The NeuralFibre link goes Wireless

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Introduction (scroll down for the pictures)

We'll it's finally happened. Paul and Dugie have installed all the wireless gear, and the link between the two houses is working beautifully for over 12 months now. All things considered, this was an easy (but lengthy) installation. It took maybe two days to get everything, wired up, plugged in, turned on, screwed down, and powered up.

Here is shortened summary (with pictures below) of what happened:
 

step zero - concept -

It all started with an article in Slashdot about making wireless antenna out of an old pringles tin. Shortly after another article about homebaking your own antenna and a few other articles started it all from there. Since broadband wasn't available Paul's end we took things from there. Time rather than money prevented us from using the pringles tin mentioned above.


 

step one - line of sight:

Well, I guess step one was to find out where we were from each other.

Before we could established line of sight we needed to know our bearings.  late one afternoon, armed with a GPS, we determined the distance and bearings.  This was done by standing on Paul's roof and marking a location and then standing on my roof and also marking the other location.  The GPS reported that were approx 1285m away from each other,  bearing roughly 185º.

Early the following morning with 2 x UHF hand sets and a weather balloon, we climbed our respective roof tops. Paul let up the weather balloon on the end of heavy-duty fishing line. I watched from my rooftop (with binoculars) as Paul bought down the balloon, and sooner rather than later, we figured out we had basic line of sight. 

ABOVE: a view of Paul's place from my roof top (Red Circle). I'm standing on my roof and hence, why you can't see my roof.

Paul's End - the photo doesn't do this beauty justice

ABOVE: Paul's antenna is quite an impressive structure. Most of the time was spend securing the mast, and laying the underlining coax though the roof, down into his lounge room.

My End - ain't it a cute looking thing. :)

ABOVE: In comparison, my end was very easy, break apart a roof tile, run some cable. A very neat and tidy installation. My antenna was not only a little smaller in physical size, but very accessible.

 

Ross (our official holder of tools and stuff) - figuring out if he too has line of sight

ABOVE: A very big thank-you to Ross. Not only was he our official holder of tools and stuff, but also the Linux guru who configured out initial Linux router. Besides, it's a very impressive view from my roof-top



 

step two - configuration and equipment:

I've had a lot of e-mails asking me what specialist hardware we purchased. The short answer is none. All equipment are obtainable through most retail chains as straight off the shelf components.  Although I don't recommend Harvey Norman, due to the repeated poor service and bad customer experiences. 

There is actually 3 different wireless networks in action.  There is the wireless network inside my house (network number 1), then there is the second wireless network that links Paul's house to my house, and last of all there is the wireless network inside Paul's house.

NOTE:  For the purposes of this article, I'm going to concentrate on the network that joins my house with Paul's, wireless network number 2.

For our installation the coax and antenna was purchased through a Mansol (a reputable company who we highly recommend). A very big thank-you to Kev, who helped us out with equipment, in our hour of need.

ABOVE: A simplified schematic of the hardware and set-up.

 

A brief description of each point:

1. Internet comes in here, and the Netgear MR314 also takes care of wireless access "inside" the house. The MR314 is configured in Infrastructure mode with WEP Enabled. (Different Channel, ESSID and WEP key from Step 3,6 or 7
2. A standard NIC (SMC1244) is plugged into a Pentium 166 with 64 Meg Ram. This machine is called Doris and is a Windows 2000 RRAS box. It can be (and will be turned into) a linux router.
3. A DLink DWL520 is also plugged into the multi-homed machine called Doris. The baby-antenna is removed and coax cable is run up to the antenna on the roof. Connection from the Dlink card is a Reverse SMC with a tail to a standard N connector. The card is configured in Ad-Hoc mode with WEP Enabled
4. Hills 15db Antenna . Plugged into the end of the coax cable from Doris
5. Another Hills Antenna, 1285m away. Plugged into the end of some more coax.                                        Please note: between step 4 and step 5 is the wireless bit ;)
6. Same as Step 3. Except on the other end. This Machine is called Boris. This DWL250 has the same WEP, Channel and ESSID as the Adapter in Step 3 ;)
7. Boris has a second DWL250 wireless card. This card is in Ad-Hoc mode with WEP Enabled (Different Channel, ESSID and WEP key from the other DWL250 in Step 6). This second adapter used to deliver wireless inside the house on the other end.  This was less than satisfactory and has been replaced with a netgear ME102 AP.
8. Doris: P166 64 Meg Ram. 1x Ethernet NIC. 1x Wireless NIC = Router
9. Boris: P166 64 Meg Ram. 2x Wireless NIC = Router

step three - notes from the field:

Hardware:

• 1 x 9M (30ft) mast to get line of site -- $200
• 2 x DWL-520 DLink PCI cards -- $160 ea
• 2 x Tails (Reverse SMC to N) -- $30 ea
• 1 x 25 Db Hills antenna -- $180
• 1 x 15 Db Hills antenna  --$130
• Mounts and fixtures --$30
• Heavy Coax - can't remember the spec - approx LMR400. Considered Heliax (Solid copper shield), but too expensive.

Overview:

• Distance is 1285m with some trees on a hill in between. The mast should just clear these for line of site.
•  Running 128Bit WEP link is moderately stable at 11MBit, but does drop to 5, 2 and occasionally 1.
•  Average file transfer rate is 400kb / sec with only Pentium 166's w/ 64MB on each end running W2K Server with RRAS.
• IPSec is to be installed once gruntier hardware is available. CPU utilisation sits at 70% whilst transferring files.
• Machine on one end is routing at a 100Mbit Ethernet card
• Machine on other end is routing to another DLink wireless card with the standard omni antenna providing wireless around the house.
• The range for the local wireless is acceptable, but not amazing. Most rooms in the house are OK, and the Server/Router is in the front far corner, however occasional link problems occur between my laptop running a Netgear PCMCIA card (MA401)
• Also use an iPaq within the house with a Symbol Spectrum24 and performance is also good.
• WEP was tested by transferring several files totalling 100Mb. Without WEP average transfer was 400Kbytes / sec and went down to 380Kbytes / sec with WEP enabled.
• The 15db antenna was used at Dugie's end because replacing with a higher db (if necessary) would be easier than replacing Paul's end.   We had a very limited budget and that $50.00 saving made all the difference.  replacing Paul's end (if needed) would be too complicated.

Link was setup by the following:
 

• GPS taken to each point and direction/distance calculated between both.
• Line of site not possible from either roof due to intermediate tree line. Large (1.2M) helium balloon (cost $20) was let up from roof of house closest to trees until visible from other house.
• Minimum visible height was 8.5M.
• This must be done early morning with no wind.
• This then gave us a bearing, distance, and height necessary for line of site.
  
  Mast assembly was interesting to say the least, pics coming soon.

Approximate Cost

Well this was some time ago now (beginning of May 2002) but the cost then was about $800.00 to purchase all the equipment to cover both Paul's house and mine.  A lot of this gear has come down in price.  The two PCs are separate to the $800 as we had enough bits and pieces laying around to build them.

UPDATE:  I've been told "if-you-know-someone-who-knows-someone" you can get 2 x PCI cards, 2 x lengths of 2m coax, and 2 x directional 19db antenna for $650.00.  I haven't confirmed pricing for this yet (as at October 2002)
 

Thank-you:

This is the shortened version, if there are any details I've missed, or you would like to know, send me an e-mail.  Would love to hear what others have tried.

Lastly, thanks to Paul, Ellen, Daniel, Randal, Robert, Ross, Liz and Kevin - all who helped by supplying tools, labour, advice and coffee.
 

 - Dugie