Pfft! You call that WIFI!

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Adagio
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Pfft! You call that WIFI!

#1

Post by Adagio »

Well!
A grid antennae with 29dB gain and a radiation angle of 7* might not be the most practical wifi. But ya!
It's part of my research into my DIY ISP project.
I taught myself the ropes of Mikrotik Routers and managed to set up a lil pipe to my friends house...
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Re: Pfft! You call that WIFI!

#2

Post by vakie »

DIY Wifi thug life. Good luck with the DIY ISP thingy!
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Valerion
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Re: Pfft! You call that WIFI!

#3

Post by Valerion »

Adagio wrote:Well!
A grid antennae with 29dB gain and a radiation angle of 7* might not be the most practical wifi. But ya!
It's part of my research into my DIY ISP project.
I taught myself the ropes of Mikrotik Routers and managed to set up a lil pipe to my friends house...
You need a ECNS license for that ...

Non-fur friend of mine has a similar setup and wants to expand. Perhaps I can talk to him and see if he's willing to talk to you about this sort of thing?
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Adagio
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Re: Pfft! You call that WIFI!

#4

Post by Adagio »

Valerion wrote:
Adagio wrote:Well!
A grid antennae with 29dB gain and a radiation angle of 7* might not be the most practical wifi. But ya!
It's part of my research into my DIY ISP project.
I taught myself the ropes of Mikrotik Routers and managed to set up a lil pipe to my friends house...
You need a ECNS license for that ...

Non-fur friend of mine has a similar setup and wants to expand. Perhaps I can talk to him and see if he's willing to talk to you about this sort of thing?
Yup! I spent HOURS on the phone about that damned license...
An ECNS and an ECS license too... One for the network, and one for the internet...
They are R10200 each and non refundable. And before they want to even give me prices on what a 100Mb/S Fiber line costs,(Not to mention if they would install it...) they want to see the license...
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Re: Pfft! You call that WIFI!

#5

Post by Galahad »

That looks magnificent (and, admittedly, ingenious!), Adagio! You truly are a creative tinker - and thinker. ;) However, for those of us not as well-versed in radio engineering: why don't you explain what you have there?
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Adagio
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Re: Pfft! You call that WIFI!

#6

Post by Adagio »

Well... It's a narrow beam directional antenna, and a MicroTic routerboard RB433 programmed as an Ethernet pipe.

The two together can theoretically have a range of over 25KM...

Right now, I'm using it to share my hard drives with my friend...
And to LAN AOE... HAHA!

But in the future. I want to get some Sector Panels (120* as opposed to the 7* of the directional one) and use them in my WUG/ISP...
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Adagio
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Re: Pfft! You call that WIFI!

#7

Post by Adagio »

Sooo! Here's an update to this!
I started putting together a little trial for my WISP on our property, and it is really working pretty good!

I slapped together a server and run some things like a Caching server and public download server to lighten the load and to give give users some added benefits to using my network, also have backup batteries for the lovely levels of load-shedding we get in Witbank. Though... The load-shedding has really taken it's toll on them.
photo_2018-06-20_19-24-55.jpg
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Here is my cabinet. I did upgrade the router to something capable of running a PPPoE server and it has both increased latency and performance, interesting how much network overheads there are to managing bandwidth.

Recently though, I have finally gotten myself some fiber(Well... Approved, pending installation) and the necessary licenses to expand beyond the borders of our property. Also have enough customers to have a steady bit of income every month.

I started expanding.
Tower Jackhammer.jpg
Tower Jackhammer 2.jpg
Tower Base Finished.jpg
We rented a jackhammer and drilled huge holes directly into the rock, and fastened it with Chemical Anchors.
I saved one as a souvenir.
Chemical Anchor.jpg

I got permission to use a bare bit of land as a high site.
Tower View.jpg
Tower View 2.jpg
Tower View 3.jpg
Pretty decent line of sight to a good lot of customers.

Here is the mast I put up.
mast.jpg
Mast Winch.jpg
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Mast up.jpg
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Also had a custom server case manufactured for outdoor use.
Also to prevent tampering as this will be an unmanned site.
Custom Server Case.jpg
I put up solar panels and a container.
photo_2019-07-05_23-14-09.jpg
They gave me the wrong one though...
This is a fiberglass and wood one. I ordered the metal one.
This is gonna make problems in the future... But hey...

I will post updates as they happen!

This is the temporary radio I will put up.
I'm hoping to get WIFI 6 radios on the tower when it comes to that.
Ubiquity Sector front.jpg
Ubiquity M5 Sector.jpg
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