extending a Clients lan but over my POOR wireless network

RouterOS Beginner Basics
1

I am running an ISP with a 433ah and 3 sectors operatng freq. 2.4 GHz. I am facing lot of problems due to hgh latency in clients and the supplier of my mikrotik 433ah seems to be less ignorant or not interested in solving my issues.

Now one of my client wants to extend his lan to his 2 different sites. The distance of this client is approx. 1 km from my base station. The other 2 sites are 1 km and 2.5 km from my base station.
LOS is clear for all 3 locations. All 3 locations fall on same sector on my wireless network. I tried the connectivity using general compex CPE. The users r getting connected but there r problems:

  1. Latency in my network is high (100ms - 2000ms) during 10:00 a.m. till 8:00 p.m. hence the connectivity is slow.

  2. They do not want internet connection but just extending their LAN to run some customised software. This software disconects if latency goes high over 20 ms or if a single RTO comes.

  3. Since the TESTING WAS DONE WITH JUST 1 PC at each location the traffic and load will increase when the number of PC goes upto max. 15 at each of 2 locations as told to me.

My queries:

  1. What should I do to bring down latency on my network during peak hours? ( I have changed channels etc.)
  2. If I should use a separate radio, what is recommended and with what kind of antenna?
  3. What should be the client end radio/CPE?

I also tried putting two sectors side to side one lower than the other on 2 cards of my 433ah but it did not do any good.
Please advise for good at the earliest else I would loose this opportunity.

2

Trying very hard not to sound insulting or hard to you about this but, why would a supplier solve your configuration problems, they sell you the parts, you install them, you configure them. If there is a problem, then unless the parts are faulty, why should they have any interest in solving your problem?

This forum can only give you limited help and ideas of where to look to fix this for yourself. Also, this method is slow and you will not have a fix within hours or days. It may take up to a week or two before you have a fix, unless you are very lucky, there are lots of people watching the forum and you are always online waiting to see if anyone replies.

To help us, we first need a lot more information about your network. There are hundreds of reasons why you have a problem.

Your questions,

  1. What should I do to bring down latency on my network during peak hours? ( I have changed channels etc.)

As already stated, without more info, we don’t stand any chance of working out where your problem is. Start with an export of your wireless settings.

  1. If I should use a separate radio, what is recommended and with what kind of antenna?

Separate radio where - at the base station? No. Unless you have a heavy load of clients on one sector. Mikrotik works well with many other CPEs from other suppliers. Leave the RB433ah - it is fine.
Kind of antenna? Again, too many other variables, you need to make a calculation of the link budget so that you should have more than “about” 20dB SNR, but not more than “about” 50dB SNR. There are many tools available to help you work this out. That will give you the gain required, then you have to find an antenna that has the right beamwidth and type (grid, patch, flat panel, yagi). How much time do you have to discuss this? (Why did I say “about”? Because with wireless, it is not a precise science and it is not easy to make hard accurate rules! What works for you, does not always work for someone else.

  1. What should be the client end radio/CPE?

Whatever you like, Mikrotik, Nanostation. Which exact Compex CPE product are you using?

It is also possible the settings may be perfect but the installation or equipment is faulty. It is also possible that you think you have LOS, but you haven’t. There is a big difference between what you can see with your eyes and what the radio links sees. I hope you understand about Fresnel zones?

Ultimately, if you can’t solve the problem yourself and you are worried you are going to lose customers and lose money, maybe you should hire a consultant before it is too late?

3

your problem is with your antenas,cables or conectors,with 20 db antena,simple PCI wifi lan card, simple TV antenna cable, not rg58u, and 3-4 km range you will have perfect connection with heavy load and if it snows

4

your problem is with your antenas,cables or conectors,with 20 db antena,simple PCI wifi lan card, simple TV antenna cable, not rg58u, and 3-4 km range you will have perfect connection with heavy load and if it snows

Assuming low interference and no obstruction in fresnel zone. Without more info from this guy’s setup, we will not know the real reason why he has problems. We have no knowledge of his SNR, his antennae, his coax, his installation, or the MT configuration.

