Question on long-range wireless networking

[hfox]

Hi, All,

I've had a small wired/wireless network setup in our office for many years. I now need to connect the computers on that network with some new computers that are literally "across the street" in another building, less than 150 feet away. I'd love to make it a cabled connection but that is proving to be very impractical, so now I'm settling on a wireless connection.

I'm somewhat familiar with access point and bridge hardware, although I'm not entirely sure when one is needed/required over the other. I can easily get a run of ethernet from our current router to whatever device I might need. I would like to find devices that will not suffer any significant signal degradation over the proposed span between buildings. Oddly, most of the off-the-shelf access points all seem to have this problem, perhaps because of a significant amount of metal and concrete in the exterior walls of both buildings. Likewise, the signal is very different from one corner of the new building to another.

I'd like to know if anyone here has a recommendation for any type of hardware that would facilitate getting a much stronger signal at the "remote" building, and what would be needed/desired there to complete the connection. I've seen all sorts of things advertised from $50 to $5000 but don't really have a feel for what is truly necessary.

Any help would be really appreciated.

[RetiredGeek]

You might want to take a look at this post. One of these on each building should work just peachy.

[dg1261]

I'm somewhat familiar with access point and bridge hardware, although I'm not entirely sure when one is needed/required over the other.

I certainly don't pretend to be much of a networking expert, but for backgrounder info I've found some helpful stuff in the dd-wrt tutorials. In particular, you might want to study the illustrations in the "Wireless Bridge" and "Repeater Bridge" tutorials. (Of course, the detailed instructions are specific to dd-wrt's firmware, but even if you aren't using dd-wrt the tutorials are helpful in clarifying concepts.)

I used the Repeater Bridge configuration with a couple consumer-grade routers (a Linksys WRT54GL and an Asus WL-520gU), both flashed with dd-wrt, to connect the LAN segments in two homes across a residential street. To get the strongest connection I placed the two routers in upstairs bedrooms in corners of the houses closest to each other. Data rate was good enough for residential use (mainly internet), but I don't know if it would be satisfactory for business use--you're probably doing a lot more local file and printer sharing than the average residential network. Nevertheless, it's cheap enough that it may be worth a trial run.

Using 802.11n routers may get better range, as would replacing the antennas with directional antennas. Maybe use a pair of devices with directional antennas in the windows closest to each other to connect the wired LANs in each building, with additional APs to provide wifi coverage within each building.


Dan

[hfox]

Thanks, RG. That's an interesting idea that I doubt I would have come up with myself. I'd have to move some equipment around to avoid a r-e-a-l-l-y long cable connection from the antenna to the router, but it may be a relatively cost-friendly solution. I'll check out the JEFA-Tech folks today.

[Paul T]

There's always beer-fi, or cantenna.
http://windowssecrets.com/forums/sho...ly-a-Beer-Canr

cheers, Paul

[Paul T]

To make the connection you should use a wireless access point like this one. You should get one with a detachable aerial so you can position it properly, via an extension cable, or use a commercial directional aerial.

cheers, Paul

[hfox]

Thanks to everyone for the great suggestions. I think I'm headed in the right direction, now, my first stop being the fridge, Paul, to get started on that brewskie antenna. Oh No! I only have bottled beer. What now!!?? Guess I'll have to take care of those first, to justify a run to the local "World of Beer"...