Wireless Internet with VeroLan in the Broadlands

John,
I suspect that is exactly what the problem is! All the problems relate to that piece of equipment. I can ping to the WET sometimes, others no, and traceroute from the internet to the WET always dies on Verolan's network and never reaches the WET. Here's something else a little strange. They were working w/Brian (was in Chantilly office) and he could ping the WET from Chantilly, but we couldn't even ping the tower.
They did try to upgrade the firmware on the WET, but then it said, "no WET device available" this is when we had already opened up the URL to the WET. So I think your correct and the problem may be the WET firmware. If thats the case then the problem will be fixed soon I suspect.

DwArFlOrD

 

My WET is running the latest firmware. Same problems. Here is what seems to happen. The WET has a screen that shows a site survey, when working I can see many access points including my own. When the link goes down, the WET shows no available Access points. It seems like its receiver has shut down. Does anyone know if the WET is designed to use these types of external attennas?

Also the community center, which is up and running, does not use the WET, it uses an Orinoco Bridge.

I think all of this points to the Linksys. Either the hardware itself or it is not completely compatable with the Access Point on the Tower.

Steven

 

I was going to ask, since the comm. ctr was working fine, if it was using the linksys - but you answered that question. Ive heard of wireless problems with linksys as well as D-Link. The orinoco stuff is going to be more expensive, but since it works, it may payoff in the longrun until they can find something a little more reliable than the linksys WET. Man, thats a downer.....[V]

DwArFlOrD

 

I donno, cause I was able to associate with my WET11 to the tower just fine. My problem was that my antenna was not strong enough. I could surf pages, download, etc. My pings were in the 120s because of the low signal strength. Many WISPs use the WET11 for CPE equipment (reading on DSLReports wireless ISP forum).

---------------
Got Broadband?

 

Well I asked Khalil to try out the orinoco on my link to see if it works. One of the known problems with the WET11 is that it can lock up on a weak signal. I am getting 100% signal strength but only 60 on signal quality. And for some reason the quality fades temporarly during high bandwidth transfers. When the quality fades the WET11 lockes up.

I will let you know about the orinoco.

Steven

 

I am up and running. Hauling butt actually. 20ms pings to yahoo through the linksys router. 10ms pings without it.

There was something weird about the linksys bridge. Khalil's commercial bridge works like a champ. The only problem is that it is 4 times the cost of the Linksys.

Anyway. I will post a more detailed description in a little bit.

Steven

 

Well I have been using VeroLAN's service for a few days now. And here are some initial observations. Khalil is very commited to getting all the kinks worked out, he always answers his phone (Even when he was a few hunder feet in the air on the tower), and is very responsive.

The first thing to note is that the link between our tower and the T1 is not solid right this second. It is a 14 mile wifi run and is a little suseptable to rain. I have been averaging about 25% packet loss to the VeroLan gateway. I am sure most of this is due to the weather and will improve as the weather does. The good news is with the new bridge I average 0% packet loss to the tower.

Khalil has told me that a hardwired T1 for the tower has been ordered but could take up to 4 weeks for it to be installed (Don't we all love verizon!).

Once that T1 is in place the connection will rock.

When the link between the Tower and T1 is not experiancing packet loss I get repeatable 996k/498k dslreports bandwith results.

I believe VeroLAN has some more testing they need to do with the Linksys WET11 in the Broadlands to see if I was an exception or if they are going to have continued issues with it. If they can't get reproducible performance from it, I expect they are going to have use their Proxim bridge wich is about $250 more than the linksys. This would mean an increase in the install fees. I am currently working with Khalil on what to do about the new bridge I am currently using. Hopefully I don't have to cough up the $250 myself !

Anyway, More to follow!

Dwarflord -- Any progress on your install?

Steven

 

I got home at lunch today and found a flier on garage door from Luminary Online. Seems like they are offering simailar service as Verolan is offering... any see this or know about it.

 

I attempted to use Luminary before. Called them to do a site survey, they never showed up. Ended up talking to the Pres. and he said that they were having "Growing Pains." All in all I had a horable experiance with them. It has been 2.5 months and I still have not had my site survey!!

Steven

 

Luminary (formery a company called Kore) have contacted us several times regarding wireless service. Their former company submitted a response to our RFP. Their engineering looked good but their prices were very high, around double what CWCs was at the time. Anyhow, they did keep contacting us every now and then saying they were working on getting their network up but until now we had never heard that they did. Looking at their website it looks like they did lower their prices but they leave a lot of things out. Like it says '1 Meg bandwidth' but I doubt you are getting that both ways. They don't say anything about static IPs, and $600 to start is a tad too much.

