Internet Ubiquiti Bullet - Any Good ?

[kiltym]

Originally Posted by c.spots

But I would like 802.11 b/g/and n, and I don't think the Bullet has the new "n" part. 802.11n is turning up in many places, and it would be a shame to miss out on its advantages.

There is very limited use to N networks from a boat.

In order to achieve the "benefits", which is faster connections, you have to be in extremely close proximity to the access point you are connecting to.

Having an N router on board will be of use since you will be in close proximity and can utilize the faster speeds to transfer files or other operations on your local network.

So, while it is likely all equipment going forward will support N, the advantages of it to the marine environment as far as connections from aboard to shore-side stations is not really an advantage.

Also, remember, the bottleneck for speed (when you are talking > 54Mbps, N speeds), is not your connection to the access point, its the access point's connection to the internet. You are not going to find connections that will support that type of internet speed anyway.

And, since all N routers are backwards compatible, they will continue to support B/G clients with no issues.

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by c.spots

Bullet - last years technology?
I am considering a new system, and it may include the Bullet 2HP.
But I would like 802.11 b/g/and n, and I don't think the Bullet has the new "n" part. 802.11n is turning up in many places, and it would be a shame to miss out on its advantages.

The big advantage of 802.11n is speed. For most cruiser applications the speed is a fantasy.

First 'n' accomplishes the speed by strapping multiple wifi channels together. This is not a good technical decision in an environment where there may be multiple providers (APs) and many users.

Secondly, your connection to the Internet will only be as fast as the share you get of the slowest link in the network between you and whatever you are ultimately viewing or otherwise connecting to. Some bar or villa with an 802.11n AP itself connected to the Internet by a (flaky) 1.5Mbps DSL line to the local phone company connected in turn by a 250 Mbps satellite link to the outside world (shared by everyone on the island for voice and data) will deliver an absolute maximum of 1.5 Mbps delivered on an instantaneously shared basis among those connected to the AP. Your local connection (Bullet or otherwise) will show the 600 Mbps connection speed of 802.11n but you will actually get throughput of your fraction of 1.5 Mbps.

Further 802.11b and 802.11g have greater range and penetration than n.

n makes sense for campus and industrial park applications where speed of connection to central servers is the primary goal. For a facility with fiber optic interconnects nearly full-spec n speeds make sense. The poor penetration of n makes the wide distribution of very small n cells effective and achievable.

The Bullet 2HP has greater power output than the Bullet M.

None of this is to say that if the only AP around is n-only that you wouldn't want n, but I haven't seen any n APs in the wild that did not also support b & g.

[Auspicious]

+1 to Mark for posting while I was still typing. *grin*

[s/v Jedi]

I have to disagree with these negative postings about n-mode aboard boats. I suspect these posters do not have n-mode routers on their boats, which makes them reject anything different.

The focus is on speed? It seems that it's suggested that the high speeds of n-mode are not obtainable on a boat, plus the range gets reduced drastically. This is a very narrow minded point of view which disregards way too many aspects of the matter.

First of all, n-mode has many different speeds, from low to high. The lower speeds are comparable to g-modes and the range for these low speeds is also comparable. A n-mode router will automatically select a lower speed when the distance is too great for higher speeds.

Second, lots of n-mode equipment has MIMO antenna technology. This technology improves penetration and range like nothing else does. It will even enhance performance when only one side of the link is using it. I don't think I have ever seen a g-mode router with MIMO but I'm almost sure somebody of the anti-n-mode crowd will be able to come up with one.

Third is that many users of n-mode equipment (Ubiquity Bullet M2 and NanoStation M2) have reported on this forum that their M2 hardware outperforms the older g-mode models (Bullet 2hp etc.) This is actual reports from boats that have both generations of equipment aboard... not some dreamed up statement based on assumptions.

I have been a very happy user of the Ubiquity M-series and also found that it outperforms anything I have compared it with.

ciao!
Nick.

[senormechanico]

Originally Posted by Feral Cement

Ebay is full of 1000ma wi-fi antennas that (I hear) will let you stream movies at a mile and check e-mail at 3 miles. Cost $20, plug n play. What makes the Bullet so special?

Thanks,

John

Ebay is also full of "Heavy Duty" sewing machines which are plain old home machines.
"Heavy", yes, Heavy Duty"? NO!

I also saw a Singer Featherweight being hyped as heavy duty!

[Feral Cement]

Originally Posted by senormechanico

Ebay is also full of "Heavy Duty" sewing machines which are plain old home machines.
"Heavy", yes, Heavy Duty"? NO!

Don't sugar-coat it: are the others complete crap, or just not as heavy and durable as the bullet? I met a cruiser who swore by his ebay-bought N series $20 "put it on the cabintop" lightweight antenna, but his opinion was suspect for a number of reasons. I'm ultra low-budget, but make allowances when the differnce in price is exceeded by the difference in performance and durability. I'm not trying to set a world record, so 4X the price for an extra 1/2 mile does not strike me as a wise use of my very limited funds.

Comments? Thanks!

