omahajim
join:2002-09-06
Omaha, NE
| Chaska and Tropos
Hi
Is there anyone from Chaska, MN on this forum, or anyone knowledgable about the state of the Chaska network? Chaska uses the Tropos mesh products, and I'm looking for someone that knows details about how the Chaska network is (or is not) working.
I am interested in using the Tropos 5110 cells in my system, but I have read about throughput and channel allocation troubles in the Chaska.net system, and hoping someone has some first-hand experience with it.
You can read about their Network Optimization project at »portal.chaska.net/portal/ and »www.chaska.net/optimization/Opti···Plan.htm . In the second link, they have images of their system layout and channel mapping plan. It appears that they have carefully planned out the system, but I've seen on a few blogs where the throughput has been poor in some areas. Is it because the Tropos system is really not as capable of this scale as they say it is, or is Chaska's system just not designed well enough?
Thanks. |
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polk5
join:2001-12-29
New Orleans, LA
| Well, Im not from Chaska but I know they had serious throughput problems in New Orleans with Tropos. We did not even bid on the project cause we knew what everyone was promising with mesh just was not possible. There comes a time when you just have to back away from the table. |
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superdog
I Need A Drink
Premium,MVM
join:2001-07-13
Lebanon, PA
| said by polk5  :Well, Im not from Chaska but I know they had serious throughput problems in New Orleans with Tropos. We did not even bid on the project cause we knew what everyone was promising with mesh just was not possible. There comes a time when you just have to back away from the table. That was spoken by a man of experience, and I agree!;)
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»www.wavecrazy.net |
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BPed
| reply to omahajim
I don't live in Chaska, but close. I know someone on the system. He seems to be happy with it. His biggest problems were having to do with security (everybody seeing everybody) and speed. Chaska seems to be putting a lot of money into this to get it to work. The price was right for him... I believe they are charging Chaska residents only $15.
I'll see if he'll give some comments. |
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polk5
join:2001-12-29
New Orleans, LA
| Here is a quote from here. »searchnetworking.techtarget.com/···,00.html
"But because moving data from access point to access point utilizes a good deal of bandwidth on the wireless network, the city found that it needed to hard-wire a connection after every two access points. Otherwise, Drake said, the available bandwidth would sink below 1 Mbps." |
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Birdofprey97
join:2005-03-30
Chaska, MN
| reply to omahajim
I currently use Chaska.net and there was a large upgrade done to the system this past week. The finalized it on the 28th of March. For $16 a month you can't beat it. Speeds are generally just below 1mb/sec, but for file sharing it's not that bad at all.
It's a wireless network, so not expecting huge transfer rates. The problem with being able to see everyone has been taken care of over 2 months ago and it's as simply as installing a router before that correction was made.
All in all it's a great system with glitches, but tell me of a company that doesn't have them? The tech support is a bit weak, but there's just 3 people to run the entire network, so they are doing alright.
It's not perfect and it's not the quickest, but it is reliable and getting better all the time. Besides they are putting a new antenna up just 500 feet from my house. |
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viperm
Carpe Diem
Premium
join:2002-07-09
Winchester, CA
1 edit | reply to omahajim
Here in Cerritos they avg about 64kbps to 128 kbps download speed due to the mesh Tropos systems but for free I guess you cant beat it. They really cant claim its high speed  but whats the point of using it trying to do big files transfers it lags.
I think this is just the major downfall of MESH networking. I can put together something LESS expensive BETTER coverage AND get this FASTER speeds. But everyone is so hell bent on mesh techology self healing etc. In theory its a good idea and it seems to work but at the sacrafice of getting good bandwidth.
I dont see how these cities buy into the product its woefully out of step with the times as far as thruput goes in my opinion.
I wonder if they will buy my beach front property in AZ too? |
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Birdofprey97
join:2005-03-30
Chaska, MN
| Chaska did recieve funding from the US Gov.
Generally when testing get about 1.2MB to .455MB download. Upload is between .300MB to .650MB most I have seen on both is Download of 2MB and Upload of 1.5MB.
For gaming that is plenty fast, but file transfers of larger files it get's kinda of slow. Downloading a 540mb file. Let you know how it goes. |
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Birdofprey97
join:2005-03-30
Chaska, MN | One of the major reasons for some of the problems is that the location of the provider is about 300 to 400 ft below a lot of the town. The put the provider in valley and most of the town is on the hill or the other side of the hill. |
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polk5
join:2001-12-29
New Orleans, LA
| reply to Birdofprey97
The only problem I see for home use is the throughput is just not there. If it was 5.8 then you would stand a better chance using mesh for home use. Wait till a few knuckleheads start doing some heavy downloading on one of the legs of the mesh and then what happens? Im not saying mesh does not have a place out there but this is not one of them IMO. I have a couple nodes up and when a big convention comes into town it gets a little abuse. Times that by 15 or 20 and see what happens. |
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