cheap 250yd wireless link

Oct 05, 2005 2 Replies

I am looking for a quick and cheap method of linking PCs in two buildings, over a span of about 250 yards. I have a hand full of Linksys wireless routers (verious models) and have been unable to locate a method of linking them wirelessly. The two buildings have direct line of sight (with the occasional piece of heavy equipment passing by on occasion). The current set up has two Cat5e cables running the distance. This settup is being removed today, due to construction on the proporty, and will not be able to be replaced with a simular setup.



One quick and dirty idea that has come into play was to have a Linksys router at one end, and a PC at the other building, with a wireless NIC card and a nic connected to the building's network.



Would anyone have a better suggestions?



Mike mlawrenc(at)gmail.com



250yds, LOS, and two WRT54G routers and you'll probably have a link without any external antennas. Two WRT54Gs connected to external, reasonably directional, antennas and you'll be perfect.

I have a WRT54G running Sveasoft Talisman firmware in the window of a house

1000' from mine. It's inside, with no external antenna. At my home, I have a WRT54G running the same software, attached to a Fab-Corp 14dbi directional antenna, pointing at the other one. Reception is next-to-perfect. Mine runs in WDS mode (not available in the stock firmware) - and manages to distribute the signal wirelessly in my house from the second antenna (_don't_ count on that - I was told it wouldn't work, and I'm not sure why it does, but I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth) and also distributes the signal through the wired lan.

iirc, two of the FAB antennas and 10' pigtails to connect to the rp-SMA adapters on the WRT54G will run you around US$100, but you could be up and running on a

If you enable the bridging feature in XP for example, yes that should work.

Well you could always use a pair of wireless bridges! Many access points support bridging mode, some routers too.

David.

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