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Suggestions for wireless bridge for 100 foot indoor distance

I rented a small office (15x35) and warehouse (20x45). They areseparated by about 100 feet of space which is occupied by 5 other small offices with walls made of sheetrock. Each location has 5 workstations and a switch. I want to connect them using a wireless bridge so they can do file sharing, printing, and share the broadband Internet connection. Running cat 5 is not an option. I want to survey the area first to make sure wireless will work. Would using a wireless access point and a laptop with a wireless card give me an accurate estimate of the kind of signal I would get with a wireless bridge? I am under the impression that bridges have a much greater range. I was considering the Cisco 1300 series because reliability is extremely important and I have seen Cisco WAP's successfully replace linksys in problem areas. I've also heard that their 1200 series AP's can work in bridge mode. So maybe that would be an option. Any suggestions on how to approach this would be greatly appreciated.

Reply to
Ned
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The db loss thru 5 walls will be substantial - each wall will create about 3 dB of loss

you will probably need to get a pair of high-gain directional antennas

a good company to deal with for antennas is Hyperlink Technologies in Boca Raton, Florida

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Reply to
Merv

You might want to ask on alt.internet.wireless, but a summary of a recent discussion on there about wireless in a building is:

1 wall without metal / foil backed board is OK, 2 is doable, 3 or more probably forget it.

a Cat 5 cable would be faster, more reliable and more secure if you can get the cable access.

If you cannot get a raceway, then maybe you could use homeplug to get a signal thru the power cables? exactly which units will depend on where you are in the world.

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Reply to
stephen

Thanks for your replies. I didn't realize each wall had such a big impact. Would placing a laptop at one end and an AP at the other give me some indication of what to expect with a bridge? Would Cisco vs Linksys make a difference?

Reply to
Ned

You could try using a laptop and an access point, but it is doubtful that the signal strength would be sufficient to communicate as the standard antennas on most AP are low-gain omnis.

As the other poster suggested you might want to beg the landlord to run a CAT5E cable between your office and the warehouse.

Reply to
Merv

Is there telephone wiring running from your office and the warehouse to a common point?

If so there are a number of long-reach Ethernet products that will work over CAT 3 cable

Reply to
Merv

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