3 Dwellings sharing satellite internet connection (how?)

Hi all

Out here in the sticks using a 1Mbps on a good day dsl is getting beyond a joke.

Myself and 2/3 neighbours have started to consider whether we might be able to share a 16/6 Mbps satellite internet connection.

In general terms I guess one of us gets the satellite dish and router installed, plugs the new connection into an access point with a BIG (15db gain) antenna plugged into it and away we go. We've looked at toowaybroadband.co.uk for an idea of pricing for the satellite connection.

If anyone has done this successfully it'd be great if you could share you experiences.

Some detail on the exact kit required and any more technical info would also be a big help.

I'm an ex IT manager so have some technical know how but obviously haven't done this type of project before.

Distances between the 3 properties are no more than 300-400 metres. I'm aware of the latency issues with satellite but doubt this will be an issue for general browsing etc.

Regards

Jon

I have done a small consultancy project for someone in your situation where there could only get slow speed access on their terrestrial link.

On investigation we found that their land ran very close to the telephone network in a place which would cut a significant amount of line length off, reduce attenuation and thus increase speeds.

Have you looked to see if this is possible for one or all of you?

How we then got the connection back to the farm was the key to keeping costs down and I could give you some suggestions in a PM.

Unfortunately we're nowhere near a decently short line to an exchange or telephone lines going to another, nearer exchange. Both local exchanges are about 7km from us. Line attenuation is showing to be about 64.8dB.

Please pm me re: your connection back to the farm.

Thanks for the reply.

Considered a 3G solution??

Three or EE most probably your best bets.

Take a look at http://www.solwise.co.uk/networkingwireless-outdoor.htm and you may be able to talk to them about most suitable kit.

The key is whether each property can a centrally located external antenna. If you end up with 2.4GHz then if anyone runs a wireless router inside their property too, you will want to test to make sure the wireless does not interfere.

While satellite is fine for stuff like our forums, if you are using pages that do things like update elements dynamically without refreshing the whole page the latency can get very frustrating. For example I helped someone setup an e-shop and it was a case of let a page settle down, before clicking elements multiple times by mistake.

3Gs a no go. Already tried that and no signal here from any of the 3G providers

I think I get where you're coming from. I can see that being irritating.

Thanks for the link. I will talk to them I think.

Yes you'll want clear line of sight between the "internet connected" house and each of the others.

5GHz (a/n) is usually better for the outdoor links between buildings as long as there are no trees / branches in the path so choose your mounting locations carefully.

To link 3 buildings, you will need 3 or 4 radios depending on layout. If A has internet:

C << A >> B
needs 2 radios at A (or an omni but these pick up more interference than a directional antenna)

A >> B
A >>>>>> C

might only need 1 radio at A (if B does not block the path to C)

These will work well and at 300m you won't need anything like their maximum power:
NanoStation M5
http://www.4gon.co.uk/ubiquiti-nanostation-m5-mimo-p...

If you can find the smaller Loco M5 somewhere in stock, they are a little cheaper but otherwise the same innards
(just a slightly wider beam pattern which won't be a problem at your quoted distances.

They have MIMO data rates up to MCS15 (300Mbps over-the-air signalling rate - real IP throughput up to 150Mpbs half duplex (i.e. like 90/60 or 75/75). Try to create your links with signal to noise ratio of 20dB or better. On ours we tend to aim for MCS 12 at a minimum.

If you have line of sight and you make good links they won't add noticably to sat latency - maybe a few ms at most.

In a standard setup these will form a transparent (layer 2) link so you treat them much like long ethernet cables once up and running - i.e. they can be used to extend a LAN across buildings.
But in their web GUIs you have additional options such as for client isolation, adding firewall rules or traffic shaping or run one or more as routers (as opposed to bridging). Linux kernel - so as well as the GUI you can SSH into them or customise the config further,

Power wise they use at most 12W (maybe at boot up) and falling to around 8W or less in normal use).

Being outdoor radios these are weatherproof (come with PoE bricks so supplied from inside each house)
as with most outdoor units they should be mounted vertically with cable emerging at bottom, and a drip loop if the cable rises above the base of the unit before it enters the house. They can be painted for aesthetics (but cover holes before spraying!).

Indoors for device access you can continue use standard wireless (if routers, ethernet / cable type rather than ADSL)

Edited by prlzx (Tue 20-Nov-12 21:38:32)

And what did you try with?

Just because you can't get a signal with a mobile phone or in house router does not mean you can't get a signal with one of these bad boys for example

https://mikrotik.com/product/lhg_lte6_kit

In reply to a post by jabuzzard:

And what did you try with?

You may be waiting for a reply on an 8 year old thread...

Matt