Trying Long Distance Wi-Fi in London using UBIQUITI LiteBeams

Hi, in this video we try to set up a Wi-Fi connection between 2 houses in a built up area 500m apart. One house has a great internet connection, the other doesn't. So we are going to see if it can be shared even though they are many roads apart. The website shows that it will work, so let see if it does in the real world.
Remember...do not copy what you see in these videos. Things may not be done in the safest way so take it purely as entertainment. Obviously working on roofs can be extremely dangerous.
I hope you enjoy it.
Vince :-)

[@TheRetroFuture]

I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed the chance of scenes/locations.

[@clayberri]

Omg it's the retro future, I love your videos!!!! :)

[@josh8528]

Can you fix my Nintendo switch

[@MichaelBritt23]

In the next "How To Fix" video.... removing trees from "line of sight"

[@BloodAsp]

I would personally be more interested in the removing of a three story 'flat' from the line of sight.

[@dukenukembubblegum7311]

@@BloodAspI’m sure you’re so concerned about your carbon footprint as well aren’t you lol, doof

[@DarrenJCalvert]

When Richard set them up in the garden seeing the 2 antenna at either end reminded me of the opening scene of “The Running Man” 🤣🤣

[@jhbarringer]

Buy another dish set and use friend’s house as relay/hop point if line of sight is available to Richard’s from friend’s house.

[@BBC600]

Just for giggles it would be fun to see a "chain" set up. Could one originate the signal from Richard's house and beam it to the friends place and then rebeam the received signal to the brothers house.

[@DaMu24]

Depends how well you're known in the neighborhood and these friendly neighbors willing to be a hop spot just happen to be in between the source and destination houses.

[@Jdbye]

I thought of that too, but I think it's unlikely they have a friend/family member who lives in one of the tallest houses nearby so that it has line of sight to both houses.

[@BBC600]

@@Jdbye I suppose that's true. We don't know what level the friend lives on meaning that perhaps it isn't as viable as I initally thought. Just thought it would be an interesting proof of concept.

[@ballsrgrossnugly]

Just commented this very thing but with a little more info for him. Used to install these for a living, I know one pair of dishes can go 15km line of sight no problem, and we also did relay networks of them, works fine if it's all set up right.

[@Jeff121456]

Lovely to see your upload speed is equivalent to my download speed .

[@lesrogers7310]

His upload speed is better than my download speed!

[@conorwalsh9360]

re-bounce the signal from the friends house to Richards house if there is line of site

[@IO-zz2xy]

I live in a farming area were there is no fiber. Everyone outside the city area here uses wireless wifi. I actually have the same unit set up from my ISP. Very adequate and perfectly acceptable reception if setup correctly. Have been using wireless internet for 8 years. Fantastic. Regards from South Africa

[@carlyleroberts3995]

I think the video is a huge success! As a tech-solution professional your video is a great learning tool! Thank you, great job!

[@mikehensley78]

i havent watched all the way till the end yet but if your brother has cellular already and this connection sharing works, you can run 2 connections into a device and make them split or share the bandwidth via a PFsense machine with a few NICs in it. its called Network load balancing, dual-WAN routing or multihoming. i love stuff like this.

[@BowsettesFury]

Saw this tested over a year ago, line of sight is near 100% imperative.

[@Oldgamingfart]

Very brave getting up on the roof. I'm a total wimp when it comes to heights! 😰

[@paulhicks9399]

5.8Ghz doesn’t work well with obstacles unfortunately

[@kruleworld]

yes. they use the frequency of 2.4 ghz or 5.8 ghz. Both those frequencies are license-free channels because they are basically junk frequencies (from a telecommunications perspective) and are the most susceptible to interference. 5.8 is a harmonic of 2.4

[@Jdbye]

@@kruleworld Doesn't it need to be a multiple of 2.4 to have issues with harmonics? If it is 5.8 ghz then it should probably pass through trees, as long as it goes through the foliage and not the trunk. So there's at least that.

[@SirZanZa]

@@Jdbye 5.8 ghz is blocked by human skin/muscle tree's and plants will easily block the signal

[@andrewgilbride7546]

@@Jdbye the higher the frequency the easier it is blocked

[@Jonnyweareten]

with a higher gain antenna and a taller pole you might get it working.

