How strong should a signal be over 3km?

[baldog]

It's working on my LAN now. Good bye rubbish internet hello fiber!!

So tomorrows job is going to be lining them up better and placing the AP Slightly higher up.

I cant thank you all enough for the help that's been provided. Cheers guys

[R1D2]

Great! Have fun!

[baldog]

I've had a play around with mast height and cant seem to get a tx rate of more than 43.3 its not stable either seems to drop down to 28.9. The rx rate seems to go from 28 down to 6 with the odd occasion at 43. Is there any other settings that i could change to try increase this? I get 50mbs broadband at the other house and seem to max out at 20 here would be nice to get the full amount. Failing that would the next TP model up be any better?

[R1D2]

How do you measure this? Using built-in speed test or by looking at the graphs on the Status page? If rate goes down, for how long and is this during transmission of data or in idle phases?

[baldog]

By looking at the figures on the right hand side of the status page of the cpe towards the bottom.

[R1D2]

By looking at the figures on the right hand side of the status page of the cpe towards the bottom.

No reliable source for measurements. WiFi gear always negotiate speeds dynamically and it will drop if no data has to be sent. Furthermore, SSID beacons are always sent using the lowest speed for backward-compatibility. So, such "drops" are not unusual. For wireless throughput the built-in speed test is important. To measure data throughput, an external iperf setup should be used.

[baldog]

i use the same speed test at the location with the broadband as i do with the remote site and the remote site gets half every time. Is there a way to test the link between the cpe's?

[R1D2]

Is there a way to test the link between the cpe's?

Yes, see Tools->Speed Test. Start a ST server on one CPE and a ST client on the other. This will show you the data speed on the wireless link from one CPE to the other (it is an iperf test running on the CPE).

[baldog]

ok thanks i'll have to do that tomorrow when i can get to both sites. Will report back!

[R1D2]

You could remotely manage the opposite CPE, too.

[baldog]

haha.....well i tried doing that and the software was terrible and doesn't seem to find them! seems more hassle than its worth trying to get that to work unless you want to walk me through it!! We've got a few open mesh routers we manage and they are plug and play web based management. Its a shame the cpe's arent like that. So my solution to being able to control them both is a laptop at the broadband end with team viewer to log on to a computer at the remote end!!

[RTouris]

You really should be able to access both the WebUIs from one site, then start the server on any CPE of the two, switch the tab / window to the other CPE 'i.e. the client' specify the previous CPEs IP (the server's IP), choose the type of test you wish to perform and hit start...

With regards to the actual data throughput you currently achieve I'd be reluctant that given the 17dB you could push more out of it...Perhaps in the 25dB range you could possibly get 'upto' 50Mbps real world data transfer, but seeing that you already cast a mast I can't see how you could gain an extra 8dB...

Selecting an appropriate channel and stepping down on the MCS (did you go the 12 route yet?) could push you up a further 1-2dB but that's just about it I'm afraid. See if you could improve the CPE height on the other site, too maybe?

[R1D2]

seems more hassle than its worth trying to get that to work unless you want to walk me through it!!

Sure. Why not?

You have one CPE in AP mode and the other one in Client mode, right? You are hopefully not using DHCP for their LAN network settings, are you?

If so, just type in the IP of the remote CPE in your browser's address field.

We've got a few open mesh routers we manage and they are plug and play web based management. Its a shame the cpe's arent like that.

Hey, the CPEs are enterprise class devices for power users, no Plug'n Play toys. But if you like the Plug'n Play way, what about PharOSControl?

[R1D2]

With regards to the actual data throughput you currently achieve I'd be reluctant that given the 17dB you could push more out of it...Perhaps in the 25dB range you could possibly get 'upto' 50Mbps real world data transfer, but seeing that you already cast a mast I can't see how you could gain an extra 8dB...

Correct, but the TX rate for the link did look pretty good IMHO.

To get an idea what can be achieved at 17dB SNR / -79dBm signal strength, here a quick test (no LoS, even not front facing the CPEs):



At 20/40 MHz channel width, fixed mode n:



20 MHz channel width:



Expect somewhat lower rates over 3km.

[baldog]

Selecting an appropriate channel and stepping down on the MCS (did you go the 12 route yet?) could push you up a further 1-2dB but that's just about it I'm afraid. See if you could improve the CPE height on the other site, too maybe?

How would i select/change the MCS?