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Antenna Recommendations For Mikrotik

Published on January 30, 2013, by in Hardware, Mikrotik.

This is an email conversation between JJ, Greg, Mike, Andrew Cox, Andrew Thrift, Justin, Tom, and others. I thought you guys might find this interesting.

We have been working on a mast site ( revisiting it since ) our Work on spacing out the Antennas last year,

I was wondering about your opinions.. on Sectors…

we have been using Pac wireless ones / Laid ones which seemed to have good range and great noise rejection (front to back)

we started using Sunparl Dual Polarity sector Antennas. they look impressive all metal enclosure etc… … and had great signal strenghths however compared with Pac wirelsss we have seen other neighbouring sectors at -15 ( as opposed to –45 / -50 on Pac wireless dishes)…

what I was wondering was what is your experience with sectors… are the UBNT Sectors good ? I have never used them out of prejudice….

What have you used and what would you recommend ?

any pointers would be much appreciated…

PS I love Jirous Dishes (Extreme) for Point to Point Links 🙂

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I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 100+ ubuquiti antennas on towers / poles / cow pastures. I have been very impressed. I love that all of them are dual poll for a minimum amount of money. I love the new titanium sectors better rejection selective beam. Tho only bad thing I can think to say is the non titanium ones have what seems to be rivets around the rp-sma connector that seem to rust pre maturely.

I would have to say go for it! I think you will be happy… We are.

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I’ve heard that(from JJ I think) for the price the UBNT antennas have the best design. I’ve had good success with them also.

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We use the 120 degree ubnt sectors (5g19 i think) with ubtik enclosures. Mikrotik with ubnt antennas win win I’m my book.

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Jirous looks great. I’d love to try them sometime.

I used to love MTI sectors, but they’re so damn expensive.

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Thanks for that… I really appreciate.. it…

I presume you would recommend the RF Armour … as well ?

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I second the ubnt sectors. No firsthand experience with the titaniums yet. I do have experience with the rf armor shields though. Very happy with the ubnt+ rf armor.
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I have a couple Titaniums, but nothing much to offer any insight from. I certainly like the mechanical setup of Titaniums vs. standard + RF Armor.

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We have tried the Laird, Sunparl and UBNT sectors.

I too really like Sunparls enclosure, but the brackets and lack of protective coating on the pcb let them down. Also we got a fair bit of noise with them.

The ubnt dual polarity sectors are what we use and recommend. They are good quality and the brackets are really nice.

All our back hauls are now Jirous, its good to see more people discovering them 🙂

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What say you guys? Drop us a comment!

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TheBrothersWISP 13 – Meet Tom

Published on January 24, 2013, by in Hardware, Mikrotik, Ubiquiti.

In this episode we have Myself(Greg Sowell), Justin Wilson, and special guest Tom Smyth.

Tom is a trainer/consultant from Ireland. He is, quite frankly, insane. Inspite of, or more likely because of, his insanity he is also a lot of fun. Even though it was 3AM for him he stuck it out and had a LOT of interesting things to say…it would be impossibly to silence him; and with such a beautiful singing voice, why would you want to? hehehe

Talking about:
Reverse Path Forwarding
Tom’s New Orleans MUM presentation “MTK advanced security”
Tom explains why one would want to separate your sectors.
Of course we had to talk about the CCR(Cloud Core Router) and yes, Don, we mention you 😉
Will X86 survive and why.
Does the CCR need an app store?
Could we get virtualized appliances (IPS, load balancer)?
Anyone want to pay for our trip to the European MUM?…if so, drop me a comment hehehe.
ARIN fees.
IPV6, why we aren’t pushing for it in the states.

BTW, Tom and all of that crazyness will be in Dallas from February 3rd through the 9th. If you want to grab a pint, look him up 😉

Here’s the video:(if you don’t see it, hit refresh)

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TheBrothersWISP 12 – VoIP And CCR

Published on November 27, 2012, by in Mikrotik, Ubiquiti.

This is Justin and Greg just having a quick chat about nothing in particular…just the way I like it 😉

We talk a little about:
Elastix
MagicJack
CCRs
A little about the AU MUM...I need my ANDREWS!
BFD
MTK cable diagnostics

Unpainted longboard


Painted by the kiddos.


