Wireless (WiFi) FAQ

1. WiFi Access Point Antenna Placement: The microwave frequency pattern (Fresnel Zone) coming out of your antenna – will reflect back into itself if not at least 30 feet above the ground, roof or any other hard surface below or around the antenna.  This will degrade your wireless distance and throughput performance.

2. WiFi Weather effects: As always – clear line of sight wireless yields the best performance and distance range.  However even with that you need to be aware that heavy rain adds lots of reflective water molecules that severely degrade performance and certainly any heavy snowfall can completely block and render your WiFi useless.

3. Line of Sight Clarity: As mentioned in the above weather effects warnings, you need to be aware that objects that can appear in your line of sight path – like trees growing, new construction and metallic balloons, kites or drones will also create performance issues for your Wireless links.

4. Network Security: As mentioned in the opening statements – there is no such thing as wireless security.
   **** Anything you put into the air is easily intercepted and can be unencrypted **** 
   Hacking wireless signals has been so commonplace with businesses, homes, cars, video surveillance, access controls and IoT devices that the blackhat industry sells simple devices to anyone wanting to easily spy on all WiFi signals.  Can you afford your competitors to access your network? 

5. Back to copper: Keep in mind all wireless, fiber and LAN devices always go back to copper Ethernet connections.  You have the ability to go at least 328 Feet / 100m away from the end of the 821WP remote enclosure outside. So your deployment can be up to 3, 280 feet of 1Km away from your LAN and Power source.   This lets you put your PoE devices where you need them the most and not limited to IEEE 802.3 LAN standards.

Our recommendations is to always consult with a WiFi expert that has had lots of experience and can offer performance guarantees.  They will also be amazed by our 821WP PoE Extender’s abilities to allow them flexibility for maximum placement of your WiFi infrastructure.

Wireless WiFi :
If network security is a non- issue, you can leverage wireless spectrum with antennas designed for your distance goals as long as they are at least 30 feet above the ground to avoid the loss of performance from the microwave funnel zone reflecting back of the ground.

**** Please keep in mind anything you put into the air is easily intercepted and can be unencrypted **** 

Things like WiFi Pineapples can clone your WiFi AP MAC addresses and be a man in the middle to capture and un encode your traffic, passwords, and anything your WiFi is putting out.
WiFi can span distances up to 27 miles with the right antennas and clear line of sight with no obstructions like buildings, trees, but also can be greatly affected by heavy rain and snowfall that can degrade signals to useless.  So always consult with a WiFi expert that has had lots of experience and can offer performance guarantees.