Wi-Fi options for Civic Businesses?

Thoughts on something like this?

http://www.gnswireless.com/GNS1403.htm

Disinformation said :

You can get some more if you lie about your country of location, just don’t try Japan

Not if you don’t want to risk violating the radiocommunications class licence under which consumer devices operate.

johnboy said :

Actually you don’t need microwave links, a good solid pairing of directional antenae running straight wifi should let you share with a like-minded business.

Again, there are emitted power limits for WiFi-type devices and putting a directional anetnna on the end may violate that. You need to be careful. And don’t think that you won’t get caught. If they can trace a problem with inteference to a mobile phone tower to a malfunctioning refrigerator thermostat in a fast food joint, they can trace you blasting away quite easily.

Anyway, directional antennas at 2.4 or 5.8GHz technically is a point-to-point microwave link!

Get you body corporate to wire-up metro-ethernet to the whole complex and then put a WiFi AP on that.

All wireless back haul options (3G, sat, canopy) will have varyingly bad latency and reliability problems. Wires or fibres are needed for a good connection.

johnboy said :

I think the issue is getting a telco/ISP stack that can service the challenging infrastructure.

On other hand cheaper and better 3g data plans are coming on at such a pace I’m not sure if wireless hotspots are going to figure in the future.

That’s certainly true, but the flip side of that is signal density becomes the problem for 3G networks. It’s bad in the Sydney and Melbourne CBDs and just in the past year I’ve noticed it increasingly in Canberra. On the other hand, WiFi is built from the ground up for high density, simultaneous users. Even in a confined space like a theatre, it takes hundreds of users to overload a WiFi network.

To the original poster, something like this may be the solution: http://www.telstrabusiness.com/business/portal/online/site/productsservices/wirelessgateways.290010

Internode provide hotspots for free in many places, you can contact the team responsible for them at hotspot@internode.com.au

If your phone lines are noisy or drop out – you should log a fault with your provider if they fix the voice they’ll fix ADSL too. Especially if your ADSL service is on one of the voice lines. Also remove any alarm systems, foxtel upload, fax lines etc from the voice side of the ADSL service (or install a central line splitter – the little match box filters they give you aren’t that good).

Grapevine probably isn’t the best choice for ADSL either – they probably have slow links into the internet. You may be better off getting a bundled Telstra ADSL/Voice service – or a niche provider like Internode.

If you are responsible for the cabling between the MDF and your premise – see if you can get it replaced with data grade copper cabling.

How far away are you from the exchange? Couldn’t be that far, and that’s generally the limiting factor for ADSL2. Contact Internode or iinet for some advice.

I get really awful 3G reception at the Phoenix so would be thrilled at even slow wi-fi.

I’d recommend looking at your pipe to get data into the facility. If you’ve got crap DSL feeds now, nothing is likely to help unless you want to run brand new copper from the exchange. Good luck with that. Most ADSL issues are not ISP based. If your copper from your modem to your exchange is crap, there is nothing you can do about it. Wireless data services basically suck compared to dedicated bandwidth with wires. It’s great as the last hop, but you’d want to get decent capability to your access points. If you can get good data to them, I’d advise getting three 802.11b/g (a if possible too) access points and locking them to channels 1, 6 and 12. (You can get some more if you lie about your country of location, just don’t try Japan) That will take care of the bandwidth to the punters. Set your SSID’s to Pheonix1, 2 and 3 so that the punters with a brain can loadshare.

Make sure that you’ve got some sort of management package with similar to McDonalds so that nobody leeches bandwidth with bitorrents and kiddy porn. Make sure that your accesspoints are also controlled by a business hours timer switch. I’d actually recommend at this point that you see what other businesses with wifi have done. There’s more to just giving data to people for free involved. Once you sort the issue of getting decent bandwidth to the premises, everything else should be straighforward.

Now that I think about it RiotACT is a civic business with a short line of sight to the phoenix…

Actually you don’t need microwave links, a good solid pairing of directional antenae running straight wifi should let you share with a like-minded business.

The Barracks LAN Cafe is also located in the Sydney Building is it not? They would have a decent pipe to accommodate their core business, perhaps ask them for some advice?

Yep, that existing infrastructure won’t do. You need a big fat pipe to your door and if it can’t be fibre, someone will have to put a point-to-point microwave link to somewhere that does have a big fat pipe. Possible, but also probably not cheap.

eq2 said :

a) ask the pancake parlour about their wireless connection.

. . . then read the thread about dieticians.

a) ask the pancake parlour about their wireless connection.
b) Seek sponsorship from an ISP who might be willing to do subsidised cabling if you give them some coverage in a club. From an ISPs perspective it could be quite good advertising.
c) Mobile wireless connections could be fast enough for your customers (can be 10mbps + in some areas).

johnboy said :

3g data plans are coming on at such a pace I’m not sure if wireless hotspots are going to figure in the future.

Yeah in all likelihood that is the trend ahead much like the move away from laptops to smartphones lately. Still, the Telcos have enough powerprivacy issues as it is and we’d want access over free & open tech stacks using tcp/ip for as long as possible.

johnboy said :

On other hand cheaper and better 3g data plans are coming on at such a pace I’m not sure if wireless hotspots are going to figure in the future.

I have never reached my cheap monthly 3G limit, yet am still disproportionally pleased when I discover free WiFi…

I think the issue is getting a telco/ISP stack that can service the challenging infrastructure.

On other hand cheaper and better 3g data plans are coming on at such a pace I’m not sure if wireless hotspots are going to figure in the future.

I use Engin VOIP + ADSL2. Comparatively cheap and pretty fast.

Move to Gungahlin

Get one.