Getting Started on Neighborhood Wi-Fi?

[jborchelt]

We are a small community with line-of-site wireless internet service. We are interested in replacing this service with a wi-fi service that does not require line-of-site as it is expensive to install each user and line-of site is not always possible for some residents.

When I do a DSL reports I can get as high as 1.2 GB download and 900 KB upload. Will our users be able to duplicate that using wi-fi? What is the typical range of a lamp post neighborhood antenna? Our community is about 2 miles long tip to tip.

Any getting started info would be appreciated.

Jack

[sbilgi]

2 miles are far supported with the latest hardware. Go for the g standard

[robert.wright]

Hi Jack,

You may want to look into your possible connection speed deeper and make a few phone calls. I will only say i havnt had the best results with that site when attempting to locate bandwidth.

Your maximum theoretically possible speed is 22Mbs. Wireless is half duplex. Also understand that environmental factors effect overall speed. By this i mean, other wireless APs can cause performance issues.

You may want to look into the cisco mesh technology. Sounds like an excellent deployment for this application.

Will watch this thread for a few days, feel free drop some questions. Back to work i go =)