Help setting up powerful wifi system for acreage

[Abouna]

OK, I'm hoping someone here has experience with setting up a medium power wifi broadcast. I'm not looking for anything like a whole warehouse or anything but we live on a 1 acre lot with several out building, most of which need wifi.

Current:

-NETGEAR N600 Wireless-N Dual Band Router WNDR3400
-WAP54G
-Amped Wireless High Power Wireless-300N Smart Access Point
-Several linksys switches

All spaced out over several buildings.

What I'd like:

- A simple high power broadcast, hopefully that eliminates all the switches and wireless access points. Maybe also eliminate handoffs.


Is this possible? The reason I assume it's doable is because I can pick up the wifi from the school across the street (about 100 yards away). It's weak but it reaches all parts of our property.

I'm simply tired of having to manage this spaghetti network. Often when any one of the components needs a reset for whatever reason, I typically have to reset everything before the whole works is up and running again. It took me 3+ hours to track down the offending switch today and it was merely a reset to get it all going again.

Help!

 

[stevech]

high power broadcast from the WiFi access point/router deals with one-half of the bi-directional communications. The client PC to system direction remains flea powered. That's why it takes several access points to provide coverage.

 

[Mark Uhde]

Well, try to eliminate the resets. I'd recommend a good router/firewall (I like pfSense myself), an EnGenius EAP350 to cover the main building, and an EnGenius ENH202 to cover the rest (maybe 2, depending on what the property looks like). Make sure to do a site survey, and use 2 non-overlapping channels (out of 1, 6, 11 or 1, 5, 9, 13 - do NOT use overlapping channels and try to avoid overlapping the school - it's better to be on the same channels than it is to be on overlapping channels!). Set SSID and security the same so it's all seamless.

I just can't imagine you needing to reboot things any too often, but this would let you get everything in one building at least...

I've had extremely good luck with the EnGenius equipment, for what it is (low-end small office-type wireless). Their support is also fantastic.