VIDEO – Using a DIY Microwave Link to Solve Slow Broadband

The General Manager of UK ISP Andrews & Arnold (AAISP), Alex Bloor, appears to have launched his own personal YouTube channel and one of the first videos to go up is an interesting one that shows how he solved his own broadband problems by installing a Microwave (wireless) link to the local data centre.

Recently Alex found himself in a difficult situation after discovering that his new apartment wasn’t going to deliver the sort of FTTC/P speeds that he had originally been promised. Instead, he was left with a 10-15Mbps ADSL connection as the only option, which was not ideal, particularly given his day job.

As luck would have it Alex’s new apartment also happened to overlook the top of a CentriLogic data centre, which was some 425 metres away. The new video thus provides a basic summary of what he did to setup his own Microwave link, using Linitx’s NanoBeam (16db) 5GHz airMAX kit, to the data centre – this is a Line-of-Sight (LOS) radio technology that is usually used to send a lot of data point-to-point.

“This video walks though the process of putting the link in place, choosing hardware, how well it works, some problems and future upgrade plans. The video isn’t intended to quite tell you all you need to know (that would be impossible), but should give a good starting point, and quite a few tips along the way,” said Alex.

The embed below skips the first 24 seconds of the video due to the inclusion, albeit comical, of a screen-grab from the PornHub website.