Hi Jon, Thankyou for that advice, I will ensure to take it onboard. I'm interested to hear your thoughts on the pro's and con's of Trango vs Motorola Canopy? At the moment while price is always something to keep in mind, ease of administration is going to be top priority as I want to keep the running-round-fixing-it-after-install to a minimum. Kind Regards, Jack Jonathan Brewer wrote:

Hi Jack,

There are two popular off the shelf systems currently sold in New Zealand. Trango is one, Motorola Canopy is the other. Both are available in .9/2.4/5.3/5.8GHz frequency bands, and both have unique advantages and drawbacks. You could also go down the path of Mikrotik or StarOS, or other of the myriad wireless ethernet based systems. You might find these less expensive in terms of hardware, and you might find them more expensive in terms of administration.

Whatever you choose, please assume that you'll be sharing spectrum with other users, and plan accordingly.

Here is some unsolicited planning advice for the new WISP. (Attention! This advice is not from any company I may work with/work for/own shares in/go drinking with, etc., read on at your own risk, and may peace and harmony be with you.)

Both Trango Fox and Motorola Canopy subscriber units can be purchased with small parabolic reflectors. This tightens the subscriber beam width from 30-60 degrees (by default spraying unwanted radio everywhere) down to 9-10 degrees. Please use these reflectors, and remember to turn the subscriber unit radio power down accordingly. Your network will run better, and your neighbors' networks will run better.

With any system you choose, use external base station antennas. Buy a good quality sector antenna (slotted waveguide made from drain pipe does not qualify) and ensure you have it physically tilted down. If your most distant customer is 10km away, please make sure you're not pointing your antenna where someone 30km away is going to hear your noise. This will benefit you too - your AP will be hearing your subscriber units and not SUs from the next town over.

Good luck.

Cheers,

Jon

...

-----Original Message----- From: Jack Pivac [mailto:email(a)delphinus.co.nz] Sent: Friday, 19 January 2007 3:12 p.m. To: nznog(a)list.waikato.ac.nz Subject: [nznog] WISP Technology - Trango?

Hi all,

Currently planning on setting up a community wireless project in South Taranaki. Range is looking to be up to 10km from the AP's.

At the moment I'm looking at using Trango Radio Units [1] and was after thoughts/comments on this choice...

Cheers, Jack

[1] http://www.trangobroadband.com/

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