Ip Star To Wifi Hotspot?

[Dah fahrang]

My 'tame' TOT men called by the house today, to tell me yet again why I can't have ADSL broadband because of distance of my house from their main distributor box.

Its a miracle I even got a phone line, after 10 years waiting, and seeing it go through banana and mango trees for 800 metres, a miracle it continues to work.

BUT THEN

they announced a new TOT and IP Star deal and whipped out a leaflet.

3500 baht installation, then 1500 baht/month for 2 gig. of data @ 256/128 kbps.

I'm interested, and might plunge for this at this price.

I want to continue touse my notebook as I do now with GPRS and Bluetooth, around the house, so need to be wireless. When "Her Indoors" is watching the nightly screaming on Channel 3, I will work happily in another room. Or even outside in the sala. And vice versa. When she is out, I will work in comfort inside.

Q:

Has anybody set up a wifi hotspot in their home to work with an IP Star connection?

How good is it? What range does it work to?

Is this something that can be done easily on my own? Or get TOT/IP Star people to do? (Blank stares when I ask?)

Any idea on price, spec. and purchase from to do the job?

Thanks for your help, TV members!

[monty]

Creating your own wifi hotspot based on an iPSTAR system will be dead easy!

The iPSTAR modem (actually a satellite transceiver) has a LAN connection, so can be directly connected to any wifi access point.

Cost of the access point would be 3 to 4 thousand Baht, add another 1500 Baht if your laptop does not yet have wifi built in.

iPSTAR is not the most stable connection around, but if it's working it will sure beat your current gprs connection! It seems the culprit is the sat-modem boxes they use. They don't last long when in hot environments, which most environments in Thailand unfortunately are

You still can keep the gprs as a back-up connection.

Set up of the access point is not that hard when you follow the wizard built into most models, help is easy to get online as well.

Range will be hard to say, since it is very dependant on obstacles. Wifi frequencies (2.4Ghz) do not penetrate solid objects very well, so count on an outdoor range (no obstacles) of up to 100 meter, and indoor range somewhere between 5 and 50 meters.

Once it's up and running you will not have much worries. Boot your laptop and off you go surfing. Apart from the frequent restarts needed of the satellite modem to get things moving again

If you're living out in the boonies, wireless security will not be a big issue, unless you suspect Somchai lurking in your garden with his laptop to leech on your iPSTAR connection

[Firefoxx]

IPstar is fairly stable, ISP-wise, but it's also like sat-UBC in that weather will affect it. The price is relatively cheap, but 2gb/month limit is fairly restrictive, unless you're a casual user.

Wireless and IPstar have nothing in common... so it's the same as setting up wireless with other broadband (adsl, cable, etc). There is no effect on the range, etc.

Price is around 3k for a broadband router. And that's about it. Setup is fairly straightforward, just read the manual.

[ianc66]

Yes I've done it see my post at http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=58530

A few thoughts why buy from TOT -- to reward their ineptitude? Why buy a connection why you pay for traffic. Look at other IPstar providers and see their offers and select the one with the most responsive local ditributor.

An update on the post the replacment IPX-5100 has resulted in a reliable service no need to power it off and on regularly. The hot spot is flawlees 3 regular users and a fourth visitor with a Mac portable up and running in five minutes.

[ianc66]

I've not answered a couple of your questions.

I'd advise doing it yourself -- read up on the Internet setting up a wireless network.

The linksys router I used only cost about 2,500 baht so buy it first power it up mount it high and wander around with your laptop to get an idea of the range. There is probably a sweet spot where the WiFi works and the Channel 3 screaming (I'd call it shrieking mayself) is almost inaudible

When you use it for real go with encrpytion

Try to get an indication when you order what the satellite orientation will be and try to prepare for the install it the dish needs a clear view, the IPX5100 is a delicate sickly little beast put it inside the house on a UPS -- use the UPS for the WiFi router too

Edited February 18, 2006 by ianc66

[Dah fahrang]

IanC66, Monty, Firefoxx!

Thanks for your help.

You make it sound easy - and, if I decide to go for IPStar (with any provider, besides ToT) I will give it a try following your advice.

I'm still weighing up against Hutch CDMA inclusive offer of B12,500 for USB modem or air card, and 12 months unlimited access. Speed is a tad lower than IP Star's lowesat, 256/128, but the price adds up to more than a tad lower. I don't know if weather will affect it or not? I reckon Hutch network traffic certainly will knock the advertised 153kbps back a lot.

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Cheers

[monty]

Is it confirmed you have Hutch reception in your area? They don't cover a lot of provinces, and the ones which are covered still have a whole lot of dead spots in them (even in city's like Pattaya)

Testing at your house is paramount before committing! Hutch needs a very good signal strength to give good speeds...

iPSTAR is certainly better then Hutch. Speed is much more stable (besides faster).

Both Hutch and GSM networks were designed for voice traffic and as such give priority to them.

This results in speeds all over the place, anywhere between 10 and 110 kbps depending on the load of the cell you are connected to (both voice and data load!)

Out here in Pattaya the unlimited package is not available anymore, so we're stuck on 890 Baht/month for 890 Mb data traffic Some friends of mine are still on the 999 Baht/month unlimited deal, they are reasonable happy with it, once you know the hours it'll work fast. Still a whole lot better then gprs for those not getting a landline...

If you would take the leap on iPSTAR this month, CSLOXINFO will not charge for installation!

http://www.csloxinfo.com/broadband/ipstar4_en.asp#1

You might have to pay a small distance fee if you are to far away from your dealer though...