Need to connect to a wireless network 320' away

You probably need to address both ends of the connection. See if your neighbor will place the WAP in a window facing you so it has no walls obstructing it. He will probably not want to put a directional antenna on it as it would reduce/eliminate the coverage for him. He might need to get a better antenna/higher gain on the WAP. On your end, suggest a directional antenna pointed at him. You could use a commercial USB directional antenna or build your own cantenna. See links below for more info on both:

Bob

If you (and, presumably, the neighbor) would consider burying a wire, could you not split the neighbor's cable connection and run coax to your machine? That's as much a question as a suggestion.

I don't know about wireless. I can't even make my router connection steady from 25 ft!

If I were going to the effort of burying cat-5 cable, for that distance I would bury a fiber optic cable. Over 300 feet is hard for ethernet on Cat 5. Distance impacts delay. A delay over 8 bytes for 10/100 ethernet means a "late collision", which is really, really bad.

While you could extend the range of the wireless network using a directional antenna, it wouldn't be as reliable as laying an armoured, outdoor fiber optic cable. Here's a company that has 1000' for $650. If you call Anixter or Graybar, I'm sure they have a shorter length available for less money. They often have partial spools from customer returns or custom lengths.

Here's something on e-bay ... find out how long the cable is ... it looks like it might be the right stuff. Even if it is single mode (over kill for 300'), it might work out for you.

And a site about fiber optic cable in general.

I believe the maximum rated distance for un-ammplifed ethernet connection is 384 feet..... that may have improved in recent years? I don't know, but it does sound like running an ethernet cable to your neighbor would be do- able. Certainly more secure and probably faster!

Others here have offered good advice for improving the wireless range. Good luck.

Ed

:> Whats the most solid connection to reasonable cost solution for this :> situation?

Get your own cable connection?

"Pierre" wrote in news:dbmdij$n7f$ snipped-for-privacy@lust.ihug.co.nz:

I'm sure with some searching I could find it, but do you happen to have a link that would show exactly what you made and how you made it? I am very interested....

Thanks!

I am running a shared ADSL connection in the neighborhood covering some 200 metres diameter with the AP being a bit offset from the centre. The AP has a

10db omni on the bargeboard of the house which provides full coverage of the house plus the remote clients. All the clients have 10dbi antennas pointing at the Omni.

All the antennas were homemade. The omni is made from a series of 1/4 wave sections of brass tube and the client antennas are biquads. Total antenna cost less than $40 for the omni and 4 clients. The clients all have USB adaptors mounted on the antenna to reduce cable losses as USB cable is cheaper and does not incur the same loss.

Results, rock solid connections everywhere and that is even after reducing the power of the AP (a Dlink 604T) to 25%.

Peter

Stick in some coax ethernet, 600'

speaking of directional antennas, here's a how-to link making your omni antenna into a directional one.

There are other antennas on the site, but here's one anyway.

The biquad can be found at

I actually mounted the small USB adaptor immediately behind the reflector and removed the USB antenna and used a short piece of coax to the base of the antenna feed where it came out of the brass tube at the rear. Total coax length was about 2 inches so losses were really minimised.

The omni is from

and was followed closely. Without the US quarter, I used a brass washer and the overflow pipe was a piece of 3/4 inch copper tube out of the scrap bin. In my case, an 18 element omni was constructed so that the radiation angle would be low, an important consideration in the terrain to be covered without extending up the surrounding hill areas. I suggest that you may well suffice with one of a few less elements, say 10 or 12.

Generally, dimensions are reasonable critical for correct performance but a decent soldering iron, a fine hacksaw and a Dremel tool made short work of the job. It is necessary to use LMR-400 cable for the omni as other types have differing characteristic that will change the lengths of each section.

Simple, cheap and very effective.

Peter