Wireless Networking?

[Firocket1690]

Eh. I asked a few people in the past few days, but couldn't come up with a clear answer.

My current situation is that my mother owns two houses, across the street from one another. And she's only willing to pay for internet for one house. So I was hoping I could get a wireless connection, and hope to receive it in the other house. As of now, we've spent $330 on a linksys wireless n router, and a belkin wireless n notebook receiver.

For testing purposes, I booted up my laptop in the first house (where the router is located) Sadly enough, with the router in the living room, and my notebook in my room (one wall away, about four inches thick) I get a 'fair' signal, at 216Mbps. In the other house, I get no signal at all. I'm considering replacing the Linksys router for a Belkin, if only for matching purposes, and hoping it'd be faster, but I doubt that'd be the case. The genius at best buy said it'd be compatible with my A+G receiver, and I already returned it once. The second time I went back, he said the belkin receiver should be sufficient. And now it's.. a bit slow. And he guaranteed 300 ft. with 5 bars of excellent signal, and it'd start to die off from there on. I get no signal over there at all. *pout*

...So. What now?

[Rubius-sama]

Run a 500' RJ45 cable from one house to the other.


Actually you can open up the router and attach two 12' antennas onto the solder points of its PCB and run them up to your roof if possible. That should boost the signal, but may be a bit too technical for some people.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Rubius-sama on 2007-10-07 18:07 ]</font>

[Shadowpawn]

Tech Support, people.

[HAYABUSA-FMW-]

On 2007-10-07 18:48, Shadowpawn wrote:
Tech Support, people.

VSkye visits here too, that one has a lot of game-connect related questions, new hardware stuff can go in Off Topic or TS, either or. Choosing hardware can seem to fit here better, setting it up, there? Both work fine, not a big deal.
(Back to your youtubez!)
-
Hope that connection if it does get around to working at that distance gets secured, so you won't be the one neighbor the other leech internet connections off of.

[HUnewearl_Meira]

On 2007-10-07 18:04, Rubius-sama wrote:
Run a 500' RJ45 cable from one house to the other.

An ethernet cable can only be expected to be reliable up to 300 feet, as I recall. Beyond that, the connection will be frustrating. Firocket would need to stick perhaps a couple of hubs along the way to act as signal boosters. Of course, another option would be to set up a wireless relay device or two between the houses, but again, this is far from being a flawless idea.

I'm thinking that the best setup would be to use a pair of microwave antennas, but that'd be unjustly expensive, and getting a second internet connection might just be cheaper.

Barring that, replacing the antennae with a more powerful device is probably a good idea, and to my knowledge, Firocket isn't afraid of soldering.

[Jared_T]

First off I wouldn't suggest using any wire from one building to another. You would most likely fry your equipment. And unless you want to use fiber wireless is the only way.

The antennas on the WRT300N are not removable from what I can see. I've used WRT54GS with a 14dBi antenna to shoot a signal over 600ft to supply internet access to an entire hotel. It looks like you got a nice AP but if it can't do the job use a WRT54GS with some hi gain antennas.

[Firocket1690]

This is my current situation. Most of it is self explanatory. My neighbor Paul has an open DHCP network, which I wouldn't mind leeching off of. I can get a weak signal outside my house, and around my porch (which is where this post is being typed), but despite my room being directly across from his, I can't get his signal at all. The red circles signify my home network, and..... yeah. so. what now?

Money generally isn't a problem, but purchases have to be .. what's the word for non-corporate products? consumers' private use? whatever. something we can typically get at a local store, or online without much trouble.

Hah. I'm intriguied. What can one do to soldier replacement antennas onto a router? Last I saw, Linksys also sells extended antennas (slightly longer) and can replace the default ones, for $60. But hell, soldering stuff to make stuff work sounds like fun. Nothing like risking damaging the new unjustly expensive router to attempt to enhance it, eh? For the record, I'm a bit of a messy .. solder-er. Last thing I modded was the sound chip on a staples easy button. Oh. And I love the way you guys refer to Firo as a third person 'it'. <3

...there are two guys walking down the street towards me, and they're creepy. I'm going home now. >.<;

Edit: Oh, and I always thought of tech support as directly related with the pso games, how to connect to server, game support, and general sega issues. That, and it's listed under Player Support Area (PSO and PSU). Sorry?


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Firocket1690 on 2007-10-07 21:30 ]</font>

[Shadowpawn]

Non-proprietary, that's the word you're looking for. Also, no grips about the topic being in Off-Topic even though it would work in Tech Support. Despite the fact it supposed to be tech related problems for the PSO/U games I've seen general PC questions be asked and answered in that forum.

Either way, technical support is still being perform for the topic creator. I just thought you would get better responses there I was wrong.

[Blitzkommando]

Or you can try the cheap thing first and create some parabolic antennas using cardboard and aluminum foil. You can get a full 10dB (sometimes even more) gain on the signal. Just be sure you aim it in the general direction of the other house. Alternatively, you could run the antenna outside your house and have excellent signal. The tough part of course is getting a response back from the computers. Just keep in mind that if anyone from the FCC lives near you (or anyone who would contact them), they might not like you breaking the law and having such powerful signals coming from your home without a license. And should you do this do not use anything other than a channel between 1 and 11 as anything else are prohibited by the FCC, and with a signal strong enough to go between those homes someone will likely notice it, and might even complain about interference with their own network.

Something to keep in mind is that 2.4GHz signals (802.11 is mainly 2.4GHz) are absorbed by water. Meaning, if you have large trees in the neighborhood they can absorb the signal. Also, just having a rainy day can disrupt signal between buildings. Also, 802.11n is designed for only a distance of 70m indoor. I assume your router isn't at an external wall, so it will have a degredation in signal outside the house, and near impossible to pick it up in your other house.

Really, by the time you pay for the hundreds of dollars in wireless equipment you may as well have gone with another internet plan for that house. Not to mention you'll save yourself the grief of trying to run a network at such distances using non-commercial products. While it certainly is possible, it definitely isn't an easy task and can be very expensive only to yield mediocre results.

While it is unlikely for someone to call the FCC on you, it's not unheard of for people to call in complaints. I remember a guy that lived a few houses down that had a radio transmitter so powerful it would transmit voices into our house's intercom system and cause radio-controlled cars to suddenly move/tweak out. One day it suddenly stopped, and it wasn't due to the family moving, so I can only imagine that someone finally grew tired of the interference and called up the FCC.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Norvekh on 2007-10-08 20:11 ]</font>