Chap. 9: The Journey (So Far...)

It's August now and this project has been an interesting life experience for sure. It's hard to believe how much time has gone by since the start of this project and, while I'm going to continue this project, I want to show off what I have done so far. I will admit that I have not gotten as far as I would like to due to numerous reasons such as life, vacations, backorders, and technical issues. Even with those setbacks, I am proud of what I have accomplished so far and I plan on finishing what is left to do. 

Map of progress made so far:

To remind people of the purpose of this project and to catch people up if you don't wish to read multiple blog posts, I'll give a description and a progress summary that took place over the course of the summer. My parents are the owners and operators of a fair-sized sheep farm in rural South Dakota. For a while now they have been wanting to find ways to upgrade the farm Wi-Fi and extend the range so that it covers more of the farm. They also wish to install cameras to monitor sheep and record the loading and unloading of sheep.

One of the ideas I gave was to change Wi-Fi providers, in order to get better service and faster speeds. After a few weeks of searching and talking to different companies, we settled on CenturyLink by Qwest. This was due to a cheaper monthly fee, 60mbps speed claims, and a few neighbors have the service and have said nothing but positive things about them.  Since the process of switching internet providers was going to take some time, due to the fact that nobody would be able to come out to the house for a couple weeks, we decided to look for new equipment that would help spread Wi-Fi all over the farm.

These items we were looking for were a Security Gateway, Indoor Access Points, Outdoor Access Points, and Switches. We weren't going cheap out either, they told me to find what I thought would be the best ones to suit our needs. The process of find the right items took a little longer than I thought, but, with the help of A-I Computers, I found what I thought was the best for the farm. Most of the items I bought were from the Unifi and Netgear brands. The items were the UniFi Security Gateway, UniFi Long-Range Access Point, UniFi Mesh PRO Access Point, Netgear 8-Port Switch with 4 PoE, and Netgear 8-Port PoE Switch. I ordered all of the equipment through A-I Computers in Watertown and, unfortunately, the items took a long time to get to me due to most of the items being on backorder, due to the amount of equipment needed.

The only other item needed was a modem which we bought from CenturyLink and it was their C4000LG model. Once the connections were all made and the equipment all finally arrived, it was the end of July. Where did all the time go? This is where I started running into a few problems, the first one was not being able to connect to the modem and the CenturyLink network. After trying to modify my computer's network settings and resting the modem, twice, I admitted defeat and called tech support. After multiple attempts and a phone call which lasted 3 1/2 hours, mostly on hold, I was able to go in and get the modem connected and was able to get the Internet using our new provider.

After getting the new Internet up and running, I set up the Unifi Network Manager that would manage and run all of the Unifi products from the main house computer, which did not take long. After getting the manager done, I set-up the USG, the Switch, and the AP that would be used in the main house and running. Early on, I had trouble connecting the USG, but after changing my IPv4 settings and resetting the USG, it worked perfectly.

The Main House set-up (We are going to set up a shelf and the AP will be moved to a different location):

Once that was completed, I went and set up what needed to be installed in our guesthouse and got it connected (Sorry for the weird lighting and angle as this photo was taken from deep inside an office desk):

 

Now you are caught up on what has been completed up until the posting of this blog post. There are still a few more areas that need to have equipment installed, and I haven't gotten anywhere near where I wanted to be at this point in time, but I have never done something like this before and I'm still learning. It has been a fun and interesting project experience. When I finally got equipment running, connected, and working just the way I wanted it was one of the more satisfying feelings in recent history. Also, with Coronavirus still going, it's nice to have something to keep you busy, especially in a rural area. And while the summer may be coming to an end, the project will continue. I will keep updating this blog with any progress made. Thanks for following along!

Chap. 8: Getting There

I'm getting down there in terms of what needs to be done. With the equipment arriving, I decided to start working on mounting the device and find the best place they could go, inside and out. I started working on the shop and the new barn. Once the new internet is installed and the management software that will control all of APs, indoor and outdoor, is set up on the main computer, I will be nearing the end of this project.

Edit: Now in new No-Typos Edition!

