Point to Point Wireless Bridge Recomendations

[TheWaterbug]

And the documentation is silent both on what type of POE comes out the passthrough port, and what the maximum passthrough power is. One guy on the Ubiquiti forums says:

I bought a pair of the NS-5AC units and another LPR camera, for experimentation in my house, before I approach my industrial neighbor for cooperation to deploy. First impressions:

1. Units unbox with a static IP address of 192.168.1.20.
   1. Why are manufacturers so allergic to DHCP for networking infrastructure products?
   2. As with the PLAs I played with last week, plugging into two of these guarantees an IP address conflict, right away.
   3. These NS-5AC units are supposed to boot up with a "management WiFi" network, but I prefer to configure them over Ethernet.
2. I always forget that it's more efficient to set up the remote unit of the pair first, then set up the LAN side.
   1. But I got them configured for DHCP, plugged them in on opposite sides of my dining table, and powered them up.
   2. The link came up quickly, and the management tools give me pretty good feedback on link quality.
   3. The two units are literally 15' apart, so they're probably way too close for optimal connectivity, but it works and gives me a few hundred Mbps tested throughput via the management tool, and not through iperf, yet.
3. Once I got the link up I changed the default SSID and WPA2 key (on the remote side first!!!), and enabled POE passthrough.
   1. It took me 30 minutes and a bunch of un/plugging to figure out why the camera didn't work, which was because these NS-5AC units come with 24 V passive POE adapters instead of 802.3af adapters. .
   2. The NS-5AC units put out whatever's put in, and most cameras use 802.3af, so this is a surprising choice given than Ubiquiti specifically advertises this feature for powering IP cameras.
   3. I can't imagine that there's a big difference in cost to Ubiquiti when they sell 802.3af adapters at retail for $8.00.
   4. Fortunately I have bunch of these lying around, so I was able to power up the NS-5AC units on 802.3af and power the camera through the pass-through ports from either unit.
4. So, with this combination of features I'll be able to use one cable to power the LAN side of the bridge and one camera, and then walk over to my industrial neighbor with a set of stuff ask for permission to plug into AC power, and that'll establish the "B" bridge in my OP.
5. Now that this works, I ordered a second pair to be my "A" bridge. I'll test first, but I'm hoping that, once the "A" units are paired, I can just connect the "Main" ports between Remote B and LAN A via a long Ethernet cable, and it'll just work.
   1. 
   2. Or will I need a switch between Remote B and LAN A?

 

[TheWaterbug]

LOL. I forgot that this isn't my thread. I'm the Blue Iris server, and I'm trying to enable placement of LPR cameras at these other locations, that I don't control, because my angle to the driveways is all wrong:

 

[Mike A.]

Since this got bumped, to update my post here re the TP-Link CPE210 the one that I was using for the remote end died the other day. Can only keep wireless up for a few minutes after repower then it drops out. Got several years out of it. Finally said F' it and just ran a cable.

 

[TonyR]

Since this got bumped, to update my post here re the TP-Link CPE210 the one that I was using for the remote end died the other day. Can only keep wireless up for a few minutes after repower then it drops out. Got several years out of it. Finally said F' it and just ran a cable.

22 months so far on a pair of CPE210's I installed for a client (fingers crossed).

 

[Mike A.]

22 months so far on a pair of CPE210's I installed for a client (fingers crossed).

My other one's still good so 50/50 shot by my experience. ; ) I think what did mine in for whatever reason was that we had a bunch of real quick power losses/restores over about 5 minutes one day.

Also just FYI, if you ever want to use just one as a client to another AP, it doesn't like an SSID with both 5 and 2.4 on it. Couldn't get it to make a connection. Made a separate one with just 2.4 alone and it hooks right up.

 

[TonyR]

My other one's still good so 50/50 shot by my experience. ; ) I think what did mine in for whatever reason was that we had a bunch of real quick power losses/restores over about 5 minutes one day.

Also just FYI, if you ever want to use just one as a client to another AP, it doesn't like an SSID with both 5 and 2.4 on it. Couldn't get it to make a connection. Made a separate one with just 2.4 alone and it hooks right up.

