Grand knowledge holders, I seek thy wisdom

[G+_Black Merc]

Grand knowledge holders, I seek thy wisdom.

 

My isp has been forced to discontinue my connection. The provider has wireless(unrelated to cell service) towers through the northern part of this county, and I was just close enough to connect.(5+ years) A recent lightning strike damaged that tower and repairs have been made, but can no longer connect to me.

 

I am 2 miles too far for the cable co. to care; and one mile too far for dsl to connect without large 'trenching' installation fees.

 

There is satellite internet but, I don't want to deal with the latency and usage caps.

 

The only other alternative that comes to mind is cellular.(I can hear 'padre yelling 'dear god NO') I can tether my phone to my laptop but, my prepaid provider has a documented history of disconnecting the phone permanently once they discover the tether.

 

I need internet to the entire farm(gandma's house too) to replace this connection.

One thought was cell dongle on raspberry pi to the wan port on router( then to farm).

 

Yes, I'm nuts...(thanks for asking) I watch twit, twiet, nss, sn and wish to watch more but, if I cannot replace this connection that all may be for not.

 

I'm sorry for such a long post, so, if you got this far, thank you very much.

[G+_Jared Twomey]

Do you know how far away from their tower you are?

[G+_Ben Reese]

Do you know how much data you typically use monthly? Much more than 20~30 GB (depending on your carrier) and they may drop you as a customer (hopefully not without warning).

 

When I have to tether, I connect the phone to a VPN server first. On Windows, PDANET+ or EasyTether Pro will work. On Linux (including the Pi or OpenWRT routers), EasyTether should work.

[G+_Black Merc]

Jared Twomey approximately 3 miles... 2.4 ghz band.

[G+_Jared Twomey]

Sorry, should have asked this originally, do you have, or can you get clear line of sight to the tower?

[G+_Black Merc]

Ben Reese 25+ gig, this is a guess based on podcasts and social media I watch/use.

[G+_Black Merc]

Jared Twomey los is the main problem even before this event... The connection was 900 mhz before...(but it worked) Repairs replaced that with the 2.4 ghz, thus the problem I have.

[G+_Michael Larson]

I have used a cantenna (google it) and paid for internet at a friend’s house. It was 1.8 miles away and I got speeds of 10mbs down and 3 up. Not spectacular but not horrible. Find a few friends in the direct path and you could do mesh with modded wrt wireless routers. You’d probably do better with that. In rural Kansas we had internet providers that did mesh networks over the air that way.

[G+_Jared Twomey]

Got it, I was gonna say, as a WISP we don't like to cancel paying customers. Sounds like whatever they replaced the dead gear with has less gain, or if they only had a few 2.4 customers left they may have decided it wasn't worth to replace.

Not sure if you have tried to see if the ISP is willing to work with you, possibly doing a point to point shot . They would most likely want to charge more as it will cost them more in tower fees.

 

Or see of they are willing to come resurvey the site, maybe they have new tools to find LOS. I know at my company we started using quadcopters on difficult site surveys and it has been a boon for finding those narrow shots, or to determine how high we have to go to get a shot.

 

[G+_Todd Barnard]

Jared Twomey My wisp had an equip failure last summer that left me with limited service for 6 wks.

 

For the past month my latency was awful and made my connection almost useless. Customer service from my provider was useless too!

 

I called 16 times in 4 wks and kept getting told my download speeds were with in acceptable limits, even tho I was getting text only versions of Gmail. I started running tracerts and pings and found hop they own that was timing out. Service is back and working great for a week now.

 

Finally, I got one supervisor to listen, and now hes looking into getting me some compensation.

 

They are the ONLY provider serving my area, and I only have a shot at one tower right now.

 

Two other companies are getting closer all the time, but still 6 mos to a year out.

 

We use the internet for business, heavily, and during the 6 wk problem our Verizon Jetpack got a major workout.

 

[G+_Ben Reese]

A friend of mine in rural Kansas (Michael Larson ?) said the local WISP would work with him. If he got the 100 ft tower they'd put their radio on it.

 

I'm impressed by the performance of that cantenna, btw. Pretty awesome!

[G+_Black Merc]

Jared Twomey altitude may help... That was part of the discussion I had with the isp but, may still not make the cut. I can only afford so much. Plus I have a altitude limit(airport prox).

[G+_Hyrum Smith]

A regular bucket full of conditions! Including a nearby airport. Going from 900 MHz to 2.4 GHz with no LoS explains the issue. 900 MHz will tollerate near LoS conditions and 2.4 will not. Is there anywhere on your property with LoS? Possibly a neighbor that has LoS to the WISP tower and to your site as well? If so, a 5.8 GHz point to point would work to get you to the location that has access. A lot of options for that PtP link - Ubiquity & many others. I have installed several Ubiquity PtP links and depending on terrain & obstructions, they can be reliable for miles. Cost is about $150 a pair and use PoE so only a single cable.

Good luck! I hope you can figure it out.

[G+_Black Merc]

Hyrum Smith the isp has done PtP in the past but, has cence discontinued the practice. I could do the PtP to another place on property as suggested but, erecting a new receiver station and getting power there would be insanely costly. More than the original stated options.

[G+_Hyrum Smith]

An irrigation pump location, or similar where the WISP radio & PtP radio could be placed on a pole. Nothing special required - PtP radio link acts like an Ethernet bridge so they plug into each other. The other end of the PtP at your home.

Only real requirements of the intermediate site are power, WISP LoS, & LoS to where you want service.

[G+_Todd Barnard]

Hyrum Smith What kind of range can you get with these, Hyrum?

[G+_Hyrum Smith]

Todd Barnard It ALL depends on terrain. Good Line of Sight is a must. Obstructions in the middle of the path are bad. I've installed multiple links under 2 miles with only 20 - 30 ft. elevation over neighborhoods with trees. Higher elevations like to mountain tops or tall towers can do 10+ miles easily. Litteraly, mileage will vary depending on interference and terrain. Ubiquity has a great Point to Point link planning tool on their site that I have used in the past.

[G+_Ben Reese]

I believe I've seen reports of 10 miles using some Ubiquiti PtP links. Your mileage may vary ?

[G+_Todd Barnard]

Hyrum Smith Thanks, I'll check it out. I'm near the top of a hill, trees are keeping me from getting to a good tower right now.

 

One of the new providers in the area was asking me if I had LoS to a building in a neighboring town, I think they were considering PtP, but seemed concerned with interference from my neighbors wifi.

[G+_Todd Barnard]

Ben Reese I finally went to an Edgerouter and Unifi AP here at home. Couldn't be happier with them. At $55, I've ordered a 2nd router to have on standby.

[G+_Ben Reese]

Todd Barnard nice! I convinced my wife we needed a Ubiquiti AP around Christmas and have enjoyed glorious WiFi coverage since. Edgerouter is next on my list ?

[G+_Jared Twomey]

Ben Reese I have some point to point Ubiquiti shots at 30+ miles

[G+_Ben Reese]

Jared Twomey that's crazy! Just lining up the antennas would be a tough challenge at that distance.

[G+_Jared Twomey]

Ben Reese its not too bad, its all engineered. We know the height of both sides, we can determine exact up/down tilt of both antennas, and we know the azimuth on both sides, once you get it close you can fine-tune it.