I have a back haul link of about 20 miles. Sometimes when the link is broken I have to do a lot of driving. Is there a way to detect which end of a link is at fault? I can get in to both sides but just cant seem to find out which one is at fault untill I change out everything. Usualy it is the last thing I do that fixes it.
Mike
Why does the link usually break ? Is it water in cables/connectors or antennas going out of line ? Ideas i can think of kinda depend on it.
If its usually an antenna/pigtail/radiocard frontend fault .....
Do a scan on each end when the link is working ok ( i'm sure you will see other networks/links ) and note them down ,when the link breaks do another scan and see which end is not picking things up any more
Stick a script on each box that sends an email ( maybe it can include the signal strength at each end
???) if the signal goes below some level and stays there ( set the threshold above the level the link breaks at though .. bit of hysteresis would be good too)
Run MRTG on something and you can see which end dies away ( would be nice if RouterOS did graphs of signal strength on board too )
Maybe build yourself a small test kit , say a 112 & radio in a box ( maybe use a burglar-alarm backup battery for power to save hassle ) so when you get to the site you can eliminate radio/board/pigtail all in one go.
It would also be a source of known working spare parts in an emergency.
You can also drop it in to keep the network going while you're doing repairs to the main gear. It'd well worth the money imho.
A few things i've seen that seem to help reliability .....
use compression connectors instead of crimp on connectors
run the antenna cable into the box through a gland and join it to the pigtail inside , usually you need to use Nfemale connectors on the antenna cable or use or use LMR/RG cable to sma connectors on cable and sma pigtails.
glue the pigtails (carefully) to the card too in case the connector decides to come loose
If its usually an antenna/pigtail/radiocard frontend fault .....
Do a scan on each end when the link is working ok ( i'm sure you will see other networks/links ) and note them down ,when the link breaks do another scan and see which end is not picking things up any more
Stick a script on each box that sends an email ( maybe it can include the signal strength at each end
???) if the signal goes below some level and stays there ( set the threshold above the level the link breaks at though .. bit of hysteresis would be good too)
Run MRTG on something and you can see which end dies away ( would be nice if RouterOS did graphs of signal strength on board too )
Maybe build yourself a small test kit , say a 112 & radio in a box ( maybe use a burglar-alarm backup battery for power to save hassle ) so when you get to the site you can eliminate radio/board/pigtail all in one go.
It would also be a source of known working spare parts in an emergency.
You can also drop it in to keep the network going while you're doing repairs to the main gear. It'd well worth the money imho.
A few things i've seen that seem to help reliability .....
use compression connectors instead of crimp on connectors
run the antenna cable into the box through a gland and join it to the pigtail inside , usually you need to use Nfemale connectors on the antenna cable or use or use LMR/RG cable to sma connectors on cable and sma pigtails.
glue the pigtails (carefully) to the card too in case the connector decides to come loose
Last edited by bushy on Wed Jan 24, 2007 2:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
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