[Eug-lug] Any Experience(s) w/ Peak.org WiFi?

[Quentin Hartman]

While I can't speak directly to Peak's WiFi service, I have had some
experience with them. In my experience, what they deliver to T1-class
biz customers is less than what one would expect. A number of route
problems, weird outtages, etc. However, their service to DSL
residential customers seems to be very good. Several close friends of
mine have used them for a long time, and they have had nothing but
good things to say. Bottom line is that their service quality seems to
differ depending on what you are getting from them. Perhaps it's a
case of divergent expectations, but who knows?

Also, regarding the antenna, a panel antenna is directional. The
signal is recieved and emitted from the face of it. There are
basically three kinds of antennas that are worth worrying about when
it comes to wireless networking right now: dipole, panel, and yagi.
Dipoles are omni-directional and relatively short range. Panels are
uni directional and are good for medium / long range, and yagis are
very directional and are for very long ranges. I seem to remember 3Com
having a pretty good whitepaper available that covered the base
concepts of different antenna technologies, but I can't find it atm...

I installed some 3Com gear recently using a small panel antenna on one
end that was only upposed to supply 4dB of gain, and it supposedly
would allow up to a 2 mile range with clear LOS, so I imagine that a
16dB gain panel would be good for 5-7 mile range pretty easily, which
jives with some of the specs I've seen on other products.

But you know, grain of salt and all. Have fun :D

-- 
-Regards-

-Quentin Hartman-