Hi, what is the cheapest way to make a WiFi Network between two buildings with 1600ft in between? Thank you. GL
- posted
19 years ago
Hi, what is the cheapest way to make a WiFi Network between two buildings with 1600ft in between? Thank you. GL
In the 1600 ft between building are there any obstructions?
Do you have line of sight between the buildings?
What type of use are you trying to have such as a single computer on one end talking to an access point or do you plan on bridging networks? How important is quality and reliability?
Cheapest? Well, two USB radios with a 16ft max USB extension cable on the roofs. Setup the radios for Ad-Hoc mode so exactly two computers can talk to each other. No access point required (or useable). Older
802.11b USB radios go for as low as $15/ea. You will need a bit more antenna gain, so shoving the USB radio inside a 1 lb coffee can will help.Of course, this is probably not what you wanted. It's kind hard to offer advice without known the nature of the path (any trees), what type of traffic you plan to move (speed), and what type of machines, broadband, servers, etc. are at each end.
Yes, we have line of sight between the buildings, no blockage. Wish to have 2 or 3 computer at one end talking to an access point at the other. If not possible, one PC talking to the access point is acceptable. Preferred to have 11mbs or above reliable connection. Thank you for your help. GL
Yes, we have line of sight between the buildings, no blockage. Wish to have 2 or 3 computer at one end talking to an access point at the other. If not possible, one PC talking to the access point is acceptable. Preferred to have 11mbs or above reliable connection. Thank you for your help. GL
Ok. What you need is either two transparent bridge boxes, or a "workgroup bridge". Since you want cheap, I suggest a pair of Linksys WAP54G boxes in "bridge mode". These will pass 32 MAC addresses which means you can have a total of 30 computahs on the bridge.
1600ft is too far to do with the cheezy antennas that come with the WAP54G. My guess(tm) is that you'll need want at least 14dBi dish or panel antennas at each end. Running some very rough calculations using:Plugging into:
I get a fade marine of 23.7dB, which is good enough. You could probably get away with slightly less antenna gain. A 24Mbit/sec connection should give you about 12Mbits/sec thruput, which is adequate.
Note that I assumed 3dB loss in the coax cable and connectors. However, you offered no information about the location of the radios and antennas, so this is just a guess(tm).
This solution may not be the absolute cheapest possible, but it will work.
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