I've written about this before, but I need to get a reliable, somewhat high-speed link between two buildings about 600 feet apart, with a good line of sight between them. I've been using normal Wifi to do this, connecting about 400 feet from a normal WAP to my house, and then from here using another normal WAP on a different channel to connect to a wireless bridge in the other building. But this is becoming less than suitable. For one, the speeds at 400 feet are never very good, probably 1-2 MBit/s. Also the link is a bit unstable. The ultimate solution is to trench in some fiber optic line, but that's a fair amount of work. So I was researching more into dedicated point-to-point wireless links. I found one that I know will work at about 100 Mbit/s and is about $500 for pair of transceivers, which is not bad.
But I also was looking at the Ubiquity Nanostation Loco 5 units. They are about $70 a piece, and are basically normal 5.8 GHz-only wifi units with built-in directional antennas. They are supposed to be able to connect up to a couple of miles and get good signal and speed because of their antennas. Also if two units happen to be within the cone of signal coming from the main access point unit, it can connect to multiple client bridges, which would actually suit my needs quite well. Has anyone on the list had experience with them? They are supposed to be weather-proof... dunno if they factor in -40F and high winds. Worst case, I figure at $70 a unit, I can buy a couple to try out and if they don't prove reliable, get the more expensive system that I know will work. /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
