Pirate Intranet

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Radio choices

Integrated Parabolic Antenna

Parabolic antennas uses a parabolic reflector. Typical examples include satellite TV dishes and radar antennas. They are highly directional and used in Point-to-Point environments, with very few exceptions.

NanoBeam AC

High-Performance airMAX® ac Bridge

The Nanobeam AC provides a good balance of range and speed for the price.
Pros:

  • Well supported
  • Very fast (up to 450+ Mbps)
Cons:
  • Limited frequencies (only 5 GHz)

PowerBeam AC

High-Performance airMAX® ac Bridge

The PowerBeam is the second choice. It's basically a more powerful NanoBeam.
Pros:

  • Long Range (30+ km)
  • Very fast (up to 450+ Mbps)
Cons:
  • Limited frequencies (only 5 GHz)
  • Can be very large and heavy (PBE-5AC-620 is 24.41 x 24.41 x 15.2")

LiteBeam AC

2x2 MIMO airMAX® ac CPE

The LiteBeam AC is a built-down-to-a-price version of the PowerBeams. It's still a quality product though.
Pros:

  • Long Range (around the same as the PowerBeams)
  • Very lightweight
  • Super cheap ($59 MSRP)
Cons:
  • Unbalanced chains
  • Not as durable as other options.

Integrated Patch Antenna

Patch antennas are flat antennas typically mounted directly on a PCB. They are relatively cheap to produce, so are very popular in lower-priced directional radios. They are also a popular alternative to Sector antennas and are used in Point-to-Point as well as Point-to-Multipoint environments.

NanoStation M

Hey! We tested this! See our February 2016 tests.

Indoor/Outdoor airMAX® CPE

The NanoStation is very well supported like the NanoBeam. Small and easy to install.
Pros:

  • Wide Range of frequencies (900 MHz, 2.4 GHz, 3/3.65 GHz, 5 GHz)
  • Well supported
Cons:
  • Not as fast as other options
  • (Possibly) suseptible to interference

PowerBridge M

airMAX® Bridge

Light footprint like the NanoStation with more range
Pros:

  • Wide Range of frequencies (3/3.65 GHz, 5 GHz)
  • Longer range (20+ km)
Cons:
  • Not well supported
  • Not as fast as other options.

SXT 5 ac

RBSXTG-5HPacD

A MikroTik radio typically used in conjuction with the SA model for a PtMP setup.
Pros:

  • Runs RouterOS with a Level 4 License
  • Very fast (up to 540 Mbps)
  • Uses 802.11at PoE standards
Cons:
  • Draws 12W

Miscellaneous radios:

The following radios usually don't include any sort of usable antenna. Therefore for our purposes they are just the radio.

Rocket AC

airMAX® ac BaseStation

Super high performance base station, very highly customizable. Shown is the Rocket M
Pros:

  • Wide Range of frequencies (900 MHz, 2.4 GHz, 3/3.65 GHz, 5 GHz)
  • Depending on frequency, can be very fast
  • Some models include airPrism
Cons:
  • Expensive

WiFi Pineapple

Wireless Auditing Platform

Super flexible platform. Shown is the Mk V.
Pros:

  • Very flexible firmware, PineAP, based on Linux
Cons:
  • Can be very pricey
  • Designed for pentesting, not PtP/PtMP applications