Extending Range between buildings

[qwertyyp]

hi. like the site. lots of helpful info.

i am youth pastor and am trying to get internet extended across our church campus to another building. the buildings are old and we'd have to spend a fortune to get any internet to this building (think digging up the parking lot)...

i am have a little experience w/ networking but i'm no expert.

anyway, the buildings are about 250 feet apart. the one with internet is brick construction the signal from our WRT160NL is pretty week just in the building.

Sometimes we can get a faint signal to our other building but it is not reliable at all. We would like to use remote desktop in this building, occasional streaming from security cameras and some basic lan functions (occasional file transfers & printing).

It was suggested that we install an outdoor "panel" type antenna on the building with internet. However, I am concerned that it will not help with the Rx side of things (someone else told me that the antenna would only help with Tx)...

would an external antenna help with coverage to the other building or am i better off to get some other router?

also, what hardware should i put in the other building as the bridge?

clearly, i'm very confused....
thanks in advance for your help & advice!

~gary

 

[DaveMcLain]

Check out this post:

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=3052

I posted a reply where I placed some links to some pictures of a wireless link that's probably similar to the one you're thinking about setting up at your location.

This setup is done using inexpensive equipment and it's been very reliable.

 

[qwertyyp]

thanks for the quick reply and the input.

that is somewhat similar to what i was thinking of doing.... i'm really hoping to keep it as simple as possible. in that thread someone mentioned using a pair of outdoor ap's. since the buildings are fairly close together do you think i'll need two or would one work with a regular ap inside the receiving building?

 

[DaveMcLain]

In the example I've shown I have one large high gain antenna that's mounted outdoors. It wouldn't have to be outside but it's really big and that's what has worked well in this installation. The AP on that end is a Linksys WRT54G V5 with DD-WRT firmware. This firmware is really being used just so that the WRT can be set up to send and receive using only one antenna. On the other end of the link is a stock Netgear WGR614 V8 router with DD-WRT firmware. This firmware is not being used to increase power and the antennas have not been altered in any way. It's just being used to turn the router into a client bridge. It works fine and having the large antenna at the other end helps data transmission in both directions. With that said I think that this setup would be equally effective with two smaller panel antennas installed at each end of the link.

In the example the hardware being used is dedicated to just doing this link. It may have been possible to have set up an AP indoors at the end with internet service and then install the high gain antenna at the client end. The AP would handle normal wireless clients right along with the long distance client I think this could work ok too. But you were saying that the signal from your current AP doesn't have all that great of coverage inside of the current building, right?

With this hardware you can be pretty creative and come up with some stuff that works well for very little money.

 

[joeybaker]

A range extender is a perfectly viable option. Just be sure that you have a nice, clear line of site and a strong signal. (I've found that bad weather can significantly impact wifi signals that are extended over a range).

The other (and more permanent) option is to get an outdoor AP. You'll probably pay a bit more, but mesh networking is IMHO the better choice.

The company I work for has an outdoor AP that I actually like, but it's probably not ideal for your case because you already have a wifi network created and these work best when they're in their own mesh network. I've never personally used any other outdoor AP, but Google was more than happy to provide a list –*you'll note that none are very cheap.