Wireless ISP

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kevinzak

Limp Gawd
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Jan 3, 2009
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I have posted about this before but the issue is still not resolved and my ISP doesn't seem to have any better ideas. I'll write from a fresh start just so I know I didn't miss anything.

We get our internet through a local WISP that operates high-speed 802.11 based wireless internet service. Our location is 9 miles point-to-point from the tower we are pointed to. Our receiver is about 20 feet above the ground with 200ft burial-grade CAT5e in grey schedule-40 burial conduit (sealed) running from the tower to our house. It runs into our office where it meets a motorla PoE adapter which goes to either our router or straight into a system in the office (we have tried both; problem persists so router is not the issue). This operated beautifully for right around 4 months.

So that's the setup. Here's the issue: we have sporadic connectivity drop, which the ISP thinks is interference of some sort. I truly have no idea what it is. Before, it happened every 13-15 minutes and dropped for 60 seconds. Today they switched out our off-brand receiver with a slightly larger Motorola dish and increased our gain by 3dB. Now it seems to happen even more often with no noticeable pattern. They have multiple connection points and have tried switching us between them and that has not worked, either.

Driving us insane and willing to try just about any suggestion at this point.
 
Try anything, eh?

Pack up everything in a moblie bundle that runs off your car, and hunt down that tower.

See if happens when you're only a few yards from their access point.
 
Brak710 said:
Try anything, eh?

Pack up everything in a moblie bundle that runs off your car, and hunt down that tower.

See if happens when you're only a few yards from their access point.
Click to expand...

LOL. Okay, we'll save that as a last-resort kind of thing.
 
Does the coax not run into a modem first BEFORE your computer? Also, is there not a transceiver with the dish as well or is it built into the dish? I know the ones I've setup, when they are less than 20 KM from the tower, we use a shorter range "dish" with a built-in transceiver, but that will still run via coax into a cable modem. (Also a power injector before the modem.) If it's more than 40 KM, we'll use a dish connected to a separate transceiver that we mount right below the dish and then again that runs via coax into the injector and then the modem. The modems I've used usually have their own IP like 192.168.2.1 and from there you can see the strength and jitter and etc. See if you can get to that page and contact your WISP and see if they are within spec. Do you have any trees in the way or is it a perfectly clear line of sight?
 
There is no modem. We have a static IP and the CAT5 goes from the dish with the transceiver built into to the PoE Injector and into our router.
 
Is this Motorola Canopy? It should give you a model number somewhere up on the radio. Also, what type of terrain & trees is there in your area?
 
Have you tried a different POE injector? BTW, does the receiver use POE?
 
If it is *truly* outside interference then you're going to need an analyzer to see it happening in real time.

Just recently, I had a client whose WiFi worked perfectly for over a year. One day they all started getting booted off. We replaced the WAP, upgraded firmware, everything but it still happened. Shortly thereafter their cell phones stopped working, then cordless phones.. This continued for a few days.

I walked next door and asked if the neighboring company was also having issues. The lady answering the door had her cordless phone in her hand trying to get it to work. She couldn't figure it out. I asked her if they put in any new equipment and she said *they installed a cell phone jammer* on monday (when our issues started). I told her it was wreaking havoc for everyone. She said "Oh!! You mean it's going through the walls?!?".. Yeah.

Anyways, my point is that had we something which could see the wireless spectrum in question and what was happening over the air it would have made it much simpler..

Riley
 
k1pp3r said:
Have you tried a different POE injector? BTW, does the receiver use POE?
Click to expand...

This is a good idea. I've personally seen this happen at an airport. We installed some 5Ghz Firetide units powered by PoE and the PoE units were interfering with their 2-way radios. Different frequencies, but still a good place to start.

Riley
 
k1pp3r said:
Have you tried a different POE injector? BTW, does the receiver use POE?
Click to expand...

The receiver uses PoE, yes. I haven't tried one but I had that idea as well.

It has been working fine again for the last 2 days. Very bizarre. We woke up one morning and it was good. Perhaps we were interfering with whatever was interfering with us, and the person got frustrated and took whatever it was offline? :D

I'll leave it for now; if it comes back, I'll try another injector. Thanks, all.
 
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