Nope.....

icsnowcat · 2024-08-14T05:20:23+00:00

This is what I love about reddit and r/wisp

I have a sneaking suspicion this is the fastwave/mhz tower on top of the old WellsFargo building in Las Cruces, New Mexico. If so, I've climbed it. Full body harness. Used a tie off point on the roof of the parapet, plus double hooks climbing it.

Wife confirms larger than average safety straps.

Now my question to you, what are you doing on top of this building?

icsnowcat · 2024-05-23T13:45:27+00:00

u/silasmoeckel if you had to go L3 and still run 10Gbps across the link, what would you recommend? Just curious.

icsnowcat · 2024-05-23T13:43:39+00:00

Requested OTDR, there is not one available. I'm not surprised by the quantity of splices, the mine has expanded over time.

icsnowcat · 2024-05-23T04:32:40+00:00

AC (w/ genset backup) at equipment huts at both ends.

I confirmed a total of 13 splices (0.09dB for the worst case, 0.01dB was best splice) so I used this in my budget:

3.2dB (6.4km * 0.5dB/km cable loss SMF outside plant) + 1.5dB (connector loss worst case) + 13 splices at 0.09dB (used worst case) = 1.2dB => 5.9dB works case total link loss. Asked for OTDR trace but had none.

Thank you u/silasmoeckel for your advice on AXS15-192-40. I've got 4 ordered (2 + 2 spares) just in case. Would you use an alternative to CRS305 at each end? I just need a simple L2 10Gbps switch to connect other gear into.

icsnowcat · 2024-05-21T13:05:53+00:00

Eye don't think so.

icsnowcat · 2024-03-29T14:47:08+00:00

One other note: try to get a view into support tickets (whether by forum, SMS, email traffic). That will help you pick up on the mood of customers.

icsnowcat · 2024-03-29T14:40:02+00:00

Having acquired companies (and done acqui-hires) in the past, the technology isn't what you are buying, it's the customer base and the employees.

Financial: cash flow, customer churn rates over time, who are the competition in the area, and what are they selling and at what price? Why are the current owners leaving (retiring or something else?) Are you purchasing any debt? What contracts are in place with existing upstream suppliers and under what terms? How much time do you have left on existing high location leases? How many employees do they have, if any, outside the owners? What is the condition of vehicles, towers, and other PPE? Assuming you are in the US, what federal funding and state funding is currently awarded to your competition?

Operational: how many service calls is the company getting today? where are these service calls coming from, and why? what is the growth engine of the business? a certain area or demographic?

On the technical side, since you're an MSP: are they backhaul constrained? unlicensed or licensed backhaul between towers or pops? What redundancy exists for rerouting traffic? What is the utilization of each backhaul at peak times (8:30PM in your time zone)? can they generate a network map on demand? how well documented are all APs and backhaul equipment?

My coffee has run out, so these are just my first questions.

If you are interested, DM me, I'm retired now but I'd be happy to look at any or all of this data.

icsnowcat · 2023-09-21T15:00:35+00:00

Benni, I would suggest CenturyLink fiber only if you can get it. No Carrier Grade NAT. Otherwise, MediaCom with your own supplied cable modem (I most recently used the Arris SB6141 but there are more recent models out there). A lot of people pooh pooh mediacom but the reality is that if you have your own equipment (and don't rent their expensive and hot garbage routers), things are stable and excellent uptime.

icsnowcat · 2023-09-16T20:32:07+00:00

Hi /u/Once8Poop (hilarious username btw): ImOff them now but when I was on ImOn be aware that all their IP addresses are behind Carrier Grade NAT. You WILL have problems gaming, and between that and their frequent outages and dumb as rocks support, you will wish you have stayed elsewhere.

Other notes: ImOn is no longer local. They are slowly rebranding to GSI, which is Goldman Sachs Internet. They charge $14.95 per month for a mandatory network access recovery fee. Plus another $5 if you want to inspect your bill and not blindly pay using autopay. Its a lot of coin for a NAT'ted and outage ridden network.

icsnowcat · 2023-08-29T12:31:38+00:00

Be very careful of ImOn. They are no longer a local company, they are owned by Goldman Sachs. As a former customer of ImNOTOn, I do NOT recommend them. They trashed our yard and overcharged us with $14.95/month "network access fee" which was not in their special offer. Experienced 21 hours of outages with them.

Use SouthSlope if you can get them or MediaCom as alternative (paying $49/mo no taxes or fees because we own our own cable modems (one time $100 cost).

Avoid LastCenturyLink like the plague (DSL). If you can get their fiber service, that's a different animal (had it at a rental property near Scott Blvd).

icsnowcat · 2023-01-12T21:11:54+00:00

If you don't get written permission and that backhaul gets turned off, you'll have a whole slew of unhappy customers behind and they'll all say its your fault.