Chap. 7: Even More Progress

    Well, the day has finally come. The equipment has all arrived at A-I in Watertown and awaiting pick up. My stepfather is out of town until Monday and so we will have to get the equipment on Tuesday. Since last week, I have got the last of the connections to and from the new modem, that was provided by CenturyLink, done and ready to be used. I also did some cable rearranging to make everything look neater and out of the way. We have called Qwest, the providers, and hopefully, they will come out finish up with our telephone lines and have us switched over by the middle of the week. After that's done, the big job of setting up equipment, testing and settling connections begins. 

Chap. 6: Some Progress

Hello, it has been some time since the last update to this blog. With family vacations and life getting in the way, I do apologize for the lack of updates. But now I'm back and have made a bit of progress since the last post. Some substantial while others are menial. Here is a quick rundown of what has been done and what to come next. 

•     All of the equipment listed in the previous post has been ordered and currently, about 1/3 of the items have arrived at A-I Computers of Watertown, SD. Some items are on backorder but hopefully, we will have everything by either the end of this week or early next week.
•    We have been getting areas where items and equipment will go prepared and ready for when the time comes for installation.
•     In the meantime, I have been running power cable for the new modem, which took a while.
• I have also bought and hooked up the new landline phones in our house and the other house.
• My stepfather and I have been looking into what type of security camera to order and have started narrowing down our list and hope to have them order and shipped by the end of the week.

I hope to start working on getting equipment and cameras set up in the very near future and that will be where the real fun begins.

Chap. 5: Equipment

After deciding we were switching to CenturyLink, they came out and set up a modem and reconnected out telephone lines. With CenturyLink ready to be connected, my stepfather and myself decided it was time to finalize our decisions on what equipment we wanted to use for routers, access points, and switches. I wanted to get some help and second opinions on what to use. So, I and my parents went to A-I Computers in Watertown, SD to see what ideas we all came up with. Most of the equipment recommended was from the company Ubiquiti.

Equipment List from A-I -
UniFi Long-Range Access Point:
  Range – 600 Ft.
  Networking Interface - (1) 10/100/1000 Ethernet Port
  Ports - No
  Buttons - Reset
  Antennas - Dual-Band Antenna
  Power Method - Passive Power over Ethernet (24V)
  Power Supply - 24V, 0.5A Gigabit PoE Adapter
  Operating Temperature -  -10 to 70° C (14 to 158° F)
  Operating Humidity -  5 to 95% Noncondensing
  1 Unit - $109
  5-Pack - $499

UniFi Security Gateway:
  Networking Interfaces & Ports - (1) RJ45 Serial Port, (3) 10/100/1000 Ethernet Ports
  Max. Power Consumption  - 7W
  Power Supply - 12VDC, 1A Power Adapter (Included)
  Supported Voltage Range - 9 to 24VDC
  Operating Temperature -  -10 to 45° C (14 to 113° F)
  Operating Humidity - 10 to 90% Noncondensing
  1 Unit - $139

UniFi Switch 8:
   Power Supply - External AC/DC Adapter: 48V, 0.5A, 25W AC/DC Power Adapter Included
  Max. Power Consumption - 12W (Excluding PoE Output)
  Data Rate - 8 Gbps, Non-Blocking
  Operating Temperature -  -5 to 45° C (23 to 113° F)
  Operating Humidity -  5 to 95% Noncondensing
  (8) Gigabit Ethernet Ports
  (1) PoE Passthrough Port
  1 Unit - $99
  5-Pack - $480

UniFi Switch 8 60W:
  (8) Gigabit Ethernet Ports
  (4) Auto-Sensing IEEE 802.3af PoE Ports
  Data Rate - 8 Gbps Total, Non-Blocking
  60W AC/DC Power Adapter Included
  Operating Temperature -  -5 to 45° C (23 to 113° F)
  Operating Humidity -  5 to 95% Noncondensing
  1 Unit - $109
  5-Pack - $540

