Need to set up a wireless connection (about 250 metres)

i know nothing · 1 Jul 2011 at 12:54

I can't get ADSL where I live (long story, suffice to say I live overseas...).

Someone I know who lives approx. 250 metres away has it. He has offered to share his connection with me, but I must provide all the necessary kit. There is nothing but houses between mine and his (land is flat), no mountains etc.!

What do I need? :confused:

He has a home network set up at his and he runs WinXP, I have a standalone desktop PC that runs Win7. Not sure what other info I need to provide. Really looking for something simple to set up...

Rroff · 1 Jul 2011 at 12:56

Unless you have direct line of sight and use parabolic antennas (or the old pingles can trick) your gonna be pushed for signal over that distance.

i know nothing · 1 Jul 2011 at 13:09

Without climbing onto the roof I can't say for certain, but I highly doubt I would get 'line of sight' without some sort of obstacle like a house or tree in the way.

What sort of kit do businesses (like Starbuck's) use that have wi-fi? Would that do it?

ots3go · 1 Jul 2011 at 13:14

As per your example, Starbucks WiFi would just be an ordinary Access Point with a typical range.

To join two buildings together with wireless you'd need what Rroff is suggesting.

You could try putting a normal access point in your friends property, but I doubt you'd get a good signal, if any.

Redgie · 1 Jul 2011 at 13:15

The company I work for once used repeaters to achieve a similar distance across a business premises. However we used 3 repeaters, so you'd have to arrange it with neighbours who probably have wireless themselves!

Rroff · 1 Jul 2011 at 13:18

ots3go said:
As per your example, Starbucks WiFi would just be an ordinary Access Point with a typical range.

To join two buildings together with wireless you'd need what Rroff is suggesting.

You could try putting a normal access point in your friends property, but I doubt you'd get a good signal, if any.

I once managed almost 400m @ 1Mbit with just normal APs (reconfigured from linux) with direct line of sight outdoors, without any special aerials but with other houses in the way I highly doubt even thats possible.

sidethink · 1 Jul 2011 at 15:19

Have a quick peek a site called diywireless.net for a walk through of some of the issues and some kit that can do the job on a budget.

ots3go · 1 Jul 2011 at 16:15

Rroff said:
I once managed almost 400m @ 1Mbit with just normal APs (reconfigured from linux) with direct line of sight outdoors, without any special aerials but with other houses in the way I highly doubt even thats possible.

That's pretty impressive.
We had a couple of 802.11g AP's between a golf clubhouse & main building, about 100m apart. They connected at around 5Mb/s but would continuously drop and cause nothing but a major headache.
We resolved that one with directed antennas.

Troop · 1 Jul 2011 at 16:28

All you need really is an old sat dish with a 1 watt dongle placed near the centre of it, then you just point the sat dish at the point you need, its good for a line of sight range of 800-1000 mts, with a 1 watt dongle. (look for the 1 watt dongles on fleabay)

Edit
something like this

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Long-Rang...K_Computing_Networking_SM&hash=item3cb4c92961