How to extend the range of wireless connection (using external antenna?)

Lets say I live on large property.

Can I at my main house, hook up something to my roof (say a 2.4 Ghz Wireless
Parabolic LAN Antenna) pointing at my guest house (1500' away).

Put another one on my guest house pointing at my main house.

Extend my 802.11g wireless network to both houses and share the lan?

Or, is there a product to do this that is legal?
Leo V.

 

Yes you can do this. In fact there are special routers you can buy to do
this, that are designed just for this purpose. They are not cheap, but do
have software design to overcome the problems in this kind of situation.
This is a better choice than simply running a wire to the second location.
Do a search on outdoor routers. It's also possible to do this with some
standard indoor routers, you will not get as good results as with the
routers design for this purpose, but the total cost is a lot less.

--
David Hettel

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group for everyone
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DISCLAIMER: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranty of any kind,
either expressed or implied, made in relation to the accuracy, reliability
or content of this post. The author shall not be liable for any direct,
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inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this post and confers
no rights.

 

Thanks. I'll check it out. Are you implying that it may not work with my
current
Linksys Wireless router?

 

Will it work? You really don't tell us enough about your location, and
conditions or even the router you have. There are some new N routers that
claim they can go the distance you want out of the box, with out any
additional antennas. Do you have a clear line of sight year round? Do you
have heavy rains, or snow? Any trees between the two locations? Is there a
high level of background radio noise at your location? Moisture in the air
has the ability to interfere with these kinds of signals at these
frequencies, it may fail or slow way down in heavy rains or snow and with
fog. Adding a Parabolic LAN Antenna at the end of a long run of cable, may
get you very little gain. These type of antennas work best at the end of a
short piece of cable, and not all cable is the same. It's possible to lose
more signal than you gain from the Parabolic LAN Antenna in a twenty foot
cable, if you're thinking of putting it at the end of a 100 feet or more of
cable I believe it's unlikely to work.

On the other hand if you put the Linksys in a weather proof box on the roof,
and you've got a clear line of sight to the second location it may work
great. There are people doing this. Most of the stories I've read of people
doing this day in and day out, are people doing it in arid places. Also you
shouldn't expect to get the full rated speed of your router at these
distances. Will that mater? Probably not unless you intend to transfer files
between computers in both locations. Generally most people don't have a
connection to the internet at anywhere near the speed of their wireless
network.

--
David Hettel

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group for everyone
to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions addressed directly to me in
E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

DISCLAIMER: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranty of any kind,
either expressed or implied, made in relation to the accuracy, reliability
or content of this post. The author shall not be liable for any direct,
indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use of, or
inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this post and confers
no rights.

 

Hi

It can be done as long as you have a clear line of sight. I.e. the Antennae
are installed safely outside or by windows and are looking “Eye” To “Eye”.
It is legal to do so as long as you use legal equipment. If environment
allows the distances that you are talking about can be covered with legal
Entry Level (sub $100) Wireless Routers and or Access Point.



Under Normal circumstances, Entry Level Wireless was not meant to cover
distances longer then few hundreds feet outdoor. However, people as a
special project did mange to bridge distances as long as 5 miles.



If the Antennae has to be mounted outside on a mast (to over come
obstructions in the line of sight) they would be away from the Access Point,
When the Antenna is away from the Transmitter (Access Point) the Length of
2.4GHz coax cable that has to be used would cause very fast RF
deterioration. As a result, long coax is not used in such installations.
The APs are installed with the Antenna on the Antenna’s masts and run CAT5e
down to your source.



All of this must be adequately protected from the Weather elements, other
wise one lighting storm and ““your are back to the Future””.

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/tools/wireless_articles_range.htm



Assuming that you can execute such a project you would need to bridge the
two sites

This link has info about Bridging options,
http://www.ezlan.net/bridging.html

Jack (MVP-Networking).

 

Wow. Great Jack. Thanks for the information.

So, here's what I think I need to do:
Main house will have a wireless network.
Guest house, just one PC.

So, I'm picturing Situation Two as described on this web-site.
http://www.ezlan.net/bridging.html

For the main house, I'd have my standard wireless router (Linksys
WRT54Gxxx).
I'd connect the PC's at the main house with standard 802.11 b/g wireless
cards to my Linksys router.
I'd connect to the Linksys Router to a Consumer Bridge like Linksys WET11
(or a directional antenna).

At the destination, I'd have a Consumer Bridge Wireless card (or directional
antenna) that would connect to a Switch and the PC would be wired directly
to the switch.

Okay, I suspect that there are some pieces missing in my picture. If so,
would you mind filling in the blanks? For example, I'm a little confused
about whether the Linksys WET11 would replace or be in addition to a
directional antenna.

Again, I'm wanting the PC at the guest house to be availabe (on the same
LAN) to my PC's at the main house.

Thank you very much for your time and advice!
Leo.


So, I'm picturing