UniFi Mesh PRO Access Point:
  Range – 600 Ft.
  Data Rate - 1750 Mbps
  Omni-directional Super Antennas
  Antennas - 3 Dualband antennas
  Ports - (2) 10/100/1000 Ethernet
  Buttons - (1) Reset
  Operating Temperature -  -40 to 70° C (-40 to 158° F)
  Operating Humidity -  5 to 95% Noncondensing
  1 Unit - $199
  5-Pack - $975

UFiber GPON Wi-Fi Router:

  Data Rate - 2.4 Gbps Downstream and 1.2 Gbps Upstream

  24V passive PoE or a 24V, 0.5A power adapter

  (1) GPON WAN Port

  (4) RJ45 Gigabit LAN Port

  Wi‐Fi

  1 Unit - $69

They created a map design on what equipment should be placed where and how the range should look.

*Red boxes mark buildings.
*Green hexagons mark spots where equipment may be installed (this includes routers, switches, wireless access points, and outdoor wireless gear as well).
*Blue lines are straight-line cable runs.
*White circles indicate indoor wireless signals, not-to-scale.
*Cyan gradient indicates outdoor wireless signals. The teal outline is the maximum range as described for the access point (600 feet).

We hope to have most, if not all, equipment ordered and shipped by the middle of the week this post is "posted".

Chap. 4: Discussions

Sorry for the incredibly short post, this week was mainly discussion-based.

Having met with my parents for a few sit-downs about whether or not they would like to switch or stay with the current provider, they have decided to change internet providers and switch to CenturyLink. With better speeds, connectivity, and the good things that they heard from neighbors, they felt it was the best choice. It took them a long time to decide, but configuring/changing an internet, probably, isn't easy. Hopefully, we can switch early in the week. We are still looking at different extenders, but once CenturyLink is installed on our property, we will move forward and decide what we want to do on that front.

Chap. 3: First Report Hand-In

After doing some more internet window shopping and using some of what I wrote last week, Here is the report I gave to show what I found and would recommend on what to using for extenders and changing internet providers.

Findings:

Firstly, I will go over the extender. After going over different lists by other sites giving their opinion on what they think is the best extender, I think I found one. It is called the WAVLINK AC1200 Outdoor Weatherproof Wi-Fi Range Extender for $139.99. It is on the pricier side of the lists that I looked at, but it got four stars on nearly every review I read and has the same rating on Amazon. It is IP65-rated weatherproof, which means it can survive in almost any sort of extreme weather.

It supports Passive PoE (Power over Ethernet) and speeds up to 2.4GHz at 300Mbps, 5GHz at 867Mbps. Many of the reviews claim that the extender can cover 300-350 yards. The same company also makes a $60 dollar model, called N300, but it is less powerful and not as weather resistant. Another one on the cheaper side is the TP-Link EAP225-Outdoor Omada AC1200 Wireless Access Point. It has mostly the same features, up to 1200Mbps in speed, and it is PoE Powered. It also has a supposed range of 656.168 feet.

Our internet service provider is a company called "Data Truck". On the plan we have with them, we currently get 10 Mbps (0.01 GigaBytes per second), but sometimes the service is not as reliable as I would like it. Often, we will get cutouts, slow speeds, or bad connections. These are not occurrences that you want happening during an important video call or an intense gaming session (that one is mostly for my brothers and me). In fact, an outage happened while writing this part of the report. There were a few options to check out, like HughesNet, a satellite service provider, or CenturyLink.

I checked HughesNet and with their best plan, we would get 44.4 Mbps (0.044 GBps) for $60/month. CenturyLink is a DSL internet service that has quite a few good reviews for its residential, rural, and business services. Our neighbors use CenturyLink and have said nothing but good things about it. The internet reviews give it between three to five stars. With Data Truck, we paid around $50/month for 10Mbps. With CenturyLink, they say we could get around a more solid connection with speeds of 60Mbps (0.06 GBps) for around the same price with an extra $10 for the modem lease. So, the total would be $59. Even though it is ten dollars cheaper, I think that CenturyLink is the best option for updating and changing providers. Faster and more reliable internet is the way to go and seem like a win-win to me.