Microtik Wireless Wire vs Fibre

#Chri5# · 4 Jun 2020 at 18:09

Is anyone using Wireless Wire for a PtP link? If so, are they stable and deliver close to the quoted 1Gbps?

I want/need to replace a Devolo PowerLine link which keeps dropping, typically for 5 minutes or more. Since I moved my Microserver to the garage, that gets very annoying as Pi-Hole providing DNS is one of the VMs running on it so you lose Internet access.

The Wireless Wire kit is about £200, plus a couple of brackets for £7.50 each. I'd also need to get some external grade CAT5/CAT6a in white (house is painted white, so black cable is out). PtP distance would be about 15m across the drive.

The other option is to run a fibre link with a pre-terminated cable. That's a more expensive option once you add in media converters or switches with SFP ports, though OM2 or OM3 fibre does give the option to upgrade to 10Gbps in the future. Depending on which corner of the garage I went to, one route would be to dig a trench on a gravel path and then lift a path through block paving. Probably 15 to 20m cable required, plus a wall box to couple the pre-terminated cable to a fibre patch lead.

A CAT6a copper link would be cheaper. However, I always told customers to do the link properly with fibre and avoid grounding issues (etc), so I should apply the same rules for my own house. That said the garage (with it's own CU) is feed from the house CU so I don't know if the same (potential) issues are likely or not.

Caged · 4 Jun 2020 at 20:38

The fibre will always be better, but it depends how arsed you are about it.

Hyburnate · 4 Jun 2020 at 20:50

PtP is the easiest but haven't ever installed one over that short of a link... We use Mimosa gear, pretty darn good.

Fibre will be best, take a look at mcldatasolutions, we've ordered their armoured patch leads their lead times are sometimes a bit long but may be worth a go?

the-evaluator · 5 Jun 2020 at 07:59

If cabled is an option then I'd always go for that over a wireless link so if you're going to go to the bother of pulling cables in you might as well go for fibre.

Armageus · 5 Jun 2020 at 08:13

Not yet got round to using the Mikrotik PtP products, but have used some of the Ubiquiti ones:
https://www.ui.com/airmax/litebeam-ac-gen2/

Been absolutely faultless for the last couple of years - never had any dropouts (especially obvious as we use them for monitored CCTV feeds) and have been using at approx 85m (where it was too costly to dig concrete to install ducting), and at approximately 150m (to replace a fibre link that contractors managed to dig through)

rah^ · 5 Jun 2020 at 09:04

do you need 1gig?

If not the Ubiquiti nanostations provide around 650meg and are a fraction of the cost (I run a couple admittedly over a larger distance) but they've been up since October last year and not dropped yet

They are small and discreet aswell

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ubiq...x-cpe-access-point-ptmp-airmax-nw-00x-uq.html

Avalon · 6 Jun 2020 at 04:02

As above, ubiquity nanostations are great bits of kit for LoS installs, but it depends on the bandwidth required and how reliable you need the link to be. I know a farmer with a rented building that looses connectivity when the tractor/waggon drive through the link, but its something that's acceptable to him vs paying for a hardwired link that would be problematic to install.

bledd · 6 Jun 2020 at 09:48

I'd just use buried cat6 cable..

Avalon · 6 Jun 2020 at 10:39

bledd said:
I'd just use buried cat6 cable..

Rebel

#Chri5# · 6 Jun 2020 at 20:07

Thanks all.

Do I really need 1Gbps? Not really, but the cost of the Mirotik units is fine so why not? They would be bridging over our drive, so would only get blocked by a big van or truck delivering or a tradesman working (ie not very often).

I'm going to lift some of the block paving tomorrow to see how much space is underneath it - I presume it's a sand base so could drop some flexible conduit in. The bigger challenge is probably the outer blocks at each end which I presume are concreted in as the retaining edges. Getting under them could be a pain. The other job is finding something as small as possible to act as a junction box between the pre-terminated fibre and a fibre patch lead. I know you could plug the pre-term directly into a switch but I'd prefer to keep that fixed and use a cheaper patch lead (should it get damaged).

I've still not found much information about the risks of linking two buildings which are the same mains supply with copper wiring. Lots of discussions about two buildings with two mains supplies but not much for my scenario.

Caged · 7 Jun 2020 at 01:37

You can get ethernet isolators if you’re worried about ground potential differences (which shouldn’t exist if both buildings are on the same supply and use the same earthing system).

#Chri5# · 7 Jun 2020 at 12:34

Caged said:
You can get ethernet isolators if you’re worried about ground potential differences (which shouldn’t exist if both buildings are on the same supply and use the same earthing system).

The isolators a quick Google turned up would make it cheaper to put fibre in! I'll have a closer look at the CU in the garage to see if there's any (obvious) sign of a separate ground.