Need some help but here's the back story. I'm a geek at heart and have a beginner to intermediate level with fixing/working with computers. I live in an area where a company has Fiber and Wireless, the thing is they only have the fiber working 100% and the wireless is not setup due to lack of resources and are focused because they are so busy. Here's the thing, I was able to do is get a SM from their office to be a "tester" because the AP are setup.
So my question is (for a PMP 450):
What's the best way to tune in a SM?
Equipment?
Software?
Mounting? (House, Trees-Possible?,Etc)
Anything will help. If someone has a fast-track or crash course on this, it would be greatly appreciated. If I get this unit working then I could possibly get the rest of the neighbours to get it as well.
I wouldn't recommend it. OFDM equipment is very picky about interference and alignment, and the alignment tones just don't give you enough information to align off them. Given that I'm in a heavily treed, hilly, and very noisy environment, I've had to really refine how we align SMs.
I do the following: 1) Bring up a sat map on my phone, figure out which direction the tower is relative to the house I'm on, and start aiming in that direction. This is huge; you can waste an hour on a property trying to find a tower if you get your directions messed up.
2) Use the aiming tool, on normal mode if that works (requires later 14.2 or later firmware and broadcasting beacon info on the AP) or by selecting the frequency if it doesn't
3) Turn off aiming mode and get a session. Once you have a session, use the alignment tool as it is more accurate and updates faster than aiming mode.
4) Do a link capacity test, with S/N calculations enabled. Look at the modulations the SM is using; that gives you a consistent indication of signal quality; the speeds are dependent on channel width, products, etc, so you're better off having a consistent metric for every alignment.
5) Go to the link status tab, and fine tune the alignment off whichever of the uplink or downlink was using weaker modulations. I usually find the uplink sees more interference and uses lower modulations, but that's not always the case. 6) If all else fails, align using the link capacity. Turn it a tiny bit, do a five second test. Rinse and repeat to maximize capacity, as at the end of the day that's what really matters.
Lee_kelrad - We'd love to be able to help... what part of the process are you having trouble with? Ted outlined some good practices and we have some training courses available online that might also help.
What products are you attempting to install that are giving you trouble?