[@ballsrgrossnugly]

I'd say just a taller pole would do the job. Gotta get over that concrete signal blocker in front of him! Trouble is a 2 storey high pole (to get over the 3 storey roof from the single storey) is hard to put up and harder to strap down so that it doesn't end up in the front yard, or the car in the driveway... Nope, relay off the friend's house is the way to go.

[@SirZanZa]

@@ballsrgrossnugly wouldn't get planning permission for a pole of that length in a million years in the UK

[@ballsrgrossnugly]

@@SirZanZa Oh yeah, I'm thinking Aussie where we just throw up a tower in the back yard if we can't get a signal hahaha.

[@ballsrgrossnugly]

Half way though the video. When these came out, we started using them at work, we managed to get a signal to my old boss's house 15+km away line of sight, but we had height to get over everything, and with a telescope we actually had line of site. All you guys need to do is get the units hign enough to actually see each other, if you can manage that, they will work just fine at the few km max you're trying. Let's see if you managed to get it working now... lol. EDIT: Get yourself another couple of dishes, put one on your friend's friend's roof and bounce it back to your brother. Should only add a few ms of ping to the speed, and he'll get at LEAST 50mbps down, which is all I have and works just fine. You might also need a ubiquiti tough switch, but they will also provide POE to both dishes at Richard's friend's house, and they can split the bill 3 ways based on the speeds they get. I used to install NBN (government) wireless and we had to bounce it across a road more than once because a hill was in the way of one house but not his neighbour, it works fine if you use good equipment, and ubiquiti is one of the better prosumer brands for doing that kind of thing.

[@cliffordgallagher4531]

Love All your videos No Matter What My friend!!

[@Jdbye]

You could get it to work with a taller pole/tower. Realistically, it only needs to go high enough to clear the taller houses that are in the way. Getting it adjusted when it's so high up is the hard part. Also, it needs to be sturdy enough so that the wind doesn't cause issues.

[@stepheng8779]

Enjoyed that, cheers 👍🍻

[@GadgetUK164]

Great video - nice to see something totally different =D

[@brianharper9798]

I remember maybe 15+ years ago using a couple of old sky dishes with tin can feeds and some us robotics access points managed a very stable 5 miles.

[@TheSkaldenmettrunk]

Very interesting. I didn't know that something like that exists. Good to know.

[@3fus]

A while ago I spoke with someone working for a phone company. His work is to climb the telecom masts and install the antenna's. I asked him how they alligned the dishes from tower to tower which would be a few miles apart from each other. The answer was simple, use a high power lamp with a wide beam and use a phone or other comm device to let each other know when it's on or needs alignment. With this rough indication the next step would be to use the signal indicator on the antenna or dish system itself. I thought for myself they would use some kind of sight like a tube or opening on the dish, working the same way like a gun sight, but it seems this wasn't the case in real work environment.

[@waynenocton]

I “had” that same Ethernet tester, it was total crap, it’s in the trash now, be weary of it in case mine wasn’t just a bad one. Great video thanks for posting.

[@shaun159]

Good video, good to see the idea in real life scenario.

[@UkSkin]

Get a second set and use the link that's working as a relay station?

[@trooperthatsall5250]

The signal will drop in bad weather, high perspiration, fog, snow. Also you need to install anti-perch on them as the birds love them, warm and sheltered, your only solution under a kilometre is laser link. ~trooper

[@ballsrgrossnugly]

My ex boss (RIP) used a link very similar to this, but with the circular solid discs, to get internet to his home in the hills 15 km line of sight from the top of the 2 storey workshop. He had less problems with that setup than he had with the NBN government fixed wireless he got a few years later as an "upgrade", and that came from a tower less than a km from his house I believe. The fact that he had a pretty stable connection for over a year in most weather (heavy rain was always a problem, granted) was the reason we used pretty much only ubiquiti for the last few years before he passed in all our wifi installs. We couldn't believe we got that distance! And then I watched a Linus tech tips vid where they had line of site for a shorter distance and failed... but then that fool doesn't know what NO/NC on a relay means... I stopped watching him a long time ago. I feel like it's down to the install and to an extent environmental factors, but if you can get line of site and line these things up well, they seem to work just fine in my experience. Just saying, it can work better than the alternatives, I have seen it. Hell, I helped install the dish on the boss's house!