For now, we are only guessing. :confused:

5

The supplier had assured of all kind of installation help and trouble free operation before we finalised to purchase from him. There is lot potential of wireless network in our area and we want to expand more but it isn’t possible because we want to get sure with this one device first. Anyways, the issue is to have my problems resolved. It is almost a year and i tried a lot myself before visiting this forum.

We have max 20 CPE’s active at a time with 10 of them on a sector. 8 of them running with a 256 kbps Internet bandwidth and 2 running 512 kbps internet bandwidth.

I am using compex 53G CPE and TPLINK 501G CPE and getting between 35 dbi and 40 dbi signal at all locations. LOS is clear I can say because I can see my Base Station in full from all the 3 locations I am talking about. IT is only when some specific 2 or 3 clients loggin when actually the latency starts to go high. Blocking them sometimes resolves the issue and sometimes doesn’t. Since we have an Optical Fibre network in some locations we shift the problematic locations on Fibre but that is not always possible and sometimes we loose clients.

Like it isn’t feasible for us to connect the 3 locations our client wants over fibre.

Equipments used is RB433ah with 17dbi Sectors of 120 deg each. Any more info if you need will be given. Please guide.

6

Sounds like the problem is the client hardware. What have you done to change the CPE to a different make/model which you know works well in a another place? Try to find problem by substituting “faulty” problem equipment for known good parts.

Do you have an Routerboards that you can install as CPE to replace these problem clients?

What is your location in the world?

10 clients on a sector is fine. so no problems there. Link signal levels look good.

Seeing the client from the base station with your own eyes and there being no obstructions, is not the same as “good LOS” for a wireless link. Is there anything in the Fresnel zone?

Also, you need to send export of your wireless settings.

7

We tried all these 3 client CPE at other locations. They were working good. I hope you follow my problem. The latency goes high only between 10:00 a.m to 8:00 p.m. and this happens even after replacing them with different CPE’s. I have not tried Routerboard as CPE’s but I have got rb411 CPE’s which I am going to try out today.

I suspect it might be due to interference because 10:00 a.m till 8:00 p.m is the office/business hours and lot of wireless devices which might be otherwise switched off come to power during this time. I am located in India. Also if I block some of my clients the latency comes down. Some clients on my network show more Rx bytes than Tx bytes.

I also suspect that my firewall settings r no good so it would be great help if you can post a pic of the most standard firewall settings. Some ppl also suggested that I get a Juniper firewall with my ISP Server but I do not understand if that will help.

How do I know if the card on my Routerboard is correct? I mean if it is of sufficient mW and make which I asked for. I doubt the supplier because I had asked for ALFA 200 mW cards but he sent Engenius cards(don’t know what power). Somehow those cards did not work at all and then he sent some other with his guy and got them to work.Do not know which make the cards are. The MAC id on my cards start with 00:80:48:XX:XX:XX whereas most wireless installations in my city show MAC id starting with 00:C0:CA:XX:XX:XX. Some even show 00:0C:42:XX:XX:XX which I guess is mikrotik proprietory cards R52 etc.

8

Please post your exported wireless settings.

I do not think you need Juniper firewall, Mikrotik can do this already. There are plenty of resources on the wiki to show you good firewall settings.

It seems you are having a lot of different problems and urge you to learn more by training or hire a consultant. I know that as a consultant myself, I would of course say that :slight_smile:, but really, you sound to me like you are running a system with limited knowledge of what you are doing. You need a lot more help, which sounds to me like this is all beyond your abilities to solve yourself, on your own, due to limited knowledge and experience.

The forum is a useful free resource, but it cannot solve all your problems.

If you are getting interference from lots of other access points, why have you not done a scan when it is quiet and a scan when there is a problem? That will give you some ideas of where or who the problem is. If that is the reason. You will need to perform multiple scans on multiple days, look for a pattern. This is not a five second fix. If it is true that it is an unknown user in some office nearby switching on a AP, why does blocking one of your clients make all your problems go away?

From the limited information you have provided so far, I still think the problem is with the client. But as I have not received all the information I need, I cannot be sure! :slight_smile:

MAC starts with 00:80:48 is Compex
MAC starts with 00:C0:CA is Alfa
MAC starts with 00:0C:42 is Mikrotik (Routerboard)

http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/oui/index.shtml