FI9828P WIFI range

[belmont]

Hi,

I have a request to install an already owned FI9828P cam but in a distance of about 40 meters from the WIFI access point. There is line of sight between the AP and the Cam.
The AP is Ubnt Nanostation M2.

Question, is the WIFI of FI9828P capable of this distance?
Lots of installation work ahead and not sure worth the effort

 

[nayr]

I highly doubt it, just put up another Ubnt Nanostation pointing at the other and do a point2point wireless bridge with a camera thats not junk.

otherwise I would not take that job with that camera and setup; the'll never leave you alone with all the problems it'll have

 

[belmont]

thanks mate, first I must give it a try but I would not give much chance I will succeed. I used such FI9828P only in distance of 6 meter. If fails I must make a stable link using some Ubnt, possibly just another Nanostation.

 

[nayr]

it dont matter how big and powerful your access point is, the weak link is the radio in the camera.. yeah you'll get a signal from that Nanostation, but will the camera have enough power to get a signal too the nanostation? at 300m its not likely, the nanostation has like a 1W (1000mW) transceiver and your camera might have a 100mW transceiver, if your lucky; Ive seen em as low as 20mW on cheap stuff.

thats why wireless bridges work at geat distances but general wifi does not, your phone/laptop/tablet/webcams only have very low power wireless transceivers and thats usually the range limiting feature.. that and wifi bridges focus all that power into a narrow beam and not an 360 degree omnidirectional pattern.

 

[belmont]

thanks a lot, i have a question. Should I set both Nanostation in repeater mode or which mode? As on the far end, i would serve other crappy Wifi cams too, not just the FI9828P. But they would be like 3 meters from the far end Nanostation.

should do this?

 

[nayr]

it would not be omnidirectional, only whatever is in that beam will get a good link.. If the cameras are facing the other way as the antenna the'll see the further away one as more powerfull and wont even connect to the nearby one.. mebe something like the NanoStation, but wireless throughput in repeater mode is cut in half.

if there are other cameras nearby this one, do a point to directional access opint and put a switch in an outdoor enclosure and ethernet connect all the nearby cameras.. the will all perform as reliably as hardwired cameras in this environment.

If you want to improve general wifi range here, you do a directional point to point backhaul and put an omni-directional outdoor access point up on a different frequency.. full speed, with 2 radios to repeat instead of one.. so mebe off your switch you can still put a NanoStation to offer general WiFi at this location.. I would have made the backhaul 5GHz however.

 

[belmont]

as only at the two endpoints need wifi for cams, that 5GHZ link is a good idea. I will look into this

 

[belmont]

would this work?


Near end:
Central (Internet router)
Nanostation Bridge mode to LAN, and AP mode in wireless (5GHz)


Far end:
Nanostation Bridge mode to Ethernet Switch, and "Client" or they call station mode in wireless (5GHz)
Ethernet Switch serving some far end cams
Nanostation Bridge mode to Switch and AP mode in Wireless (2.4GH) serving some far end wifi cams

 

[nayr]

all except that last line, the 2.4GHz nano-station serving far away wifi cameras would just be in access point mode since it'd have an ethernet uplink.

otherwise its a fine plan, I like it

 

[belmont]

i am not expert in networking. How to make the far end as Wifi AP for the Wifi cams but in the same subnet as the central? I need both end to be in the same subnet otherwise NVR dont recognise them.

 

[nayr]

it will be, in access point mode its just a bridge from wireless to wired, which is then backhauled over another wireless link to your main network

 

[belmont]

Hello Mr. Nayr. I am glad to report that the Foscam made it to the Ubnt Nanostation M2 which is about 35 meters or 115 feet. Both has the original antenna, direct line of sight, only there is one palmtree in between but that didnt cause much issue. I think the Ubnt excellent RX/TX performance made it all work. I am very happy

 

[fenderman]

Until the signal drops when you need It most it the foscam fails...

 

[belmont]

this is a used foscam, about 2 years old, never had issue with it but it was only 6 meter distance that time. The climate where i live is dry and sunny all year round, so the weather should not impact it. But lets see, hope you are wrong

 

[belmont]

Okay experts, you were right, after one 1 week the Wifi link went off, Ubnt AP has no problem but the Foscam PTZ Wifi went silent... Really I must never ever trust the Foscam Wifi, i must build the whole WLAN network with Ubnt devices and hardwire all cams to the nodes....

 

[belmont]

Has anyone tried Ubnt mesh for security cams?

 

[nayr]

its completely unnessicary..

mesh is just a series of single radio bridges/extenders, performance on mesh networks is fairly poor compared to direct p2p links.

Its for high density wireless deployments, like trailer parks/resorts/campsites that have alot of line of sight issues.. when you have to provide wireless to a ton of clients and many of them may not have line of sight back to the base station.