Networking to a seperate building

[Matt]

I need to connect two buildings that are some distance apart, probably at least 100m, without direct line of sight and without any sensible method of using a network cable (though I am open to less sensible ideas!).

Just wondering if anyone can suggest simple ways of doing this, possibly using wifi range extenders - any suggestions on good/cheap ones?

Diagram: Need to network between buildings A and B.



[-------------]
[--Building A--]
[-------------]

[-------------]
[-------------]
[-------------]
[-------------]
[-------------]
[-------------]
[-------------]
[-------------]
[-------------]
[-------------] [---------------------]
[-------------] [-------Building B-----]
[-------------] [---------------------]

[Bok]

I use a wireless bridge to connect my machines in the garage but that's only 10 meters or so between access points.

Easy enough to do.

100M might provide a little more of a challenge though..

Bok

[LAURENU2]

Could use a AC power line to transmit your data
It should work as long as both buildings are on the same power grid
http://www.frys.com/product/5240847?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

[Matt]

Unfortunately the buildings are not on the same power grid. A wireless bridge may be the answer, any suggestions on hardware?

It's also occured to me that I could use a very roundabout route of a 3G USB adapter in one building to connect to the other building via the internet and a VPN.

[gopher_yarrowzoo]

Matt - as long as they are both the same make / model they should easily set up 100m is a challenge but i'm sure you can get long range ones.. I mean they do claim upto 250m external so maybe see if you can put the aerials externally or at least near windows. I know you've got no direct Line of Sight what exactly is "in the way" as that will affect the signal.
It's a pity you can't sting a line between Building "A" the middle around the middle then to building "B".
I'd say any wifi router that is "N" rated i.e 108Mbit each way would do as that will give you the best range.. Netgear is good kit as is Vigor stuff not up on my wifi as well most of the time at work we don't need to spec the network kit.

[IronBits]

Long Term Evolution is just around the corner. 4G LTE looks pretty fast.

[Shish]

I've used 2 Netgear 11n over about 200 metres with another roof in the way. Still got better than 54g speeds and good connection. Cost us £105.00 for both and worked out cheaper than running fibre or using a repeater in the middle which we'd have needed a 3rd unit for. We tried normal cat5 over the ground but it came out above 300m and no connect. We also tried with 2 borrowed dish external antennas but got no better connect than putting the units in a window position still without direct line of site. The roof in the way did not have foil type insulation which is another signal stopper and can kill any chance. It also had an internal pair of partition walls. Could have used decent cheap outdoor antennas but didn't need them. Very much suck it and see as each location will be different. 3G is or can be quite slow in the UK and even HSDPA is not living up to it's promised speeds and is also expensive for any decent data loads.

[LAURENU2]

If your going wireless you will need a good Antenna
These will give you a reang up to 2 miles

http://www.frys.com/product/4560567

http://www.frys.com/product/5398448

[Shish]

as an addendum (added) to previous post....oddly enough, we found 5Ghz 11n with another unit (all units can be configured as access point or repeater or base usb unit) in the middle as a repeater (3 units total all of which can use 1 of 3 modes) worked with higher speeds than when running on 2.4Ghz despite repeating theoretically halving the ultimate 270mbps rate available under perfect conditions. You could always string a cat5/6 between 1st 2 buildings with a switch in the middle as repeater, would give you theoretically double the normal 300ft range of cat5. Easy to suck it and see if you can borrow a couple or three demo units perhaps as you are edu or big user of hardware?

[Digital Parasite]

Using 802.11N would be the way to go, might look at dual-band 2.4GHz and 5.1GHz units so you can try both to see what gives you the best range.

And since the N standard was just finalized make sure you get *new* equipment that has full N standard support (or can be flash upgraded to it) and not just draft N as they made lots of improvements in the final release compared to the draft.

Jeff.

[Matt]

Thanks for all your comments, I have taken the plunge and bought a "wireless gaming adapter" which is essentially a wireless receiver that, the plan is to have this at one end of the long building - at the end nearest building B. This will receive the wireless signal from the router in building B. Then I'll run a network cable along inside the long building and put a DLink router at that end in "bridge" mode (LAN cable just plugged into the switch instead of the WAN port and DHCP turned off). Then hopefully the signal from this router will reach as far as a USB wifi receiver plugged into the PC in building A. It's rather a roundabout route but hopefully it should work and will mean I will only have had to spend £20 on the wireless receiver thingy.

See network map for what I mean (the green circles are WIFI coverage fields)

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/2074/networkmap.th.png (http://img12.imageshack.us/i/networkmap.png/)