WISP Equipment

Does your company have multiple facilities within a few miles of each other that require data/voice communication connectivity between them?

I've come across several situations where companies opt to pay reoccurring monthly fees to the local Telco carrier for a Point-to-Point (PtP) T1, because they most likely didn't know of other solutions available to them.  Although one solution does not fit all, I wanted to make you aware of some alternative connectivity solutions which saved our clients several thousand dollars over traditional carrier connectivity products.

Private PtP Wireless Network Solutions

My wireless network solutions Indiana consulting and implementation practice takes proven, carrier grade wireless network solutions to the business market.  One project we did last year helped a manufacturing plant in Indianapolis connect their sales office to the main building located 3/4 mile away.  A PtP T1 from the phone company would have cost them $350-450/month for a 36 month term and would have only yielded them 1.5 Mbps upload and download speeds.  The PtP wireless solution we implemented for them provided 20-25 Mbps of upload and download speeds at a 35% cost reduction over the same 36 month term.  At month 37, the PtP wireless system is paid for minus normal maintenance, so our client's Return on Investment (ROI) will rapidly excell from then on through the life of the equipment.

Commercial carriers have been using wireless solutions for decades.  Today's market offers affordable licensed and unlicensed radio solutions.  I often provide WISP business consulting clients both the business case and technical support required to implement wireless network solutions.  These systems can and have been deployed in private systems where connectivity for both voice and data are required between multiple facilities.

If you are looking for more affordable alternatives to keep multiple facilities connected, then benefit from our wireless network solutions Indiana experience.  Getting started is as easy as 1-2-3:

1. An extensive site survey is required of all involved facilities
2. A path study will need to be completed by our engineering staff
3. A feasibility study will be made to determine cost per alternative options

If you are interested in learning more about these and other alternative connectivity strategies, then call me at (317) 831-0704 or email me at cwhaley@tincg.com to get more information.

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I answer several trouble calls each day from high speed Internet customers.  I commonly have the same issues come up across multiple users and services.  Normally, about 80-90% of all calls can be fixed by the caller.  Our WISP Support Services typically answer most calls by asking the client to reboot their equipment first.  Most consumer grade routers and modems are very susceptible to power surges and fades, so rebooting them clears them out of a locked up state.  If the problem can't be resolved by a simple reboot, then the user can take a few minutes to gather crucial information that will enable their ISP to fix the problem over the phone.  Familiarizing yourself with your customer equipment will reduce the necessary time on the phone with support and increase your surfing time.

Again, the first thing to try when you are having connection problems is a simple reboot of your customer premise equipment (CPE).  Disconnect the power to the modem (or for WISP customers it would be the PoE that powers the radio) and your router if you have one.  I also recommend restarting your computer.  This will reset all of your customer premise equipment.  We find that this helps many of our customers in our WISP Support Services department.

To reboot the devices, unplug the power going to each device by pulling out the smaller, black cable, shown below in the attached pictures.  Unplug the power to both the xDSL modem (or WISP PoE) and the router (if you have one).  Leave them both unplugged for about 30 seconds and then start from the xDSL (WISP PoE) and work your way back to the computer.  Plug in the modem wait 10-15 seconds, then plug in the router and wait 10-15 seconds. Now turn on your computer.  Your just completed the first step that our WISP Support Services technicians would be asking you to do.



If that still does not fix the issue, please try to find your IP address.  You can do this by going to Start then Run in Windows XP. If you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7, in the search bar type "CMD".  Once you have a black box appear type ipconfig.  This black box is known as the "Command Prompt".  This should tell you your IP address and other information your WISP Support Services technician will need to know to better serve you.  One other thing to try.  When you have your command prompt open.  You can type ipconfig /renew.  This will make your computer talk to your router or your ISP for a new IP address.

For the more advanced users, you may want to try the following steps.

• Type ipconfig /all in your CMD prompt window.  If your physically connected to the router by an Ethernet cable, then you will see a heading that starts out with "Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection".  Under there, you'll see "IP Address..............." or "IPv4 Address............" if you are using Vista or Windows 7.  Write this IP address down because it is the physical address currently assigned to your computer.

• If this IP starts with "169.xxx.xxx.xxx", then most likely your computer is not talking to your router or modem.  We commonly see this in our PC Repair Indiana business when the customer's computer has a bad Ethernet card or if the cable is bad that is connecting the computer to the router.  If you are using a wireless card, then you'll have to look under your wireless LAN adapter to get your IP information.

• Make note of your default gateway IP address which will be found after "Default Gateway.....".  This is the IP address of your router or modem.  If you open a web browser and type this IP address into it, then you should get a login prompt for your router.  After entering the login credentials (default username for many routers is "admin" and the password will be "password" or "admin", but check your router manual to be sure).

• Verify that your router is programmed properly.  Most routers have a "Status" page in them so that you can see if it is connected to your ISP.  In our WISP Support Services, we are commonly looking to see if the router has established a PPPoE connection to the system.

If you use these tips before you call your ISP for help, it can help give your WISP Support Services technician an idea on what steps to try next.  In most situations it can keep you from having to call tech support at all.  That gets you back to surfing the web faster.

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I get the opportunity through frequent prospective sales calls to sample wireless inbuilding solutions for all shapes and sizes of companies.  I find very often that my request for guest access results in the following:

• No wireless access is offered for employees, guests or both
• Wireless access is available, if you can find someone that knows the security key
• Wireless access is available to the whole world via an unsecured wireless router

Neither of these options are necessary in today's environment.  Wireless Inbuilding Solutions are plentiful and fairly easy to deploy.  One particular solution that I prefer is offered by MikroTik.  MikroTik RouterOS includes a HotSpot Gateway service that is very easy to implement.  It provides a splash page for the business to promote itself on while providing an opportunity to include acceptable Internet use language.  You can then have the user enter a username and password to be granted access to the Internet.



