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Experiences w/ WaveRider Wireless Internet Hardware?

Posted by Cliff on from the how-did-it-work-for-you dept.

Cory O. asks: "I was just wondering if any /.er had any experience either being an end-user or an administrator on a WaveRider 900MHz wireless system. There's a company in my community offering this service now, and since Mediacom is lost somewhere running fiber through a creek bed and may never get their cable modem service up and running, I was considering this as an alternative. Any issues with these that anyone knows of (ie. line of sight problems, bandwitdth, security, etc.?) You can also check out the company who's offering this service, Airolink.com"

1 of 9 comments (clear)

  1. 900MHz by funky+womble · · Score: 3, Informative
    900MHz is less affected by trees and water than 2.4GHz, though can be more affected by metal-framed buildings. The company claims non line of sight too. They suggest that with LOS, coverage is 6 miles to an outdoor antenna, or 3 miles to a window-mounted antenna. And without LOS, it's 2 miles / 1 mile.

    I expect that is with the central site antenna on a well-sited tower. Since the equipment is running at around 900MHz a lot of commercial equipment available is available (antennas, amplifiers) for operating cellular base stations which would also be useful here.

    I would have expected a bigger difference between the range for outdoor and indoor installation, but reading further down the FAQ explains why - it's due to timing of the protocol. (They use a polling system to allocate air time, so the timing requirements that restrict the range are probably chosen to allow enough concurrent users).

    All they say about security is this,

    WaveRider has developed its own protocol that is optimized for outdoor long-range use, high performance and the ability to continue operating in environments with interference. By not supporting 802.11b interoperability, the system is much more secured.
    which probably raises the bar enough to stop most people - the average user of Netstumbler, etc, won't find anything. And the fact that the CPE units act as routers not bridges means you probably won't find much by running tcpdump on the interface associated with their kit.

    But unless there's strong encryption as well, someone who is resourceful and determined wouldn't be put off. So it all depends who you want to hide your traffic from ;) Not bad, but it's certainly no Cambridge Broadband...