Community Networking

[tehilahbase]

Hello Anyone
I have a field question I hope you can help me with.
Basically, I want to setup a Hotspot spanning 4km radius. I am a novice However, I have designed this in my head, please guide me

I want to setup a base station with Pico2HP connected to a
1-4 splitter so I can connect it to (4) 90 degree 20dbi external
sector antenna or (1)15dbi Omini antenna. This would server as base.

Furthermore, I wish to create a mesh connection using the AirOS
software to network 5 other stations of same pic02HP
connected to 1-4 splitter with (4) 90 degree 20 dbi external sector
antenna or (1) 15dbi omini antenna. The range I wish to cover is
extremely large with alot of obstruction and client will only be
accessing from homes using the normal wireless card.

I must confess I am a novice but the software AirOS makes anyone who
could read and write a pro :D , thus I want to know if there are
additional products I should add and how.
Your response will be greatly appreciated, this is a personal fee-will
community project to help make wireless accessible to common people.

Warmly,
John
Lagos, Nigeria
West-Africa

[WHT]

You may be better off using a Bullet with an external antenna. and I'd stay away from an antenna splitter...better off to simply use more APs.

AirOS won't support mesh at this time, perhaps third party firmware.

If you have any obstructions, you're going to have problems.

You can get a signal into a house, but it has to be within a few hundred feet of the AP.

[tehilahbase]

Thanks WHT
Any suggestions on how to do this properly? It's really a big deal on my heart to get this done. I can buy whatever gear is needed. I want to minimize 'cost' however, it's not as important as getting job done...any suggestion would help.
On a side note, I always wonder how experts manage to set up very functional wireless access in places like campuses, I wish I could get info on how to set that up!

John

[WHT]

If you need indoor coverage, figure on an AP every 1,000 feet.

[tehilahbase]

Ok WHT
I am thinking of a setup of Bullet 2hp with 15dbi omini, and installing an Ap every 1000feet, but i have to issues, having multiple Ap's, wouldn't that be too much hoping seeing the distance I want to cover? Secondly, If I were to add the Ap's what would you recommend an Omini 15dbi or sector 20dbi

[xsid]

agree with WHT more Ap are often preferable,it depends of how many people will connect to your network? it is also an issue to know in order to scale to estimated rates between WDS, the capacity of APs...
Depending of the load, it may preferable to use 4 Nanostations or 4 Bullet2hp with sector antennas as 1 bullet2hp with 4 antennas.

it also depends a lot of obstacles: trees, buildings ... If the land is flat or not ...

a simple way to begin : you can make tests in differents locations with a bullet2HP (it's not very expensive) with a omni antenna with a good gain . Take your laptop, use NetStumbler or metageek inssider for example it will give you a few things that you already give a lot of informations on how the signal is good or not, surface that you can cover...

:arrow:

[tehilahbase]

a simple way to begin : you can make tests in differents locations with a bullet2HP (it's not very expensive) with a omni antenna with a good gain . Take your laptop, use NetStumbler or metageek inssider for example it will give you a few things that you already give a lot of informations on how the signal is good or not, surface that you can cover...


Xsid Thanks, I'll be definately trying that out. But again what do you think? Is it better to use a Bullet2HP or a nanostaion? (with 15dbi omini and Netequalizer for test)

[WHT]

I'd go with the Bullet.

[tehilahbase]

I have head 5ghz is better when trying to minimize interference from 2.4ghz signals around, my question is thus, if the end user's laptop is 2.4ghz, how would they access the signal?

[WHT]

2.4 Gig laptops won't be able to use the 5.8 gig AP, so you'll want to stay with 2.4 on the access points. Again...keep in mind a laptop inside a house trying to connect to an AP more then several hundred feet away can be a problem.

[tehilahbase]

Thanks WHT
Point taken.
I plan experimenting alot and will be reporting my findings. I guess it would help.