You have a question. Maybe it's an important,
significant question or maybe it's more along the lines of some
little trick that remedied a glitch, but a little trick you've
forgotten nonetheless. Can't bring yourself to ask the buddy in the
next office another question? Maybe you don't have a buddy to
saddle up to.
Search
VoIP.com has buddies – buddies that can help you with all your
questions; big, small and in between. Maybe you feel an
overwhelming drive to repay your debt to buddies who've pulled you
out of a few jams. We also provide a means for you to pay it back
-- to lend your expert advice to other buddies in need.
ITKE, or ITKnowledge Exchange, is simply a
cool (and quick) way to get responses to your work-related
VoIP questions. Here's a glimpse into what goes down in
ITKE:
Gforsythe submitted a question with the subject line
"Microwave WAN?" to the ITKE forum. Within
six minutes, he has a response from one of the ITKE buddies.
Just over two hours later, another buddy fills in with some
helpful tidbits. About two hours after this response, yet more
information is packed in. These responses are not coming from
analysts who work with surveys and market stats. The responses
are coming from those who are paid to know how to do such things
(or know how to get the answers they need to do their jobs –
like you!)
Here is Gforsythe's question as it appeared (no edits –
you're welcome!):
have a good one for you to chew on....
I currently have a WAN using PTP T1's to 3 remote offices, about
a 75 mile haul on 2, 10 on the 3rd. I run EMHR (electronic medical
health records) database, practice management, http, DNS, domain,
etc, etc, plus VoIP (Cisco) over this WAN. You guessed it, I am in
healthcare...
My boss just came to me and said. I want you to be prepared to
meet with me next week and discuss Microwave. If we had it, how
would we use it?
Here is my concern:
VoIP- QoS, latency
Remote access via internet/VPN, NAT
Any of you out there have any experience with this?
BTW, I use 2800 series Cisco routers at all locations and am
currently using DSL for Internet access.
icestormz said:
The 75 miles would be a problem, but the 10 mile would be ok. I
would just watch the VoIP.
bobkberg added:
I would also be leery of rain, fog, large trees, and anything else
that can absorb the signal.
I've used microwave links of 1 mile and had no problems, and the
other poster is probably right about 10 miles.
However, unless you've got a REALLY tall set of towers (or
buildings to use the roof), I dare say that if you can't clear
ground-based objects, even the 10 mile one could be iffy.
BobYoung had this to say:
I've deployed microwave for a major cellular company. All of the
things you want to do can be done, and have been done, but distance
and path quality are the issues (besides cost) that will need to be
scrutinized. For a quick, free estimation: go to any of the
microwave manufacturer web sites, like
Harris
Microwave.
They will have calculation tools. Put in the information from
your system and you can get a rough calculation of whether or not
the path can even be considered. There is a great deal of
difference in capability when it comes to licensed microwave versus
unlicensed. The vendor rep can help you, and will provide some free
pre-sale analysis. Send me a private message if you'd like to
discuss this more.
Don't let VoIP mess with your head. Get in on the
ITKE thread.