Adding outdoor antennas to router.

[RonM]

I have a small resort with 11 units laid out in a circle. In the center of the site I have a pump house. I want o put a modem/router in the pump house so that renters can get some access to the internet when staying here. My real question here is the external antennas will require different length cables to the modem/router, a 6 meter and a 3 meter. Will the different lengths of these cables affect the signal out at the antennas?

 

[L&LD]

At those antenna lead cable lengths there will be no signal left?

 

[RonM]

Any ideas here.

Any ideas on how to accomplish this?

 

[stevech]

Need dimensions, aerial photo,

Generally, you need x number of WiFi access points (AP) and some way to connect them to a router (backhaul). The latter is the hard part. Ideally there's a way to bury cat5 or put it overhead.

Some RV parks use APs with wireless backhaul, sometimes in a mesh.

These are an example of where you start:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833168115
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833168099
There are many more.

So much more detail is needed.

Antennas with coax cables are a no-go due to attenuation in even a few feet of coax.

 

[Daybreak]

Howdy,
It sounds like your a little confused with router, access point, antennae, and cables.
Outdoor direct bury cat5, cat5e, cat6 can go approx. 100 meters in length. Your router will be your main connection point to the internet. Do you have internet now? Say its in your office. That is fine. Is this pump house within 100 meters (328ft)? run a Ethernet line to it. Put a access point here with a external Omni-point antennae.

Circle of units? at what distance? clear line of sight? a lot of competing wifi interference around? it could be 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz band

 

[azazel1024]

It depends on the cables. Granted, I have 1m cables, but I detect no signal loss between being on the pigtails and being directly connected to my router. Less than 1dBi of signal loss.

It depends on the cabling. If it is "low loss", it is likely an LMR-400 cable, which is 6.5dBi per 100ft.


What you are proposing should be fine...but depending on the spread, a single centrally located wifi router, even with large antennas may not work to get signal to the further structures, especially if they are a block construction and not stick construction.

My garage access point as its pair of 5dBi omni antennas on the ends of 1m pigtails sticking through the wall of my garage directly under the eves of the roof there. I get nice signal over my entire backyard (1.01 acre total yard), but step in my shed at the furthest point away, about 100ft, with the door closed and it is a bit border line. Still fine...but its around -70dBi, which is getting down there. Step behind the shed so both walls are between you and the access point antennas as well as another 10ft and its down to about -74dBi.

I think if you are going to get it to work, you are going to use some VERY substantial antennas, like 12dBi or even 15dBi outdoor rated antennas. Ideally you'll want the AP as close to the antennas as you can to reduce signal losses over the cable.

In the end, what I think you'll need to look at doing is several access points over the property to cover everything. Either connect them up with Cat5/5e, outdoor rated and bury it, or else you MIGHT be able to get away with some powerful wifi range extenders, though you'll be compromising the wifi throughput by doing this.

Another option if you want to do it all wirelessly is wireless bridges and then access points connected to these bridges. Depending on line-of-site, frequencies choosen, etc it should be fine if you stick with the bridges on 5GHz and the guest network on 2.4GHz. You could have 3 bridges/APs located around the periphery and a central AP connected up to 3 bridges to hit up the peripheral ones. Then set the 2.4GHz channels so that they are not physically overlapping and Bob's your uncle.

Well, after LOTS of tuning.

 

[RonM]

The pump house is almost in the exact center of property. 2 units are less than 150 feet from pump house. The other 9 units are less than 75 feet from pump house. There is power and phone lines available in the pump house. What I was thinking about doing was putting an internet source there, feeding two outdoor wireless range extenders, one facing front of property and one facing the rear. Maybe one range extender will be enough to allow all units and the pool area access to the internet. Is this doable? I forgot to add all buildings are wood construction with vinyl siding. 8 of the 11 units have double sliding glass doors out to decks and face towards the pump house and the back of the remaining three units face the pump house. Yes the main unit has internet and although it is intermittent the units can get on the internet with the current system.

 

[Daybreak]

Howdy,
Since you have internet access, and you are think of spreading it around. I would suggest you go with a external POE access point with a Omni directional antennae. You are then done.

The Engenius tech products work well. Scan the area, see what other channels are busy in the area. The ENH210ext would work. That works in the 2.4Ghz range.

I am not sure what some people are talking about in short distance not having a signal. Maybe they are not using real access points.

Real world use = 2 Engenius ENH210 units shooting approx. 1260ft thru trees, works great.

another area is
4- EnGenius EOC2611P’s
1- AIR802 12dBi omni-directional antennae
1. EOC2611P, with a 2ft pigtail connector to the AIR802 12dBi omni mounted on the roof mount (2 ½ story building). Set as the main access point
2. EOC2611P CB mode is mounted on a J-hook 18ft off ground (506ft away) with cat5e.
3. EOC2611P CB mode is mounted on a pole 7ft off ground (1205ft away) with cat5e.
4. EOC2611P CB mode is mounted on a J-hook 18ft off ground (3768ft away) with cat5e.
Roof mounted eoc2611P configured in B only, access point, wds client mode clicked,
all other eoc2611P units are configured in B only, client bridge.
All units have static IP’s for easier management.
All locations are working and passing DHCP server assigned IP addresses.
From Main access point
Rssi
506ft 20dBi power -39dBm
1205ft 22dBi power -44dBm
3768ft 28dBi power -70dBm

From the main Omni directional antennae, I have great coverage with a notebook for at least 2000ft around the area.

 

[stevech]

Beware becoming Mr. IT fix-it.
24/7

 

[azazel1024]

Based on distances involved, I am with Daybreak on this one. I'd do a pair of outdoor rated APs with something like 12dBi outdoor antennas. Run POE to them and direct bury cat5e. I'd then run them a resonable distance out from the pump house in either direction of the houses, if possible. If not, then at least outside of the pump house on either side of it.

Set them to non-overlapping channels, 2.4GHz 20MHz.

If right at the pump house, the two furthest units are still likely to be rather weak signal, but they'll probably be able to connect fine. The closer units should be able to get a medium signal and it'll cover the pool area just fine.

Downside is going to be how much anyone uses the wireless. At least with a pair of units on different channels you are going to have a bit more bandwidth

If time, finances and burying cable isn't an issue, I'd look at 3 units powered with POE from the pump house out to the 3 nearest units located in a rough triangle from the pump house, everything else as above.

That'll slice up the property for far better coverage and bandwidth than 1 or 2 centrally, or fairly centrally located access points would.