Service and Market Leadership A local presence within the Park creates closer relationships with area businesses and municipal governments, and allows us to provide the personalized support you expect from a neighbor.
With more locations and superior service, Adirondack Internet /Public Access delivers the most consistent visitor Internet experience in the region. Don't settle for less—quality counts!
Site Survey Methods Measure Twice, Build Once A public access network infrastructure is designed from the outside in, beginning with the key requirement of reliable service to desired locations. Visitors don't want to search for a strong signal, any more than they want to look for a phone booth—the network should extend to the user.
Adequate coverage can not be achieved by estimating signal strength. Instead it must be based on actual measurements; and must also consider variables such as seasonal foliage, transient reflections and differences in client equipment.
A thorough site survey is labor intensive and time consuming, yet critical to a successful deployment. When selecting a vendor for your visitor access, be wary of those that cut corners in this process.
The Myth Of The High-Powered Radio In order to lower their price, many vendors will propose a fewer number of high-powered radios and/or high gain antennas. While this approach is suitable for one-way broadcasting, it ignores a fundamental aspect of wireless networking—communications is bidirectional, and performance is limited by the weakest signal.
The output power of a client device may range from 30 mW to 200 mW, and the antenna can be an embedded strip in a PC card or one extending around the screen. Due to the wide variations in client devices, their transmit power is the primary factor used to determine effective coverage.
A high-powered access point does nothing to increase the client device transmit power, and in fact can be deceptive to users. The client device may show a strong receive signal from an access point, even while the client is too far away to reliably transmit data. In this situation the client experiences poor performance due to upstream errors and retransmissions.
Similarly, using a high gain antenna to compensate for weak signals from a client device is counter-productive. The higher gain increases both the signal and noise, but does not improve the signal-to-noise ratio. It may also increase the effect of any existing interference, again reducing throughput due to errors and retransmissions.
Bidirectional Signal-To-Noise Ratios Site surveys for wireless networks must measure the receive signal and noise levels in both directions, not only between access points and client devices, but also between access points acting as simple repeaters, or Wi-Fi cells in a mesh topology.
Simply measuring receive signal strength at a client device is meaningless—both signal and noise levels must be obtained in both directions to determine optimum placement of the access points. This usually requires commercial-grade systems, which offer the additional benefit of providing real time data for ongoing performance monitoring and troubleshooting.
Site-Specific Considerations Every venue is unique in its requirements, construction and environment. Masonry firewalls used in multi-dwelling units and hotel buildings serve as effective barriers to Wi-Fi signals; as does foil faced insulation hidden beneath siding, interior mirrors, tin ceilings and any number of other structural components.
In outdoor systems the moisture in dense foliage, and its motion in winds, can severely disrupt Wi-Fi systems. Trucks and other vehicles create transient reflections and multipath distortion, which randomly changes the radio frequency environment. Specialized equipment is required to compensate for such changes as they occur, maintaining reliable communications for all users.
Additionally, the license free spectrum allocated for Wi-Fi is subject to interference from other similar systems, and from devices using the same frequencies such as microwave ovens and wireless alarm systems. In all cases the existing radio environment must be assessed before designing a solution.
With more locations and superior service, Adirondack Internet /Public Access delivers the most consistent visitor Internet experience in the region. Don't settle for less—quality counts!
Site Survey Methods Measure Twice, Build Once A public access network infrastructure is designed from the outside in, beginning with the key requirement of reliable service to desired locations. Visitors don't want to search for a strong signal, any more than they want to look for a phone booth—the network should extend to the user.
Adequate coverage can not be achieved by estimating signal strength. Instead it must be based on actual measurements; and must also consider variables such as seasonal foliage, transient reflections and differences in client equipment.
A thorough site survey is labor intensive and time consuming, yet critical to a successful deployment. When selecting a vendor for your visitor access, be wary of those that cut corners in this process.
The Myth Of The High-Powered Radio In order to lower their price, many vendors will propose a fewer number of high-powered radios and/or high gain antennas. While this approach is suitable for one-way broadcasting, it ignores a fundamental aspect of wireless networking—communications is bidirectional, and performance is limited by the weakest signal.
The output power of a client device may range from 30 mW to 200 mW, and the antenna can be an embedded strip in a PC card or one extending around the screen. Due to the wide variations in client devices, their transmit power is the primary factor used to determine effective coverage.
A high-powered access point does nothing to increase the client device transmit power, and in fact can be deceptive to users. The client device may show a strong receive signal from an access point, even while the client is too far away to reliably transmit data. In this situation the client experiences poor performance due to upstream errors and retransmissions.
Similarly, using a high gain antenna to compensate for weak signals from a client device is counter-productive. The higher gain increases both the signal and noise, but does not improve the signal-to-noise ratio. It may also increase the effect of any existing interference, again reducing throughput due to errors and retransmissions.
Bidirectional Signal-To-Noise Ratios Site surveys for wireless networks must measure the receive signal and noise levels in both directions, not only between access points and client devices, but also between access points acting as simple repeaters, or Wi-Fi cells in a mesh topology.
Simply measuring receive signal strength at a client device is meaningless—both signal and noise levels must be obtained in both directions to determine optimum placement of the access points. This usually requires commercial-grade systems, which offer the additional benefit of providing real time data for ongoing performance monitoring and troubleshooting.
Site-Specific Considerations Every venue is unique in its requirements, construction and environment. Masonry firewalls used in multi-dwelling units and hotel buildings serve as effective barriers to Wi-Fi signals; as does foil faced insulation hidden beneath siding, interior mirrors, tin ceilings and any number of other structural components.
In outdoor systems the moisture in dense foliage, and its motion in winds, can severely disrupt Wi-Fi systems. Trucks and other vehicles create transient reflections and multipath distortion, which randomly changes the radio frequency environment. Specialized equipment is required to compensate for such changes as they occur, maintaining reliable communications for all users.
Additionally, the license free spectrum allocated for Wi-Fi is subject to interference from other similar systems, and from devices using the same frequencies such as microwave ovens and wireless alarm systems. In all cases the existing radio environment must be assessed before designing a solution.