As I have said I have no experience with StarOS. I wish I had learned of this when I was first starting as I may have much of it in use now but I still may start using it if I ever dive into it.
With the list of very impressive things you have seen and accomplished with it I can't help but ask the questions - why are there only two major vendors? Why aren't more WISPs using this product? What is the fault that makes it such a small part of the market - is it the marketing the company failed to do? Is there some major flaw everyone avoids? Thank you very much for sharing that information, Matt. I for one really enjoy reading these "soapbox articles" =) The bullet points of the epic above: *many customers in the 15-25 mile range running on StarOS APs *one sub at 33 miles that runs 15-20gig of traffic a month - no complaints (we all love that last part) *802.11b APs with 85-90 subs on them, and 802.11a APs with 100+ *One pulled out all of their $5000-$9000 Motorola backhauls and replaced them with $900 StarOS FDD BH and saw huge improvements in performance. *Several more but these are the real good ones with numbers =) Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 Those who don't understand UNIX are condemned to reinvent it, poorly. --- Henry Spencer On Tue, Dec 9, 2008 at 1:06 AM, Matt Larsen - Lists <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: > I put myself in as being Tranzeo based, as that is the heavy majority of > my CPE radios, although I have a fair amount of Ubiquiti, Telex, > HighGain and a smattering of Mikrotik CPE as well. Chuck started the > survey, and as a Canopy user he is more used to the idea of everything > coming from the same vendor. With StarOS and Mikrotik, you can use one > thing for your APs and backhauls, and another brand or multiple > different brands for your CPE radios. > > All of my APs and backhauls are on StarOS. I find that there are a > lot of StarOS operators out there, but you don't hear from them because > they tend to gather on the StarOS forums and don't get involved in list > politics. Unfortunately, many of the discussions on this and other > lists ends up focusing on Mikrotik and Canopy because there are more > vendors pushing them, and users "evangelizing" them. > > I have plenty of experience with StarOS, Mikrotik and Tranzeo - and I > have deployed Trango and Canopy as well. For the majority of the > wireless applications I have been involved in, it was the most > ubiquitous and best value of the platforms I have used. > > It is not a "brain-dead" deployment - if you want to run a bridged > network, StarOS is definitely not for you. There is a little bit of a > learning curve, and almost no available training resources for it beyond > the StarOS forums. There are few vendors that sell it - FreeSpace and > Streakwave are about the only two major ones that do much with Star. > The developers are not exactly accessible and will become openly hostile > if your choice of network topology doesn't fit their recommended way of > doing things. These are all factors that limit the overall adoption of > StarOS. > > However, at the core of StarOS is a set of world-class wireless > drivers. StarOS was the first platform to have 20/10/5mhz channels > with the Atheros chipsets. Their distance settings were a first, going > back to their Orinoco drivers, and enabling WISPs to pick up customers > beyond the 12mile wifi limit. I have many customers in the 15-25 mile > range running on StarOS APs. I actually have one sub at 33 miles that > runs 15-20gig of traffic a month - no complaints. With good bandwidth > management profiles, you can get a lot of people on an AP. I have had > 802.11b APs with 85-90 subs on them, and 802.11a APs with 100+. It is > doable, and I have done it. > > StarOS is also great for backhauls, both half and full-duplex. I have a > pair of WAR boards running in turbo mode that have been in the air for > 2.5 years, and run 15-35 meg constantly. Haven't so much as changed > the channel in that 2 year period. I have FDD links on $400 X4000 > radios that will do 50meg throughput (10/40, 25/25, 40/10, whatever) > over 20+ miles. I've watched StarOS backhauls kill Canopy backhauls on > the same channels, and the signal squelch features allow backhauls to > work in places where other stuff flat out will not work. I have 550+ > miles of StarOS backhaul up, including a 65 mile shot and several more > 35+ mile shots, and several of my consulting clients have just as many > miles in the air. One pulled out all of their $5000-$9000 Motorola > backhauls and replaced them with $900 StarOS FDD BH and saw huge > improvements in performance. I've even mixed Star and Mikrotik > backhauls with decent results. > > StarOS has also been a great platform to work with when it comes to > building an integrated wireless platform. Radius auth of MAC addresses > has been there from the start, and doesn't require any special servers > beyond a radius server. Loading DHCP scripts, cbq rules and firewall > settings is easily automated with shell scripts (much easier than > Mikrotik). OSPF works great and does exactly what it is supposed to. > SNMP is comprehensive and it's easy to track signal strength, link > quality, # of associations, interface traffic and cpu load with commonly > available tools. The "F1" associations list is by far the best > troubleshooting tool I have used on any platform. There is good stuff > in there. > > Best of all is not being beholden to any specific vendor for CPE > radios. Over the years I've used radios from Tranzeo, Teletronics, > Orinoco, SmartBridges, Senao, Linksys, D-link, Ubiquiti, Telex, > HighGain, Mikrotik, eZY.net, Cisco, Ampwave and probably a few other > brands that I don't recall. All different kinds of chipsets work with > it, and without the dropped association issues that Mikrotik and other > APs have had. One many of my 2.4ghz APs, there is a wide variety of > chipsets in the CPE radios - zcom, prism, atheros, orinoco - and they > all work fine with the AP. That there is flexibility. > > I'll get off the soapbox now, but I think you get the point. StarOS is > a great platform, even if it doesn't get the attention of some of the > other ones out there. > > Matt Larsen > vistabeam.com > > Scottie Arnett wrote: > > I can guess that many of the "other" are StarOS as Matt Larsen used, it > should have been included as MFG. I know of many WISP using it. If that > number gets large enough, it would be interesting to know what the makeup of > it is. > > > > Scottie > > > > ---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- > > From: "Doug Ratcliffe" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Reply-To: WISPA General List <wireless@wispa.org> > > Date: Mon, 8 Dec 2008 14:21:39 -0500 > > > > > >> Big question is though, the guys using Redline & Alvarion, is their > monthly > >> ARPU much higher than the Canopy/Others? > >> > >> ----- Original Message ----- > >> From: "Chuck McCown" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >> To: <wireless@wispa.org> > >> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >> Sent: Monday, December 08, 2008 1:56 PM > >> Subject: [WISPA] Where is JAB when we need them > >> > >> > >> > >>> Redline 286 0.334058 > >>> Alvarion 4027 4.70367 > >>> Ubiquity 1728 2.018361 > >>> Canopy 38583 45.06623 > >>> Other 7816 9.129348 > >>> Trango 11252 13.14271 > >>> Tranzeo 10029 11.71421 > >>> MT 11893 13.89142 > >>> Total 85614 100 > >>> > >>> Responses 85 > >>> > >>> > >>> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > >>> WISPA Wants You! 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