Equipment required for Wireless Internet Access

You'll need some special equipment to connect to our wireless service -- even if you have a computer which already has wireless capabilities built into it.

Why?  Because standard computer wireless equipment is intended for use within 100' or so of an access point.  Most consumer-grade wireless equipment has fairly low-powered transmitters, on the order of 35 mW.  That's fine for a wireless network that covers a single building, but it doesn't work as well over longer distances -- even if you add sensitive external antennas.

Our access points have stronger transmitters, so your computer would be able to receive their signal from longer distances.  BUT (you knew there had to be a but, didn't you?) wireless networking has to work in BOTH directions.  With a low-powered transmitter in the computer, our access point wouldn't be able to receive transmissions from the computer at any significant distance, and the link would fail.

So, what kind of equipment do you need?

We actually have two wireless systems running in parallel:  one using equipment from a manufacturer called Tranzeo, and one that has existed for a number of years that uses equipment from Cisco Systems.  The Tranzeo equipment is less expensive in most cases (see our pricing page) and can accept connections from most standard wireless equipment if the signal is strong enough, so most of our new customers are on this network.

Here's what some of the Tranzeo equipment looks like, on our roof at 105 W. Clay:

Tranzeo CPE

Tranzeo Power Injector

It's about the size and shape of a pizza box -- 16"x14", a couple of inches thick, with a L-shaped bracket on the back for mounting on a 1" to 1.5" vertical pole.  Both the antenna and the actual radio unit are built into this box.  25' of outdoor-rated Category 5 network cable is attached to the unit (more is available if needed, at $1/ft, up to 300') and runs indoors to a small (about 3" square) white box called a Power Injector (see right).  An AC adapter on the power injector (not pictured) sends electricity out to the outside equipment, and another standard Cat5 network cable will connect from the injector to your computer or router.

(It's also highly recommended that you attach a grounding wire from the "ground" nut on the outside unit to your building's main grounding rod, and that the green ground wire on the power injector be connected to a good ground source.)

Because the Tranzeo equipment connects to a standard Ethernet network port, it will work with any internet-capable computer, regardless of brand or operating system.  You can also connect it to a router and share the internet connection among several computers at your location.

Our Cisco-based network is older, and uses older equipment that is no longer available from Cisco.  Therefore, we can no longer supply that equipment to new customers.  Also, the newer equipment available from Cisco does not connect to the older Cisco access points.  (It does, however, connect to the Tranzeo APs.)

If you're in a location that requires the Cisco equipment, you'll need a few more items than the Tranzeo system requires, mainly because the radio and the antenna are separate.  So, you'll need the Cisco equipment (either a PCI card for one computer, a PCcard for one laptop, or a Workgroup Bridge for multiple computers or non-Windows computers) plus an antenna plus cable to connect them.  The maximum length of antenna cable for these installations is 50'.  Pictured below are a Cisco PCI card, a 50' roll of cable (and yes, it's as big as it looks), and a couple of different antennas.  (Note that for our system, the grid antenna would have to be rotated 90° from how it's shown in the picture!) 

Cisco WGB

Cisco Aironet 350 PCI card, 50 feet of LMR400 Cable, antenna examples, and a Cisco 350-series Workgroup Bridge. Antenna, PCI card, Cable types may vary from those pictured.

Costs can vary, depending on where you live, since that determines what type of equipment will work. Pacific Internet no longer is able to stock these items, as they are no longer manufactured by Cisco.  However, a number of our customers have purchased used equipment off of eBay.

IMPORTANT: Wireless Internet depends on secure transmission of data, so Pacific Internet requires that EITHER you purchase the wireless equipment from us, OR bring your equipment (that's the computer, if you're using a PCI or PCcard installed directly in a PC or laptop) in to our office for programming. You will NOT be able to connect to our network before having us program our network's wireless encryption keys. We will NOT give this information to you.

IMPORTANT: Hardware Requirements:  our Cisco network requires Cisco Aironet 340 & 350 series products only. ONLY Cisco products can be used to connect to this network. There may be some exceptions, but we haven't found any so far.  Also, do not attempt to use a Aironet 350 series bridge (as opposed to a workgroup bridge) -- these are not interoperable with the 340-series bridges which form the backbone of our Cisco network.  Please contact us with any questions you might have.

* Lightning arrestors, and surge suppressors should also be used to protect your Cisco equipment & computer. Pacific Internet recommends that you use a lightning arrestor, and have an electrician ground your antenna pole for any roof mounted antenna. We also recommend that you turn off your PCI radio card, and disconnect your antenna cable from your computer if there is any chance of a lightning strike, since lightning arrestors and surge suppressors don't always keep high voltage from reaching sensitive radio and computer components.


Note that we do NOT do on-site installation of the hardware.  In the case of the Tranzeo equipment, we will provide the unit assembled and ready to mount on a pole, but you will have to provide the pole!  Similarly, a Cisco installation will require a pole for mounting the antenna.  In both cases, the cable from the outside mount will need to be run through the wall into the building -- again, we do not perform this service.  However, once the hardware is installed, we will come out and help you connect your computer(s) if you wish -- and make sure the antenna is pointed in the right direction!

There are a number of kits available at building supply stores intended for mounting TV antennas which will work well for wireless equipment; similar kits may also be available from Radio Shack or other TV retailers.

We do know of several companies in the area who are qualified and willing to do hardware installation of this type.  We'll be happy to suggest some of them if you ask.