Here’s the video:(if you don’t see it, hit refresh)

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TheBrothersWISP 11 – Wispapalooza / UWC 2012

Published on October 26, 2012, by in Mikrotik, Ubiquiti.

Justin, JJ and Greg talk about Justin’s trip to Wispapalooza and the Ubiquiti World Conference 2012. Andrewwww we miiiiissssss yyyyyooouuuuuu 😉

The glorious links!!!!
Wispapalooza
Ubiquiti World Conference
EdgeMAX
ArcWireless new CPE and APs
Cambium

Some of the topics touched are:
AirMAX V2
Nanobridge HP
UniFi
Justin is a celebrity 🙂
Fast roaming on APs
UniFi V2
Airvision V2

Here’s the video:(if you don’t see it, hit refresh)

Since Mike Hammet was doing who knows what, here are his notes from the show:

Texas de Brazil was delicious, though Justin had a better time than the rest of us. :-p

I wish in addition to (or instead of) the airGateway, I would like to see a Power-APN with PoE out.

UniFi is version 3, not 2.

Damn, feeling like crap sure had me missing a lot! This is the first I heard of the Cambium STB. More info?

https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=%23WISPAPALOOZA

https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=%23UBNTUWC

I suspect the ArcWireless stuff is based on Atheros chipsets just as AirMax and NV2.

I am really excited about the new Trango platform. Not only is it in 60 MHz vs. the 100 MHz of AirFiber, but it also only uses one polarity vs. two. It also has built in aggregation, so you can combine two links with just a single Ethernet down the tower.

Justin received a Knights of the Black Tie Award

Sub10 has some really cool 60 and 70\80 GHz products. I expect to see a 10 gigabit radio in 70\80 in 2 years. The 60 GHz radios can be physically clustered in a set of 4, pointing in any one direction. Due to FSL, one can colocate 15 to 30 radios on a given structure.

WLANMall was showing off a video surveillance system (I forget the name) that was really impressive. I could go on and on about all the cool stuff it can do, but to sum it up, it’s relatively cheap, it seems to scale well (Clark County, NV schools have 5k cameras on it), it can use your cell phone’s camera.

PureWave’s 6×6 MIMO achieves great foliage penetration. 3650 models surpass the penetration of 900 MHz. I suspect 2.5 GHz operators running the gear may meet the penetration abilities of TVWS, only in a stable regulatory environment and actually have some bandwidth to work with.

Looking forward to additional space that may be coming at 3.6 GHz and in 5 GHz.

Hey, some of us have “SANs” and virtual environments. Other stuff I was talking to other WISPs about: Nexenta SAN, VMWare Service Provider Program

One of the vendors was shooting commercials for a “Backhaul Heros” promotion.

They’re hung up on Vegas for the fall show because Vegas is the cheapest place in the country with ready airport access to have a conference.

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TheBrothersWISP 10 – Mikrotik MUM 2012

Published on October 1, 2012, by in Mikrotik.

JJ, Justin and myself talk about:
The CCR
– Additional MUM info on the CCR:
– – Winbox and config
– – ROS V6 info related to CCR
New hardware RB2011UAS-RM, RB2011UAS-2HnD-IN, 2.4Ghz Metal AP/CPE, 2.4Ghz miniPCI, and SXT G-5HnD:
– Greg’s list
– Justin’s list
ROS V6 notes:
– Greg’s list
– Justin’s list
Greg’s Multi-homed BGP presentation
Justin’s Cookie Cutter WISP presentation
Some of my random pics of the show.
Hot Lava NICs
Presentation list is here
And thank you to the lovely Mike Hammett for closing us out…hehehe

Two phones, one for each of ya.

Here’s the video:(if you don’t see it, hit refresh)

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TheBrothersWISP Podcast 9 – Rick Harnish(WISPA) and Towers Pt1

Published on September 19, 2012, by in Uncategorized.

JJ, Justin and Greg speak this week. We also have Rick Harnish of WISPA talk to us about what WISPA is as well as upcoming events:WISPAPALOOZA in Vegas.

