreller 5y ago
If you just need one ptp link, you should be able to find a used set of their older stuff. It’s an 80m link and you’re not trying to keep your CPEs consistent like a WISP.
- mustardo 5y ago
  Thats what I did, used second hand locoM2 units from a WISP for $20-40 each
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

tshaddox 5y ago

It was interesting to me because I had no idea there was relatively affordable consumer gear like this. I was into “cantennas” back around 2005 or so but hadn’t thought or read about point to point wireless connectivity for many years.

gregsadetsky 5y ago

Mikrotik has a number of point-to-point products [0] some of which are pretty inexpensive ($50 per device). Promotional material for the DISC Lite5 mention a ~5-10km range. The LDF [1] in particular is intriguing -- it is "meant to be installed on satellite offset dish antennas" i.e. you can re-use a (potentially already installed) dish antenna as a reflector. Configuring these devices is not exactly intuitive though. [0] https://mikrotik.com/products/group/wireless-systems https://mikrotik.com/products/group/wireless-systems [1] https://mikrotik.com/product/rbldf_5nd#fndtn-gallery https://mikrotik.com/product/rbldf_5nd#fndtn-gallery

jcrawfordor 5y ago
Watch out, it's 100% possible to do long ranges over WiFi but the speed tradeoff at long distances can be significant. Devices made for long-range use will either autoselect or allow you to manually select an encoding, which will need to be lower-rate as the range increases. Documentation often gives radio performance values for different encodings, e.g. the Mikrotik DISC Lite5 gives Tx and Rx specs starting from 6Mbps (essentially 802.11a) up to MCS9 (256 QAM) which can do well over a gigabit. We can do some naive calculations to estimate that MCS9 is achievable at up to 5km (really pushing it) while 6Mbps works out to 50km or more! In practice there are other factors that will limit these because you start getting into fresnel zones and such, especially as you get over a few km. The Ubiquiti devices are a bit more expensive but are easier to work with than Mikrotik. They also have higher-end options available for very long range use, 50-100km type scenarios, although the data rate gets very low.
- gtvwill 5y ago
  Mikrotik has gear for punching that far. Mikrotik > ubiquiti. If the setup is overwhelming you probably don't have the knowledge to legally throw a WiFi >500m and not get arrested. (You need acma license in aus for any links >800m off memory). You shouldn't be doing long WiFi links if you don't know what your doing. On the shorter end of things tho lol mikrotiks new app make setup as pleb as ubiquiti if you need that level of simplicity. Devices cost about 1/3rd too. I don't sell anything else for WiFi or networking unless you need >10gb mmwave....which you don't.
  - mkj 5y ago
    Australia doesn't have a distance limit afaik. Commercial links need a telco license though (or did 10 years ago anyway)
walshemj 5y ago
If you have consumer gear with connectors you can add some high gain antennas and get decent distance PTP - you could do this with the old favorite WRT54G Main thing is mount them high up and you need some protective enclosures.

bostonsre 5y ago

Think I've read that these things can go a lot further. Took a look at them a while back and they are pretty neat. Was contemplating getting one for my apartment and one for my backpack so I could work on the lake in front of my apartment.

gerdesj 5y ago

I ran ethernet down to my summer house about the same distance. The first 30m in external grade 25mm plastic round conduit, then underground. 1.5 to 2 spade depth, 2" of gravel/stones/whatever to run water out. I used underground stable plastic conduit, weld glued together. At 0.75ish spade depth, I put a black/yellow warning tape. I ran two CAT6 cables. I ran a SWA (steel wire armoured) power cable down too in an earlier project and have four double IP66 (EU regs for water and dust ingress - 66 is good for an accidental spray from a hose) My garden backs onto a park and my summerhouse has a POE switch with an AP in it. I can get wifi in the park to quite a long range. I also have a DECT extender in the summerhouse. The range I can use my house phones (I have an IP PBX) is pretty mad.

fuzzfactor 5y ago

He also had one of the access points attached to a cat-scratching post in the house. I found the user-contributed installation hints to be helpful: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/08/point-to-point-wi-fi-bridging-between-buildings-the-cheap-and-easy-way/?comments=1&post=40157966 https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/08/point-to-point-wi-fi...