[@trooperthatsall5250]

@@ballsrgrossnugly interesting 15Km thats a far wack to broadcast, I'd say it was more like a microwave link, its realistic can reach that distance it would have been quite a good setup. As its more of a conical beam and would have been a wide coverage. I installed the laser Link at the V&A, before that it was a radio link that was unreliable due to, believe it or not a pirate radio station local that would bleed the signal. We installed a laser link, before the cable link went in (expensive at that time). Long since gone. My Mate Vince will have to properly survey the area, and he made the mistake of mounting it on a TV arial - it will have a impact on the signal. He could use high gain wifi arial, like the ones used for cracking wifi, these can pick up wifi well over a kilometre away. ~trooper

[@QsTechService1]

Crazy how high you guys were up there like 3 stories up 👍

[@JuicyJakeRepairs]

youre right, that was very interesting despite the result

[@elektroboots1670]

great video and views! i considerd similar a few years back as my appartment block had crappy wiring and i was getting 2.5m max , yet i work at the uni down the road that had nearly 1000 mb and it was line of site fortunatley they finally fitted fibre to my flat so get great speeds now( forgot to mention i live in hull so we have one supplier and thats it!-ther are some line of site options but they arnt great)

[@bunnylove273]

Hi bud you say this was not intresting well l found it very interesting l have never seen this setup before so thank you for the vid

[@TomMannCenturia]

Interesting stuff, thanks.

[@thomasesr]

You can try using a big metal pole (4m) attached to each chimney to gain altitude because you really need line of sight to make it work.

[@alvinator1337]

I use these for a living, if you need help let me know :) there are A LOT of nuances.

[@BloodAsp]

Would you know of their legality in the states? I have considered them between my house to/for my folks, but it felt like the cable company or the FCC would be unhappy with it.

[@richardemmett6412]

@@BloodAspyes you can use these in the USA. 5ghz is legal to use. Ubiquiti also offer other products that work on licensed spectrums. Those you cannot use without the required license.

[@alvinator1337]

@@BloodAsp @Richard Emmett is right. Every time one of these devices boots it does a specific scan to make sure it won't be interfering.

[@kruleworld]

@@BloodAsp 5.8 ghz is a junk frequency, so they made it license-free for general low power use.

[@bonfaceochenge541]

need your help

[@deuspax]

Great video!

[@Drew-Dastardly]

I remember trying to do this back in the '90s with Pringles cans... LOL. It was the modern version of 2 tin cans and a string of wire I guess.

[@Malandrin]

linus tech tips showed something like this years ago, nice to see you do too :)

[@ballsrgrossnugly]

He made that big deal about it being the longest these dishes had been attempted... and failed... and me and my workmates got one running that was longer throw than his reliably about a 2 years before that video... ubiquiti and all. I don't watch Linus any more... he's just... too... dumb... (unrelated)

[@user-bb7iq1xo1o]

i like these kind of videos. keep it up. do more like testing products videos!!!

[@coolvideos8864]

Love the PTZ camera at stop of the roof lol

[@jns8393]

I enjoyed that and was willing it to work :)

[@Arachnoid_of_the_underverse]

Yes clear line of sight is really essential.

[@TrueReviewCA]

Really good video vince

[@Jeroen_a]

This is more my cup-a-tea... i love the unify products.... in fact... i've thrown back my ISP's multifunctional modem/router and asked for a modem only option. My wifi works flawlessly now... no need for extra extenders etc etc.... 2 AP's and even my garden has good connection to wifi now (about 10 meters still 45% capacity and that is through a concrete wall (i think when they build our house the thought of building a bunker :P)) :) No need for further long distance though :) still interesting :D

[@Jeroen_a]

Be sure to check your isp's licence and government regulations on broadcasting signals though...

