Wireless help

dobberhd · Post by **dobberhd** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 9:27 pm

I've done a little research, but could use some pushing in the right direction if I'm wrong.

Situation:
Two buildings about 70 meters apart. (school and house(I'm a principal)). I'd like to extend the network at school over to my house so I can work from home more often. There is a clear line of sight. What products would you recommend to wirelessly extend the network accross the property? I'm hoping to put a network bridge type thing in a window of each building. I have both a wired desktop and a wireless laptop at home.

Any suggestions? Right now I'm considering this:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 007&depa=5

Thanks for all the help.

EvilHomer3k · Post by **EvilHomer3k** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 10:01 pm

I would look for something with a little more range. Something that will go out to 150meters if possible. I'd also look for wireless g only.

Most likely, your school has a brick or stone exterior and concrete walls. You'll have a tough time getting through that. Your range will be cut down significantly because of it. Since you're going to work from home, you'll want something that has a high throughput. B is only 11mbps so you'll want G.

Id also look at getting a wireless usb card that is the same brand as the wireless router/bridge/ap. Many of them have proprietary technology that allow you to increase your speeds (double in some cases). I'd recommend something from Linksys.

When you set it up, make sure to set it up with encryption and lock down the mac addresses that can connect to it. Kids tend to try to get into things just for fun.

Finally, check with your district's IT department. They may be able to help you out (of course they may also tell you that what you want to do is unsupported and not allow you to do it).

dobberhd · Post by **dobberhd** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 10:11 pm

Thanks for the advice. My school is less than a hundred students and I am the IT department, so I generally get things done pretty quickly. If I put the bridge near windows, is that generally better than the concrete block?

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 12:03 pm

At that range with a clear line of sight you should have no problems firing through windows. Don't go through the concrete. And don't bother thinking about mounting it externally, because the cost of installing lightning protection is prohibitive. If you don't have a good line of sight see if you have anything highly reflective(like a street sign) to bounce the signal off of.

Going with a consumer product is probably not the best way to go. I'd buy a pair of Cisco 1200s or 1300s with a G radio for this type of application, but I don't know what your budget is like.

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 12:07 pm

Hadn't looked at what you're looking to buy. Don't go with a single antenna design. If you go the consumer route at least get a dual antenna design. Single antenna usually suffer from multi-pathing(reflections from walls, objects) and generally have terrible throughput.

Dual antenna designs will generally listen to catch the signal and pick the best packet it receives from either antenna. And if you have signal problems you can use relatively inexpensive RP-BNC high gain antennas to correct the problem.