Media for Wireless on the ranch

Wireless on the ranch

Here goes: I'm putting together an internet system for our "ranch" down here on the coast in Mexico to share among six neighbors. We are spread among three ridges and two arroyos, but pretty close, all about 75 - 150 meters from the central distribution point.

We got the satellite system installed at a central point and have a Linksys wrt54g hooked up to it. The sat modem and router are in a box on the side of a building, where I hope to be able to mitigate the corrosion somewhat. Three neighbors are able to connect by ethernet, and three will be wireless, including me, at the farthest, about 150 meters line of sight across the arroyo.

Monday we are going to cut some trees, stick the router up on a pole for a test and see how the signal reaches for the various houses. This will help decide which antenna to get.

My plan is to run an omni antenna on a pole at the center to get the

200 degrees coverage I need horizontally. Then use matching repeaters in each of the three houses (with optional ext. antennas) to allow us to use our laptops around each house.

My questions have two parts: ANTENNAS and RADIOS. Mostly, I'm explaining my plan to see where the flaws are, if there are better solutions, if it should work.

RADIOS to start as my neighbor wants to know what to buy as soon as we do the tests.

We already have a linksys WRT54G. They are common and easy to replace when they go out in 6-24 months as everything here does.

It looks like if we go with DD-WRT on these, then I can boost the power on each end a bit (avoiding alligators-right?). If using aftermarket linux firmware, then I understand that I can use a WRT-54G at each house as well, as these are supposed to work as repeaters, clients whatever on DD WRT. I like this idea of having all the same boxes easy to swap out for problem solving. (They will be the WRT54GL actually)

So, does this seem like it will work? I know that many dislike repeaters, I understand that using a single radio as one is pushing it. But we each want the signal in various parts of the house, not just in one corner or cable. And it seems like an elegant solution. Only one laptop will be on each repeater, and the repeaters will be apart from each other, in a star around the central antenna.

After the tests, Monday, I would also like to discuss my antenna choice.

I hope this is clear enough to follow...