We also started the first part of our tower series. In the first part we speak about:
Safety equipment
-what are your favorite brands
—DBI SALA – exofit harness
-what gear is a necessity
–RF protection
-why does Justin wear such stank old nikes?

Tools
-what are your favorites
-what do you consider a necessity to keep on you
–Knife, Justin’s Boker
—Leatherman Wave, though I carry the old style with a real screwdriver on it. I don’t like the bit style.
-ropes & pullies
-wenches

Grounding
-ground to tower?
-ground at base?
-Lightning suppression

Here’s the video:(if you don’t see it, hit refresh)

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TheBrothersWISP Podcast 8 – Andrew Thrift, MPLS, MTK Newsletter 41

Published on August 29, 2012, by in Hardware, Mikrotik, Ubiquiti.

This go around we have Greg, Andrew Cox, JJ Boyd, and surprise guest Andrew Thrift.

Thrift is our pal from New Zealand. He is a network engineer with a wide range of experiences, though we only really grilled him about his MPLS experience with Mikrotik and about where he buys his hair products. BTW when Andrew talks about carting he is talking about racing go-carts!

We talk about:
MPLS
– My initial thoughts on MTK MPLS
– MTK WIKI MPLS
– MTK WIKI lab MPLS
– We also speak about VPLS a layer 2 tunneling option.
Hardware in the MTK 41 newsletter: RB2011UAS-2HnD, RB44Ge, and RB2011L-RM. My thoughts.
Aircontrol2 beta video.
Aircontrol2 wiki.
Speculation on Dude V2.
JJ talks about tower Ice Bridges.
JJ also shares with us his love for the beaglebone.

Here’s the video:(if you don’t see it, hit refresh)

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TheBrothersWISP Podcast 7 – Airfiber – Latvian Mikrotik Videos – Mikrotik Basics

Published on August 15, 2012, by in Mikrotik, Ubiquiti.

Andrew was out sick for this one so it was just JJ, Justin and Greg. We tried out google huddle this go around and I have to say it was a success 🙂

We talked about:
JJ read the airfiber manual…why would any self respecting man read a manual?
We talk briefly about the Latvian TV interview with the Mikrotik CTO.
The new Mikrotik 951 marketing video.
We spoke about the firewall script I put up.
We spoke breifly about OSPF NBMA.
Here’s my rubber-band gun 😉

Here’s the video:(if you don’t see it, hit refresh)

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TheBrothersWISP Podcast 6 – Toughswitch mFi RB2011LS-IN

Published on July 9, 2012, by in Hardware, Mikrotik, Ubiquiti.

We have the whole crew on deck again.

We talk mostly about hardware in this one including:

Toughswitch


Ubiquiti mFi
My ramblings about mFi


Mikrotik RB2011LS-IN
My ramblings
Andrew digging up some hardware info on Mikrotik 10Gb
Google glass (Glasses we were talking about with skydivers)
SPIRAL CUT HOTDOOOOOOOOOGS!

Here’s the video:(if you don’t see it, hit refresh)

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6-7-12 Podcast – Future Proof Your WISP and Fiber Terminations

Published on June 11, 2012, by in Mikrotik, Ubiquiti.

This week we have Andrew, JJ, Justin and myself(Greg) on the call! Brothers Unite!

We are talking about future proofing your WISP.

  • What equipment we choose
  • Why we choose it
  • Techniques we employ

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    We speak about fiber optic cable.

  • How we terminate
  • Where we use it
  • why we use it

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    We also give a war story or two. Everyone messes up, so enjoy listening to us talk about how we’ve embarrassed ourselves. All hail king JJ with his fail stories…at least he told us his worse, the rest of us were holding back(or was that just me…hehehe).

    The HotLava NICs JJ was talking about can be found here.
    Here’s some pics of when a backhoe meets your fiber.
    My homemade fiber tester.
    My video of doing a mechanical splice. This kit can be demo’d by your local Corning rep.
    Vegemite!
    SixNet switches mentioned.

    Here’s the video:(if you don’t see it, hit refresh)

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    © TheBrothersWISP