http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r19024117 en Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:10:19 EDT Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:10:19 EDT http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19052837 Rick : Congrats on your ingenuity. Having once owned a little vacation cabin in the cali mountains (albeit in northern california instead)..I certainly can understand your wanting to live there. And, it's good to see you've come up with a good solution to be able to do that and work from home as well.

Enjoy!
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The Coyote captured the RR! Roadrunner Rick is now Comcastic!]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19052837 Tue, 11 Sep 2007 11:58:40 EDT http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19052775 jamullian : I guess you could .. pfSense will support multiple interfaces.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19052775 Tue, 11 Sep 2007 11:49:52 EDT http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19052710 exocet_cm : What about pairing multiple EDGE and Satellite connections for more throughput? Is this possible with your setup?]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19052710 Tue, 11 Sep 2007 11:36:07 EDT http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19051867 vobguy : Interesting setup. Can you connect seamlessly to a corporate VPN? I guess it would probably handle that ok...]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19051867 Tue, 11 Sep 2007 08:54:09 EDT http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19024117 jamullian : It took a bit of messing, but I've now got what for me is the best of the both worlds available to me here.

I manage a bunch of servers in data centers and networks from an office in the boonies. I need fast response using Terminal services, reliable email, low latency telnet and web browsing.

If you're reading this post you're in the forum that knows all about the limitations of HN satellite connections. But since the only other option for me is an AT&T EDGE cellular network connection (the nearest tower being about 15 miles away behind some hills) I was aiming at getting the best of both worlds. EDGE gives me about 150 kbps down and 80-100 kbps up, with a latency of about 230 - 270 ms. Less bandwidth, but also much lower latency.

I started by playing with a separate machine, using my HTC Advantage PDA and Internet Connection Sharing to power it over EDGE. It showed me that with an indoor type signal performance varied; but https connections, terminal services access etc were much faster than over the satellite. Jumping from one to the other got old, however.

So first I set up a Top Global MB6800 router with an Option GT Max 7.2 ready card. This was kind of OK, but with a medium to poor signal, unreliable. So I direct connected a Wilson dual band amplifier and a 13 dbi Yagi 850 MHz antenna on the roof. Perfect! Solid as a rock, and with careful pointing, an excellent steady signal strength.

But how to make it seamless between the two networks for all machines on the LAN? For this I use pfSense, with one WAN port for the HN satellite, a second WAN port for the EDGE. Ports 23, 25, 53 (supporting a caching DNS server on the network), 110, 443, 3389, 8080 and a couple of others specific to my work are routed over the low latency EDGE; everything else, particularly web sites and downloads are on HN satellite. For a couple of web sites that work better that way, I even have network specific rules to route them over EDGE.

It's the best of both worlds and has radically improved the quality of my Internet access and life in the boonies.

A couple of photos attached ....
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Hybrid: HN7000S .98/2 watt Business Internet on IA6 PLUS TopGlobal MB6800 with Option GT Max 7.2 ready on AT&T EDGE network

The antennas

The indoor configuration

]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19024117 Thu, 06 Sep 2007 18:03:22 EDT