Wireless Network for Lake Cabins

"Mike Schumann"

| We have a cabin on a 100 acre lake in WI. Our lake association is thinking | about putting in a wireless network so that we can provide internet access | to the 32 cabins on the lake. | | The maximum distance across the lake is about 2,000 ft. We could locate 3 | access points / repeaters at key locations on the lake and provide line of | site to almost everyone. | | Does anyone have any suggestions for what equipment we should use? Can we | get by with standard 802.11G type gear or should we wait for WI-MAX to | become commercially viable?

Propagation should be fine over water, if the cabins are in the bushes the path losses at that point this may be a concern. Also be aware the on days when the lake is perfectly smooth you may experience some signal fades due to phase canceling from multi path off the lake. Likely not to happen often but a heads up. A partial solution is to raise or lower the antenna on either end a bit. (3 to 9 inches should be enough). As this a single point to a multi-point I'd do the deed on the remote end.