[@Gormadt]

I've set a few networks up using Ubiquiti hardware. I've only used the 5GHz equipment when line of sight is possible as 5GHz doesn't pernitrate very well. I usually use their 2.5GHz gear or their 900MHz gear for a setup depending on the local environment. For example using the 2.5GHz gear in a densely populated area may not be the best idea due to limited channels and the fact that the Ubiquiti gear will be outputting a huge amount of power compared to a normal router the neighbors will see it as a huge amount of interference and find themselves unable to use their Wi-Fi. A good example of this is apartments and Wi-Fi, on 2.5GHz there are so many devices both broadcasting and receiving the the signal drops all of the time on 2.5GHz whereas with 5GHz and its inability to penetrate obstacles very well it is really stable. With 900MHz the wavelength is wide enough that it ignores many obstacles. But be warned it may be regulated locally. One of the fun uses of Ubiquiti hardware I've done was have my grandmother's 10 acre property covered in 2.5GHz Wi-Fi. And due to that, the Wi-Fi from the router provided by her ISP became difficult to connect to reliably due to interference. The Wi-Fi at her place is really reliable now, you just have to use the network I set up.

[@nuwa9376]

Hello can I contact you privately for some help

[@Gormadt]

@@nuwa9376 Sure, I can offer some help. I've got an email on my channel page you can reach out to me on.

[@nuwa9376]

@@Gormadt failed to find your email...maybe the Twitter if it's alright?

[@Gormadt]

@@nuwa9376 That works too

[@TheCod3r]

You should try the Powerbeam AC from Ubiquiti, Linus from LTT got 12km out of it with half decent speeds

[@TheCod3r]

@@StevenShaw yeah it was interesting but they're damn expensive at £120 per dish so I've never had the money spare to buy them lol

[@TheCod3r]

@@StevenShaw exactly, maybe one day I'll be in his sandals 🤣 jeez I remember those days trying to get long range wifi so I could connect to my neighbours, I used to hang a high gain antenna out the window 🤣🤣🤣

[@_Talik]

just commented abo ut that, funnilt enough

[@StezStixFix]

Nice fireworks!

[@williamlogan1203]

Is there any line of site from your brothers house to the other friends house, then you could use that as a really point...?

[@languy99]

You should look into 2.4ghz point to point. Won’t be as fast max 150 but should easily give you the range and much more penetration.

[@AlexFalkenberg]

One wonders if the other guy one over from Richard's street is in line with Vince's brother's house. Surely these can relay over several stations...

[@BBC600]

Agreed!

[@ches74]

Greetings from Harrow. Didn't know you were so close by.

[@markwanklyn4195]

and greetings from Ruislip as well

[@abzhuofficial]

You coming out of retirement from the telecoms industry Vince? 😜 That said, the comment was made BEFORE watching the video, but AFTER watching the video, sorry to see your brother not getting a signal.

[@jobliss3932]

Was the house without line of sight at a different elevation? It seemed like the dishes could have been higher up on the poles which might have helped. Also If they are at different heights then maybe one dish needs to point up and the other down? Wasn't sure from the video if you were trying that.

[@gkid64]

I hate how the long-distance success is still faster than the fastest speed available to most Australians

[@ballsrgrossnugly]

I'm rockin 50mbps on my FTTN connection, and it's all the copper into the house can handle. (well, 60 technically, but who wants to pay for the 100 plan and be capped at 60?) Thankfully, so far it hasn't been a problem. Steam tops out at about 40-45 anyway even on a 100mbps connection, so upgrading wouldn't make games download any faster apparently.

[@jamie9874]

Nice video vince 👍

[@codeoperator2610]

I used to do his and I used a bit powerful laser to line them up try that with a longer pole 👍

[@Charlief23]

Did you ever watch any NFL games at Wembley Stadium? It’s a shame they couldn’t play in London this year.

[@gavinthesniper4465]

Thanks for the video and hi Eliot

[@andersmmvfc.8376]

Nice stuff

[@oroville12345]

I do this all the time.... It's great.

[@Chaostheory1971]

A similar system is how my ISP delivers its internet where I live (I have a dish on my roof which is powered by POE) and there's 2 other providers offering it the same way. If I wanted fibre to the cabinet/premises then I'd have to go with the local telephone provider as in Hull we cannot get BT, Talktalk, virgin etc due to the fact that Hull is independent from what else is available nationally. The system I have is cheaper than Kcom (local telephone provider) Pity it didn't wok for your brother, Vince, but nonetheless a good video!