I usually use Ubiquiti but 2 years ago the availability was spotty and when you did find them they were way too much compared to pre-COVID prices so clients wanted to try the TP-LINK units. I've put their Unifi clone overhead as a WAP in a Mexican restaurant 2 years ago and have installed probably 2 dozen of their switches in 5 years, all working great so it wasn't a real risky move. But I did expect a little less from them than the UBNT....I have about 8 UBNT units (4 bridges) in operation since 2015 and not one issue. Another 2 bridges in place for about 2 years then owners moved out and I bought their used units. Since circa 2015 I have had one NSM2 and one NSM5 Loco damaged by firece lightning though.

I just remembered I put in a set of the TP-LINK 5GHz CPE510's between my stepmom's house and her barn/guest house when she got her 300Mbps fiber June of '23. Also "so far, so good."

 

[TheWaterbug]

Here's the test setup in my kitchen/dining area:

 

[prsmith777]

I have three pairs of these NS_5AC working around my yard. One is for my LPR cams at the front of the driveway.
They seem solid, although I do get some momentary dropouts occasionally with one pair.

One pair is fairly new, a few months old. They other two pair have been running for a couple of years now.

If you ever want to do an automated reboot of the unit, you can use Putty Plink program and a simple one line .bat file

plink -batch -ssh <username here>@<IP address of unit here> -pw <password here> "reboot"

I keep a log of the disconnects and when they reach a certain point I reboot the unit.

 

[TheWaterbug]

I have three pairs of these NS_5AC working around my yard.

Are all 3 pairs connected directly back to your LAN? Or are any of your bridges connected by bridges, as in my diagram above?

 

[prsmith777]

Are all 3 pairs connected directly back to your LAN? Or are any of your bridges connected by bridges, as in my diagram above?

All 3 pairs are directly connected to the LAN... no bridging

 

[observant1]

I use (used) nothing but the ubiquity radios. I'm retired now (still work occasionally) but several locations that we set up as point to multipoint for cameras located in areas difficult to run a cable, but has access to power have been working for years without a problem.

 

[TheWaterbug]

1. View attachment 208467

So, just for fun, I did get the 2nd bridge up and running, with the camera in the upper-right powered via the POE Pass-through. So yes, this configuration works, even though I will most probably not use it this way:



I think the bridge are happier with greater distance, as currently this is all in my house, and Bridge1 is about 20' whilst Bridge2 is about 40'.

Actual distances will be 100' - 200' once deployed.

 

[prsmith777]

So, just for fun, I did get the 2nd bridge up and running, with the camera in the upper-right powered via the POE Pass-through. So yes, this configuration works, even though I will most probably not use it this way:

View attachment 210203

I think the bridge are happier with greater distance, as currently this is all in my house, and Bridge1 is about 20' whilst Bridge2 is about 40'.

Actual distances will be 100' - 200' once deployed.

It's been my experience that if they are too close, there is too much signal transmission and that can cause dropouts.

 

[Flintstone61]

I had a pair of Ubiquiti Loco Nano 2.4GHZ that never dropped out. They'd find their way back online after an outage as well. I took the photo from one device looking at the other device.
I'm guessing 300 or more feet. the fat arrow was where the PTZ would read a plate from.

 

[TheWaterbug]

I've got Bridge C deployed, along with a camera pointing at the northern driveway off of Western. Distance is only 124' per DaftLogic, but there's a balcony in between, which puts a bunch of metal railings in the way:



Does that matter at all? I suppose this is all academic, because I'm getting >>> 150 Mbps, and I need only 6 Mbps:

so I'm literally over-provisioned by 25x. But I like to optimize

I suppose I could put in two pieces of PVC and raise them both up by 12", to create a clear LOS, but I'm not sure it's worth the hassle.

 

[TuckNTruck]

Just to add to the info on this thread, I'm using a couple MikroTik "Wireless Wire" units from my house to boat dock. Units are 354 feet apart and consistently get 950+ Mbps up and down. They're advertised as 1 Gbps full duplex and that's what I've seen for the last year or so I've had them. These are 60GHz, so I wouldn't use them unless you have very good line of sight - no obstructions. Wireless Wire | MikroTik

Think I paid somewhere just over $200 for the pair and they have other versions with dish, cube, etc for various ranges I guess. Would buy again for sure.