John

[DotDun]

Originally Posted by Auspicious

Further 802.11b and 802.11g have greater range and penetration than n.

This disagrees with the chart at the bottom of:

IEEE 802.11n-2009 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

802.11n gains it's speed by using multiple (mimo) streams vs. a single stream in b and g. Yes, n can use 40mhz channels, but even when using 20mhz, the speed and distance is better than b and g (at least theoretically).

[DotDun]

Originally Posted by Feral Cement

Don't sugar-coat it: are the others complete crap, or just not as heavy and durable as the bullet? I met a cruiser who swore by his ebay-bought N series $20 "put it on the cabintop" lightweight antenna, but his opinion was suspect for a number of reasons. I'm ultra low-budget, but make allowances when the differnce in price is exceeded by the difference in performance and durability. I'm not trying to set a world record, so 4X the price for an extra 1/2 mile does not strike me as a wise use of my very limited funds.

Comments? Thanks!

John

Features I want in an outdoor wifi unit.

1) Built to be outdoors, not an indoor unit in an after market outdoor case.
2) Antenna attaches directly to the radio, no coax (too much loss at those freq.)!
3) Ethernet connected, in particular power over ethernet. (I don't like the limitation of USB cable distances).
4) Flexible enough to be a router or bridge (WDS is a plus also).
5) Support b, g, & n. If they built a Bullet that is both 2.4ghz & 5ghz supporting a, b, g, n that would be wonderful. My guess is stuffing 2 radios in that small of a space is the limiting factor (dual antenna connectors, etc.).

I'm happy with the M2 Bullet with current firmware.

[SV Demeter]

Bought this at the boat show special price of $325

LED lighting, soundproof, Sailor's Solutions Inc.

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by DotDun

This disagrees with the chart at the bottom of:

IEEE 802.11n-2009 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'll point out that the data in the ranges have no citations. The numbers are entirely different than my experience. I have the best results with b, followed by g, followed by n. YMMV.

[scubafoolin]

Originally Posted by Auspicious

One of the small challenges is that some of the resellers--including Islandtimepc and wififorboats change the configuration of the Bullet from the factory one. There are two issues that result - one is that the guidance on the Internet can be misleading, and the other is that if you do a hardware reset when something gets really pear-shaped you are back to factory settings which may not match the instructions you have from the reseller.

Depending on the configuration you have out of the box (most importantly whether DHCP is turned on or not) you may have to set the IP address of your computer (not the Bullet) to be able to finish configuration. The factory configuration does require that. Once you turn DHCP service on at the Bullet and reset your computer to take DHCP everything gets really easy.

The only "network engineering" you really need to know is to have a reasonable grip on the architecture of routers, bridges, and switches; what DHCP is; and how IP addressing works, particularly non-routable addresses (like 192.168.x.x).

Hi there - I know I'm over 6 months late to this forum . My father just recently purchased a bullet and we are both completely perplexed. It seems to be working fine, picking up signals, etc. but we can never get internet. Does anyone know anything about this (the reason I quoted the above is, I have no clue about any of that "basic" stuff, so if it's way beyond the remit of this forum, perhaps you could point me in the direction of someone who can help???) PLEASE !!!!

Thanks so much.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by scubafoolin

Hi there - I know I'm over 6 months late to this forum . My father just recently purchased a bullet and we are both completely perplexed. It seems to be working fine, picking up signals, etc. but we can never get internet. Does anyone know anything about this (the reason I quoted the above is, I have no clue about any of that "basic" stuff, so if it's way beyond the remit of this forum, perhaps you could point me in the direction of someone who can help???) PLEASE !!!!

Thanks so much.

Just give the seller a call for support.

ciao!
Nick.

[thatboatguy]

Originally Posted by scubafoolin

Hi there - I know I'm over 6 months late to this forum . My father just recently purchased a bullet and we are both completely perplexed. It seems to be working fine, picking up signals, etc. but we can never get internet. Does anyone know anything about this (the reason I quoted the above is, I have no clue about any of that "basic" stuff, so if it's way beyond the remit of this forum, perhaps you could point me in the direction of someone who can help???) PLEASE !!!!

Thanks so much.

Actually there's a great "quick-start" type guide linked from somewhere in this thread. Today's anchorage has spotty wifi to offer so I'm not able to go digging for it myself.

To the gang: At this moment I have an alpha hanging off of our mizzen boom (in a water tight box) and it's connected to an R36 down here in the aft cabin (via a 50 foot usb extension cable) so Kerri and I are both online. And it's one of those times when the Alfa is just doing a better job than the Bullet with whatever antenna for some odd reason. Rare, but it happens.

[scubafoolin]

Will check out both options! Thanks for the info. It seems everyone is overall pleased with them, so will persist!

[RickyEM]

Originally Posted by Patrick_DeepPlaya

My bullet works great, you can see my whoel setup and how I mounted it on my mizzen masthead in my blog S/V Deep Playa – Pearson 424 - DIY Wi-Fi System

-p

Is there some reason you mounted the bullet outside, something about distance between bullet and antenna? I see your bullet is connected directly with the antenna, is this required?