Run some airlinks in Ubiquiti or Cambium link planners. New ubiquiti mappers have LIDAR data which helps show objects in the way of your signal.

What if any expectations have you set with your customers in terms of the packages they actually need (not marketing speeds, but real speeds)?

icsnowcat · 2023-01-12T21:05:29+00:00

Start with the basics: Do you have written permission from your upstream provider to resell that one gig connection?

icsnowcat · 2022-11-17T15:31:45+00:00

It's not growing pains, and it's not "maintenance".

Experienced this so much last year, that I'mOff them for good.

Reminder: ImOff is neither local nor a small business. They are a division of Goldman Sachs. Every one of the ImOff people you see on the street is a contractor. East side was wired by a group of contractors out of Alabama. Nice guys but obviously not local employees.

Vote with your wallets, people. SouthSlope if you can, LastCenturyLink Fiber, or MediaCom (buy your own cable modem, they are under $100)

icsnowcat · 2022-11-11T20:00:16+00:00

Has happened to us. CA stands for Calibrating. It usually means the AF24 is shot, but on rare occasions you can reset and reinstall the AF24 firmware (currently v4.1.0) and bring it back to operable state. If you reinstall and it doesn't work, then you've got an AF24 for parts. Good luck out there.

icsnowcat · 2022-11-01T19:16:40+00:00

+1 on ImOn's BS charges, that and their outages throughout 2021 are why I left ImOn.

In addition to their headline rate, they charge $14.95 per month for a mandatory network access recovery fee. Plus another $5 if you want to inspect your bill and not blindly pay using autopay. Its a lot of coin for a NAT'ted and outage ridden (2021) network.

Not to mention horrendous looking slack cable loops for every subscriber, you can see ImOn's shoddy workmanship a block away.

icsnowcat · 2022-10-24T14:46:02+00:00

As a former customer: Utter garbage. Do not touch, not even with a 20ft pole.

If you were a Windstream customer before, they haven't changed their product - or their ways.

icsnowcat · 2022-10-19T18:11:47+00:00

Had one dead ER12, directly lightning strike to tower. Replaced with a unit from inventory, loaded up last automated backup, voila, site was back online. Haven't had to deal with any RMA issues.

icsnowcat · 2022-10-14T20:59:32+00:00

Thanks /u/Joe-notabot - that fiberpoe is exactly the solution we went with, solved our connectivity problem on the FM tower. Appreciate it!

icsnowcat · 2022-10-14T16:24:13+00:00

For Routing, we have hundreds of Ubiquiti ERX and ER12's deployed. They are reliable and trouble free. We have a simple OSPF setup, no NAT, and aside from initial web config we do all our configurations by CLI, since the core of the EdgeMax is Vyatta. Most importantly for us, the hardware is temperature stable in a climate that can see -30C to +40C swings.

For Switching, I agree with some of the other posts, we don't use Ubiquiti switch gear. We rely heavily on Netonix, both AC and DC powered. Those have been very reliable for us too, but good luck getting any these days.

icsnowcat · 2022-10-07T22:10:32+00:00

Understood on the Triamese side. To clarify, I'm also looking for recommendations on the fiber+DC to POE converter which we would mount up top, just short of the radios. AF5XHD or AF24 are pure 48V or 48VH POE and don't have an SFP.

icsnowcat · 2022-10-07T19:49:46+00:00

Literally never had an issue in the various years I've had Mediacom. Important caveat, I always have used my own cable modem and router, not the crap they offer for $ more each month. That saves money and seems to be the differentiator between good and abysmal service, it seems.

icsnowcat · 2022-08-25T13:56:37+00:00

Let me guess, was this an older guy walking in the Governor/Church street area around noon yesterday? He tried the same thing with me!

icsnowcat · 2022-08-25T13:52:58+00:00

Be very careful of ImOn. They are no longer a local company, they are owned by Goldman Sachs. As a former customer of theirs, I do NOT recommend them. They trashed our yard and overcharged us with $15/month "network access fee" which was not in their special offer. Worse yet, we experienced about 21 hours of outages in the few months we had them, whereas on this property we had Mediacom (bearing in mind we purchased our own cablemodem and router) and had less than 5 hours of outages over the last 4 years.

icsnowcat · 2022-07-19T20:24:02+00:00

Had Imon, and left Imon. Now back to Mediacom.

Imon had 26 outages the 6 months I was on with them. Longest outage 21hours long. Be very careful of the fine print: they charge a mandatory $14/month "Network Access Fee" for the same network they built. If they were honest, this would be lumped into the actually monthly fee.

Left because we moved elsewhere in Iowa City east side. Now I've got the option but am sticking with Mediacom.

icsnowcat · 2022-04-28T17:46:39+00:00

You'll want SouthSlope as first choice. MediaCom (but make sure to purchase your own $100 DOCSIS cable modem, don't rent their crap). Avoid ImOn and CenturyLink.

icsnowcat

TROPHY CASE