John

---------------
Got Broadband?

 

They wanted to come out later last week or early this week to follow up but I just didnt have the time to work with them. Ill be calling them today or tomorrow to see if they can come out later this week to wrap things up. Ill let you know once they come out....[]

DwArFlOrD

 

Seems VeroLAN may have fixed the issues with the WET11s. I'm now connecting just fine, have not had much ping loss or connection problems for the last hour. Speeds are great, gaming is working also (Planstside). And since Adelphia is down again this rocks.

Hope to see everyone at the demo tomorrow!

John

---------------
Got Broadband?

 

For those at the meeting yesterday, remember how VeroLAN was talking about the T1 that was being installed at the tower in the next 60 days? Well here is an FYI from my MCI buddy.

"Verizon's contract agreements with employee labor unions in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia are scheduled to expire at midnight on August 2, 2003. If Verizon and the unions are unable to reach an agreement, a strike involving 80,000 Verizon employees in these states could ensue. As a result, companies like MCI, who often obtain local network services and facilities from Verizon and other LECs, may temporarily be unable to install some new services or make certain changes to their customers' existing service in these areas."

 

Wireless Tech Gurus - Can anyone provide a synopsis of lst night's meeting? I was unable to make it despite the best laid plans
Also a couple of questions...
Is the wireless service direct to computer(a la PCMCIA card) or is through a router to a hard wire or both?
Relative to Number 1 - Do the charges cover all computers or is that a per computer/charge?
Also, were the answers to some of the earlier forum questions provided, like:
Is the service standard a guaranteed minimum?
Thanks for any help - explanation.
m2

M2

 

morganvpi - sure thing.

We went over the wireless service, how much it is, the discounts you get for signing up Dish/DirectTV bundle with it. We went over the network and how things get connected. We then answered questions and let everyone try out the connection on the computers we have set up at the community center.

It goes like this pretty much:

An antenna is placed on your roof (or maybe in your attic if you can clearly see the tower and have good signal). That antenna goes to a small box beside it, which contains a radio. That radio has an ethernet out port, and an ethernet line then runs to a 4-port Linksys router provided by VeroLAN. From here, you can put it on as many computers as you wish. You can put a wireless router behind that if you want and use the connection over wireless and wired in your house if you wish.

- You can use as many computers at your house on the connection as you wish.
- The service is not guaranteed. VeroLAN will upgrade their internet feeds once the network begins to become congested.

Any other questions? Please feel free to ask. I have the service at home and it's great.

John

--------------
Got Broadband?

 

Does anyone know of a company that provides a _real_ wireless internet in our area? VeroLAN implementation is not my definition of wireless internet, it's only the last mile architecture. I'm looking for something where I can take a laptop to the pool or park and be connected.

-Teak

 

Nope, nothing like that. However - the Technology Committee is thinking about this. We already have our wireless AP at the Community Center. We're going to talk at our next meeting about perhaps giving VeroLAN subscribers access to this AP, so they can use their laptops at that pool. If we do go ahead and do it, putting it at the 2nd pool in the Broadlands would not be a problem. (But of course VeroLAN would have to approve this as well.)

John

---------------
Got Broadband?

 

Good Afternoon. My wife and I just settled on our house in Overland Park.

I am debating the Adelphia vs VeroLan option. Is the VeroLan solution workable to homes in Overland Park.

Thanks in advance for your help,
Peter

 

With line of site to the tower it should have no problems. Without line of site, you may get a reduced signal. Just have them come out and do a site survey and see if they get a good enough signal. I suspect you will, especially if they can get a good signal to the community center you shouldn't have a problem. Let us know how it goes. BTW, adelphia has been out 2x in the last 2 weeks, just an FYI.... , but they did resolve in a decent timeframe.


DwArFlOrD

 

I have a question for anyone who has had the VeroLAN connection for a little bit. Are you experiencing times when the connection is just pathetically slow? For me it seems like it is mainly during peak usage time, morning or early evening?

It gets to the point that I have to plug my adelphia cable modem back in just to get any work done.

Then during other times of the day, the connection flies.

Basically I am getting very frustrated and I have the VeroLAN connection only connected to one PC in my house. So that way when it is really slow I can go to another machine and use the adelphia connection.

I am just curious if anyone else has noticed the problem.

Thanks!
Steven