how to get wireless signal to go 300'

david fraleigh fired this volley in news: snipped-for-privacy@f63g2000hsf.googlegroups.com:

As an aside to this -- I must live in an extremely RF-quiet area, even considering the cell tower a mile from my house.

I live on 20 acres, with my shop a minimum of 500' from the nearest neighbor's home. Yet, I routinely receive a wireless-G signal from one of them at sufficient signal strength to sustain 10mb/s. I am _certain_ neither one of them has any technical expertice at all (neither could drive a wheelbarrow without a co-pilot), and there are no directional antennae aimed at my barn.

Hmmmm....

LLoyd

You'd likely have to bury it more than 6" deep, check with local building codes.

Do you have clear line-of-sight between the buildings? As in, no trees or other vegetation that will leaf out later in the season? If so then you're a good candidate for using a pair of routers with directional antennae. It's better to use two routers separate from anything else you have providing wireless in the current structure. The directional antenna to go point-to-point isn't going to offer decent coverage in the existing structure. The link can be 802.11g (or even B) instead of 802.11(draft)n. A pair of 802.11g routers can be had for the price of one draft N unit. Then it's just a matter of setting up the gear. Your most important point to consider is keeping the RF cabling VERY, VERY short, using good quality cabling. The longer the cable, the less signal strength (in layman's terms) you're going to get between the devices. So plan on putting the router very close to the antenna.

Then once you've got the point-to-point set up you can use the wired jacks on the distant end to connect computers. If you want more wireless out in that building too then you'd hang an access point off the wired ports.

-Bill Kearney

Should be easy if you have line of sight.

Stick with G.

Instead, first try putting a homemade reflector on the stock omni antenna to make it directional and locate the router itself where you want the antenna. This is cheaper, easier and avoids the antenna cable (what Bill is warning about) that a cantenna requires.

Steve

For some reason, this would not post as one, so here' part 2:

Cable is always the most certain connection if you are willing to do the work. You can still hang an Access Point off of it at the shop if you want.

Powerline networking is 3rd option to consider, more reliable than wireless if your wiring supports it.

There are others (Jeff ) on this forum that can tell you how to do this with above cables. I doubt it's worth it unless the other cables are already installed to the garage.

Assuming line of sight, do a test -

1) Put a reflector on your existing router and put it in line of sight to shop- a window facing it, for example. 2) Take a laptop, connect it wireless to same router and walk over to the shop. Watch the signal and note when the connection drops.

If it makes it all the way to the shop where you can use the connection, then the solution is simply a router/reflector in your home's window. If it does not make it, then I'd go with cable or consider powerline networking.

Cable is always the most certain connection if you are willing to do the work. You can still hang an Access Point off of it at the shop if you want. wireless there.

Powerline networking is 3rd option to consider, more reliable than wireless if your wiring supports it.

There are others (Jeff ) on this forum that can tell you how to do this with above cables. I doubt it's worth it unless the other cables are already installed to the garage.

Assuming line of sight, do a test -

1) Put a reflector on your existing router and put it in line of sight to shop- a window facing it, for example. 2) Take a laptop, connect it wireless to same router and walk over to the shop. Watch the signal and note when the connection drops.

If it makes it all the way to the shop where you can use the connection, then the solution is simply a router/reflector in your home's window. If it does not make it, then I'd go with cable or consider powerline networking.

Try the G first, you might be surprised at the performance. I recently got a freebie Linksys BEFW11S4 which is only 802.11b to use in my shop, 100' from the house. I put it on the overhead shelf of my PC desk, so it's about 15' from there to a window facing the shop; I use my wireless laptop anywhere in the shop with no problem.

forget N, stick with G, and maybe not even a wireless link... what is your garage/workshop walls made from? How does it get it's power? Mine is about

300 ft from the house, (was 30x30 made into a 16x30 garage and 14x30 workshop) but the anodized side panels (on a metal frame) blocked any wireless signals, when I ran power to the outbuilding (direct burial power cable from the house, needed lots of amps for the welder/compressor/etc) i got a few wap/routers and used powerline networking stuff (netgear, about $130 at staples to tie the wap/router in the house to the wap/router in the outbuilding (gave me both wired AND wireless in the outbuilding)... Plus was (you didn't say where you are, but in northern idaho it snowed a LOT during the winter, and a lot of green stuff grew in the summer, water as in snow or green leafy stuff absorbs/blocks signals, and you need a certain amount of clearnce aka fresnel zone), so the thing worked year round, instead of only at certain times....

wired option: a bulk pack of 500' CAT5 Ethernet cable costs less than a hundred bucks, but consider the cost of installation,

wireless option: 802.11G/B single input/single output is best for long range wireless and antennas set up. 802.11N or MIMO are not suitable for this purpose

with two Linksys WRT54G v3.0 routers running on DD-WRT, 250mW of TX power with 9dBi omni antennas (one router as AP, another as client) i can do a 300' link with no clear line-of-sight. it's a complete indoor set up, behind walls, trees and all..

cheers!!