The MikroTik HotSpot Solution offers a few things to the businesses who implement it:

1. Presentation - This differentiates you from your competition by presenting a very enterprise level image to your guests and vistors.
2. Security - Provdies a customizable solution which offers security while not impeding proper use.  It also keeps parking lot squatters from utilizing your corporate resources.
3. Flexability - If deployed correctly, the MikroTik router can also provide employees secured wireless access to network resources off of the same access point without requiring additional hardware.

This system is used in airports, coffee shops, and hotels throughout the world.  Due to its flexability, this product can be utilized to beef up your wireless inbuilding solution without breaking your IT budget.  We've been using this same system as a key component to our WISP equipment currently deployed in our WISP business.  We've also deployed this for bandquet hall facilities and other Corporate clients interested in wireless network solutions.





In addition to the HotSpot Gateway, the MikroTik RouterOS also offers advance QoS services that could help limit and de-prioritize the guest wireless traffic over more critical types of network traffic.  This promotes efficent use of your Internet resources.

If this type of work is not your cup of tea, then please consultant a professional before making any purchases.  There are many wireless inbuilding solutions available by most of the major equipment vendors.  The MikroTik HotSpot Gateway solution offers a very good blend of customization, security and price.  If you need more information on this system or its deployment, please contact us.

There are several Affordable Router Solutions available to both the carrier and enterprise level markets.  Like any name brand item, one pays a premium for the "name" behind the product and sometimes sacrifices support and performance.  I've been a network integrator since 2004.  I'm comfortable with many brands of routers, but typically try to select the right product for the application.  I wanted to briefly review a few common router implementations and my logic behind selecting vendor A, I, or M over C.  The following three routers are my top Affordable Router Soutions for the specific application.

My Top Router Picks

• Wireless Applications - MikroTik RB433AH Routerboard
• VoIP Integration - ADTRAN TA904 and NV3448 Routers
• Enterprise Workhorse - Imagestream Rebel Router

Wireless Network Solutions

I've owned and operated an Indiana Wireless Solutions and Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP) since 2004.  From the beginning, we operated on a very tight budget which forced us to review some of the Linux Router Solutions available to the market.  We began using MikroTik routers from day one.  We utilized them because of affordability, flexibility, and wireless performance.  These routers have a very good GUI in addition to command-line interface (CLI).  MikroTik manufactures there own brand of routerboards for their RouterOS or you can load the RouterOS on a x86 PC.  Each routerboard is a full blown router and firewall.  If wireless access is required, then one can add a mpci based radio card to the board for an integrated wireless AP and router solution.

Although MikroTik offers various routerboard solutions that meet different needs, I prefer the RB433AH routerboard.  The architecture allows for plenty of throughput.  In fact, I have a full duplex 5GHz N-stream solution running for a given client which is reliably pushing 28-30M full duplex throughput across the system which links their annex facility to their main building almost 1 mile away.  These routers also offer advance firewalling, QoS Services, and scripting abilities.  Most important is the Hotspot solution that is included in MikroTik's RouterOS.

VoIP Integration

I prefer the ADTRAN router line for all VoIP Integrations.  I use both the Total Access 900 and NetVanta lines.  ADTRAN has integrated switch ports into some NetVanta models to minimize the amount of devices required to manage in the network.  ADTRAN offers both a "IOS" style CLI and a GUI.  I prefer the CLI for setup and troubleshooting, but utilize the GUI a lot to check status.  The Voice Quality Monitor (VQM) feature is very nice for VoIP Integrations.  It allows me to trend voice quality statistics over time while also reporting key metrics such as MOS scores, delay, jitter, and packet loss.  The ADTRAN product has superior SIP messaging troubleshooting.  With other products, I would have to perform a packet capture and then export it into Wireshark for analysis.  In ADTRAN's CLI, I can view the SIP level messaging in real time. 

Hands down the best thing I can say about ADTRAN is the professionalism and helpfulness of their Technical Support.  Guess what?  Their support comes with the purchase of their product unlike the Big "C" brand.  ADTRAN offers a 5yr. warranty on both of these product lines as well as most of their other products. 

Affordable Router Solutions for the Enterprise

I've also been very happy with Indiana based router manufacturer, Imagestream.  The Imagestream solution is based on a Linux OS platform.  It currently does not have a GUI interface, but they do promise to release one soon.  In a recent conversation with Imagestream's Lead Software Developer for the GUI Project, he mentioned to me the advance monitoring capabilities integrated into the GUI.  After getting a sneak peak of the first GUI version, I think they are on the right track.

The Imagestream Rebel router is in my opinion the "jewel" of the Imagestream product line with the proper blend of price and performance.  It out performs a lot of other routers in its class, including Cisco.  It comes equipped with six Gig-E ports while having the ability to route ~100Mb Ethernet at wire speed.  Imagestream offers a wide variety of interface cards to handle fiber to T1 termination.  The ability to implement advance QoS Services and Firewalling Filters allows for some very advanced controls of the data streams.  I've seen clients with a little scripting/programming talent do some really advance automated monitoring tasks with these routers.  Imagestream also offers superb support for their routers which is included with the purchase.

IT Networking Support and Equipment Selection

Please consult your IT Networking Support professional before purchasing equipment.  If you currently do not work with someone in this area, then feel free to contact The Interconnect Group for assistance with any of these router products and more.  The key to this article is that you do not have to overpay for the right router solution.  There are several affordable router solutions that will meet your needs on performance and price.