[@oldbatwit5102]

I am ex-London and now live on the South Coast and use Virgin, 200Mb, because it's the fastest. Kcom boasts faster speeds than I can get here and their upload speeds are really good too even on their cheaper packages. Am I right to assume their coverage is patchy? Because their up and down speeds are better than virgin and their pricing is very similar.

[@MGodkillerS13]

Amazing

[@FNUKSTER1366]

Just put a 20 foot aluminium tube on top of the chimney on both houses, with dishes mounted on top ,back too the old days of CB radio lol the higher the better 😉

[@ballsrgrossnugly]

Except the old CB antenna could rock around in the wind all it wanted. 20 foot masts for dishes require LOTS of TIGHT guy wire to stop that thing moving out of alignment.

[@FNUKSTER1366]

@@ballsrgrossnugly yes I suppose its more critical with dishes moving out of alignment

[@StephenArsenault]

If there’s a tall building (e.g., high rise) near by you can use the face of the building as a directional repeater. Obviously not a quality solution but it may be something to test.

[@ballsrgrossnugly]

It'll work better with ubiquiti than most, because they have anti ghosting tech in the software to sort out ghosted signals, but it's still not a very good solution, a car driving past could completely change the bounce of the signal and cause constant dropouts as traffic goes by!

[@robputt]

Very interesting video, I was thinking of doing the same with my parents, but the corner of a house roof and an oak tree in the way, distance is only about 300m, but I never wanted to try it because it's not line of sight, and I think planning would probably get rejected for a 10-foot pole on top of my parent's bungalow. You should relay it off the spire on the hill, would work fine then :joy:.

[@ballsrgrossnugly]

I'm not sure if hoisting your parents up a pole on your roof will improve your wifi speeds... but hell, it's worth a bloody good try!

[@louie888888888]

Super cool video Thank you Aways good videos

[@spongeyhamburger49]

Easily the coolest dad that you can have

[@nahventure3873]

If you're really trying to make it happen, don't be afraid to use 6m/20ft poles. Grab them at the bottom (around 4-6 feet worth with a chimney) and "guy" them. Not sure what channel width you're using although I don't recommend over 40mhz since noise and many other factors will influence. You can expect about 250-300 mbps total throughput from a litebeam 5ac at best (CPU bottleneck). Height is what you need really, I'd mount his on the roof with a 6m pole too. We do installs all the time, you're essentially making a mini tower. Also keep in mind you run the risk of your ISP shutting your pipe since they more than likely specify "to be used at the installation location only" I don't think you'll use enough bandwidth/data but keep it in mind.

[@ballsrgrossnugly]

I'd agree if I hadn't seen that shingled roof... must be a bloody nightmare to install that stuff in the UK!

[@thomasesr]

It is pretty direct. One or two degrees makes a massive speed difference

[@andythomas7931]

Nice video thank you yeah LOS is very important. Also the "Fresnel zone" is important.

[@hookupskid85]

relay from the friend house, like a triangle

[@ballsrgrossnugly]

This. and Illuminati confirmed.

[@johnlawrencedeanjd]

I used to live in Harrow on the hill and was born in Wembley. The view was diffrent back then

[@ballsrgrossnugly]

Is this the start of a Beatles song? ;)

[@johnlawrencedeanjd]

Yes, a long lost track

[@ballsrgrossnugly]

@@johnlawrencedeanjd Seriously, slap the standard 4 chords over that and call your self No(t)el Gallagher! You're a poet and you didn't even think you were... a poet...!

[@aldo9923]

Nice video

[@SarahJane148]

Could you have used longer poles or maybe a signrl booster

[@Max-lj2zs]

I’ve learned more from you than school

[@ballsrgrossnugly]

What did your school learn from him?

[@stili774]

I love the ubnt gear 👍 I have at home their accesspoints and poe switch

[@stili774]

Azimuth antennas are better for trees

[@stili774]

3:40 Missing ground and surge protector! 😑

[@RetrogradeScene]

They just need to make a few more friends in the area so they can pass it round all the obstacles!!!

[@KingLich451]

What's the name of that compass app? looks neat.

[@iviedbymightymt]

Looks to me like the default compass app that's pre-installed on iPhones.

[@Techtiktokmaster]

Nice

[@mr.mythoclast4451]

is this legal in the UK? in germany you are only allowed to transmit 100mW max.

