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View Full Version : Rural Broadband via WiFi..



aquapiranha
18-11-2012, 14:08
I thought this topic may be of interest to some, so here it is..

I live in a 'village' in quite a rural area. I say village, but there about 200 inhabitants, one small shop (whcih is one of those that sells everything, like cadles and fuse wire..) no pubs (!) and a river running through it. Anyway, we are lucky here, very lucky in fact since despite the out of the way location, last week we had Fibre broadband installed and now my connection hovers around 35-38 MB - brill!

Our freind up the road is not so lucky however. She lives over 11KM away from the nearest exchange which is equipped for ADSL and so gets no broadband whatsoever. Now, until fairly recently this would have been just tough luck, since mobile reception there is patchy at best, and so no 3G either.. All is not lost as one might assume, as to the rescue comes a company working out of Derry called NWE, who provide 'Bluebox', a line of sight WiFi option designed for just such a situation.

Basically, they will provide for a monthly fee (in this case £20) an antenna (in the form of a small dish) plus free installation which will give you up to 10MB.

This is the dish...

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb256/aquapiranha/20121117_142938.jpg

And this is the hill at which it points, where somewhere there is a big antenna...

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb256/aquapiranha/20121117_145810.jpg

Please excuse the poor photos, it was in fact hailstoning when I took the one of the hill, and in fact the tree on the left dictated the position of the dish since there has to be line of sight, and a big tree in the way is a no-no.

So, another friend had kindly bought a wireless router while he was in town, but he had got the wrong one, and ADSL router, and so I have to go back when I have recieved the right one to set up a static IP etc and test the system fully.

Links...

NWE (Bluebox)... http://www.nwewn.com/index.php

coverage map (N.I.)

http://www.nwewn.com/images/coveragenew.jpg


I hope at least someone can use this information... :)

Tim
18-11-2012, 15:30
Nice location Steve, put the kettle on fella ;)

aquapiranha
18-11-2012, 15:38
Hi Tim. the location is about 2 miles form us, but for some reason there appears to be no link between our exchange and that location, hence she is 11KM away from her exchange! a bit odd, but there you go. She is higher up than us, we are on the valley floor so to speak, and this is at the end of our road...

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb256/aquapiranha/Places/DSC00059.jpg

Obviously that was taken in the winter! the hill in the background is Benbradagh, or, you may know it as Cara Dillon's Hill of Thieves. as that is what the name means in Gaelic. Cara was brought up 3 miles form where I live now. Oh, and if you can ever make it, you would be more than welcome!

:)