Hello all,

First, I want to point out that I am far from new with wireless, and network topology, but VERY new to the routerboards. Most of my wireless expierance has been using Cisco devices. With that said, here is the current configuration. We have a area up in rural northern michigan, where about 5 people want to share a commerical high speed internet connection. Only one person is within the required distance to get the commericial DSL package, and being they are somewhat family to me, I am trying to help them out. Being the ruralness, we are using the SR9 radios, for their better NLOS operation. At the head end, the internet is terminated into a router, which is connect to ether1 of the RB132. The RB132 has a SR9 in wlan1, and a SR2 in wlan2. The 2.4 radio was added because it didn't cost much, and would make life easier if we can get LOS for any of the people we are connecting to. The SR9 is connected to a 6 db omni directional that is around 50 feet in the air. The CPE device is a RB112, with a single SR9, and an assortment of yagi and panel antennas to use to attempt to get signal. So here is the issue, the RB132 is operating in AP mode, the CPE's are in bridge mode. I am trying to get a computer plugged into the ethernet interface on the 112 to communicate with the internet on the ether port of the 132. I have set up bridges on the devices, and the wlan port seems to be able to talke to ether port, but the 112 cannot seem to talk to the 132. Im sure this is something terribly simple, but after a couple days of messing around with it, I am just going to reach out for some help. BTW, the radios can see each other using the scan function, but that is about it. Thanks for your help,

-Nick

What is the signal you are seeing on the CPE side? How far away is the CPE, and what gain antenna are you using on it?

As for the bridged CPE, this can only be done when using WDS and the CPE in station-wds mode. Search around a little for this if you need examples as it has been discussed a lot.

What is the signal you are seeing on the CPE side? How far away is the CPE, and what gain antenna are you using on it?

As for the bridged CPE, this can only be done when using WDS and the CPE in station-wds mode. Search around a little for this if you need examples as it has been discussed a lot.

In manual and the Wiki too ...

Thanks for the replies. I got a connection to work by just bridging the devices. I was pretty sure WDS was going to be required to make it work. On the AP end I have a 6 db omni. For testing, I have a 4 db magnetic omni for the vehicle, as well as a 14db yagi, and 12 db panel (I think those were the gains, not sitting in the office right now to look). So the new situation im running into is losing signal from a 900 card faster then my 2.4 stuff would go down. The omni is on the roof of a house, around 50 feet in the air. Ultimately it is planned to go atop a 96 foot amature radio tower. With the omni i lose signal about 1/4 mile away. With the panel or the yagi, I can keep about -77 to -80 at that same location. Any further and it pretty much dissappears. Should this stuff perform a little better then that? I was thinking of pulling down the mast and checking all the cables, but looking for some input first. In the driveway I can get -55 to -60, so there is plenty of signal up close.

-Nick

A 6db Omni at the AP isn't going to get you far, especially with that mag-mount on the car. Those gains aren't much above what you'd get just sticking an cheap residential AP up there instead of a MikroTik.

You're not saying just what cards you were using with what antennas during your tests, I'm hoping it was the SR2 card and you'd set it for 400mw output. I don't see any info about the distribution of your clients either. Are they situated such that you could put a 120 degree sector antenna at the AP instead of that omni? You could get 17db gain instead of 6db easily and cut your interference from other directions.

Basically, to help you figure out antennas and such, we need information about the paths, ranges and distribution of the clients.

You might also put that AP in scan mode and look at what all it's hearing in your area. If it's picking up large numbers of residential AP's nearby, you'll definitly want to consider dumping that omni, or even going to 802.11a if the ranges and your budget allows it, just to get away from potential interference.

The cards are the SR9. In scan mode I see nothing but the one customer device. Basically I am testing this stuff at my house, hoping to see something promising enough to help the folks back where I used to live, that can't just call comcast and get high speed. With that said, the farthest client I will have will be about 3.5 miles, with a line of maples about 60 feet thick in the way. I was under the impression that 900Mhz was much better at penetrating then 2.4. With 2.4, using a off the shelf netgear ap, I could get to the line of trees, but not past. I was hoping with the 900, I would be able to. From what I am seeing at my house, the 2.4 worked better. This leads me to beileve that I have something configured wrong, or bad cable, antennas, etc. We chose the 6db omni because originally I thought the SR9 used large blocks of available frequency, and I was afraid that a sectorized solution would interfere with itself basically. I suppose using 5Mhz blocks it could be done with 3 120 degree sectors though. I still would have thought the omni, 2 SR9 cards, and my 14 db yagi I should have been able to get more then a half a mile with A maple tree in the way.

Thanks for the input again,

-Nick

The first thing that come on my mind is that your anntenas are deisgned for 2,4 GHz !

With those trees in the way like that, you're definitly going to want a directional high gain antenna. Every db is going to count. aviper brings up an interesting question, you're using 900Mhz specific antenna's, right?

Correct, they are Cush?? something, purchased from winncom. Again, not sitting in the office, so can't look at the stack of boxes.

-Nick