[@campervanchris4171]

hi i see that there was a cctv camera on the first roof can you let us know more about his system please !

[@damustermann]

Is there a better possibility that to get a signal from the friend who now has the good connection to your brother?

[@anthonyrobertson1787]

🤔Vince where did you learn all this?

[@chrislamp]

Same thing here in my country. They've dug the road to my friend's house 2 blocks down. He asked for 100/10 (the second best speed here) and he got 70/8 (tbh its better than old adsl). Here i'm stuck with adsl and vdsl at 50down/5 up and the constant loss and the unstableness. Can't wait for ftth

[@chrislamp]

I tried to do the same as you guys did but his house is only 1 story up blocked by 3 story appartment complexes and my house is a 3 story house. So we couldnt get the dishes working

[@LevelCrossingFan92]

Same with me. My dads sky wifi is better

[@crisjoshuacalucin1709]

Hi does it need a router or the model it self is the router

[@breakingaustin]

Maybe try Powerbeam? It works over our land at about 3 miles with obstacles

[@jungle6815]

I use the rocket dish RD5G30 with Mikrotik RB912Hpnd5Out which is the outdoor version that works with dishes 1.2km VERY FUCKING HIGH noise enviroment (iraq) filled with wireless isps and i get really great signal and 300mbps data rates

[@greatreset3]

So like Sat TV, will it lose signal in hard rain and snow events?? 🤷‍♂️

[@ballsrgrossnugly]

Probably yes, but not much if the dishes are lined up well and they scanned the frequencies to get the best ones to transmit on. Edit: It's england... so... yeah... not Australia where it never snows except in the mountains...

[@joesanchez979]

Interesting 🤓

[@MrDbone75]

Good evening everyone from wellington Somerset

[@jamesheal4535]

Are the Aerial interfering?

[@jellyheed]

What website did you use to get the compass coordinates? Was it just Google maps?

[@swdeese]

Did you ever figure out what site this was he used?

[@AJTarnas]

what are you plugging the dishes into? you say "the network" -- what does that device look like?

[@d.d.m2208]

Maybe if you and the others have time you can try realigning the dishes either higher or on another part of the house

[@Rayhan.R21]

ubiquiti litebeam ac5 and tp link cpe 610/710 which one is better? For point to multi point.

[@tazmanila6522]

What’s the website you used line of site?

[@user4gent416]

Useful for hotels!

[@edlowry1]

No Line of Sight dont even try. Good video though, we all need to try these things, real life :)

[@MikePowlas]

You may get home to home if you use 2.4GHz or 900MHz radios. Them two Freq. goes thru trees so much better. I run a few WISP and I have gone thru more trees then I have seen here.

[@fjs1111]

I've installed a ton of these, not that exact model but similar. Be happy to help you if you still need it. Make sure you enable AirMax protocol instead of 802.11 because of the noise. Also slow down the speed + use the waterfall spectrum analyzer built-in to help UBIQUTI has great stuff for the price.

[@adammolnar6129]

How far was the longest distance? Im thinking about 15 km but the landacape is hilly.

[@omaral-fararjeh6617]

Have you used any from TP-Link ? I'm wondering if tp-link cpe510 would do the job at 6km distance

[@fjs1111]

TP-Link has good products, I've used that brand but not that exact radio. As far as the distance, often what they spec isn't exact so see if they have a link budget calculator for product selection. 6km as long as the TX power is above 200mw it should be good with a directional antenna.@@omaral-fararjeh6617

[@oldbatwit5102]

Good game, worth a punt.

[@_Talik]

LTT did a video on this, over 12km, whats that in miles? never been able to convert them

[@ToxoRetro]

16km is about 10 miles. 12km is 3/4 of that, so about 7.5 miles.

[@timothyatchison3636]

I wonder if that would work over here in the states

[@sortamedan]

Yep if LOS (line of sight)

[@timothyatchison3636]

Robinson Pasaribu cool thanks

[@Sky1]

I set up a 1300 ft point to point link to my mother-in-laws house but when one of the trees would get wet from rain she would lose signal. I ran a pair of grid array antennas an 800 mw transceivers on 5GHz. Some of the newer technology is supposed to penetrate but I am doubtful. Need to get Clear Point-to-Point or put a site in the middle as a repeater.