This dish was erected atop a roof of a shopping center near me a few weeks ago. It’s super ominous looking and it bugs me regularly.

    • Vupware@lemmy.zipOP
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      13 hours ago

      Thank you, this looks most likely.

      I wonder why this is needed. Why would a shopping center need long-range wireless networking devices?

      It’s probably nothing but I remain curious and my embarrassing lack of networking knowledge will not get me anywhere.

      • infinitevalence@discuss.online
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        13 hours ago

        If they have a remote office that is line of site from the top of the building then this would cost orders of magnitude less than running a dedicated line, or leasing/paying for a dedicated network connection between the two locations.

        This would let whomever installed it have a direct, private, local network that spans two locations for under $5000.

      • sneaky@r.nf
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        13 hours ago

        If you have free internet in the area, like public wifi from the city, The shopping centre probably have an agreement with the provider to help extend the range. They put the dish up to connect to the existing network and then pump it out with repeaters around the shopping centre.

      • snowsuit2654@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        13 hours ago

        My old apartment building in a dense city got our Internet with a setup like this. The ISP transmitted the internet wirelessly to our building and then the existing copper wire POTS cables were used to distribute it throughout the building. Pretty weird setup but I still got 200 Mbps down 🤷.