O/T - Wireless LAN

[AJLintern]

I know there are a few IT types on here - does anyone know anything about building a Wireless LAN? My mate lives about 400 yards away across a field (in line of sight) and we want to network our PCs together. Is there any commercially available system that would do this for not too much money?

[pdv6]

There's an article on how to do this in Personal Computer World November 2002 edition.

[Bonce]

Take a look at this thread:

www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=16371&f=23&h=0

I think you'd be lucky to get 400 yards, I'm struggling to keep a connection from the webcam in the garage to the access point 12 metres away in the house.

Take a look at www.megabird.co.uk to see it in action, and see how frequently the wireless link breaks!

[Whoozit]

You *may* be able to get a connection using standard wireless LAN equipment - but signal strength is vastly affected by intervening structures, even just the outside walls of the house. I've got a wireless 802.11b network at home, and if there are more than two walls/floors in the way, even if the wireless point is less than ten metres away in a straight line it can be difficult to connect at a reasonable speed.

You can buy powered aerial extenders that will increase the signal strength. However you have to bear in mind that you are broadcasting your network access to EVERYBODY in the area so you should check up on the security aspects of a wireless LAN.

[plotloss]

Yep should be no problem at all, and there is no shortage of websites and magazines outlining the process.

Matt.

[AJLintern]

Thanks for the replies chaps!

[craigalsop]

quote:I think you'd be lucky to get 400 yards, I'm struggling to keep a connection from the webcam in the garage to the access point 12 metres away in the house.

I guess there must be ones of vastly different signal strength - a couple of years ago, my brother (who used to work for a company that sold em) managed to get 5 miles out of one (Line of sight, nothing in the way etc etc) At the time all the gear was about £400 IIRC, so should be cheaper now.

cheers,
Craig

[joust]

Firstly - remember that 2.4Ghz unlicensed (class license more specifically) stuff is very prone to interference from lots of things (traffic lights being a prime example...)

However, for direct point to point line of sight you should be able to get 1-2km with just the right antenna.

If you want to do it properly - then check out something like
www.alvarion.com/RunTime/Products_2020.asp?tNodeParam=15

Otherwise - just buy the normal stuff and make sure you have direct line of sight between the two sites - you'll then be fine...

J

[AJLintern]

Shouldn't be much interferance - there is just a road and a big field between our house and his back garden. Does this mean that some systems are powerfull enough to transmit over this sort of distance even without an aerial?

[tuffer]

Try this www.netscum.com/~clapp/wireless.html or this www.seattlewireless.net/index.cgi/DirectionalYagi or this www.turnpoint.net/wireless/has.html or here www.fab-corp.com/index.htm or even here www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/D.Jefferies/yagiuda.html that should sort you out......

[joust]

Yep - if it's cl;ear line of sight then the standard "two antenna" ones (have an antenna out of both sides of the box) that you can find in PCWorld etc. should work fine.

*Don't* get a PCMCIA card though and expect it to work - the power output on them is much lower than the dedicated "external" units.

J

[ultimapaul]

Just ask the farmer if he wouldn't mind a bit of Cat6 cable being strung up accross his land ...... A couple of repeaters and a genni and your be well sorted.

Paul.

[miniman]

Take a look at

http://consume.andylaurence.co.uk/

and

www.consume.net

[joust]

quote:
www.consume.net

Funny - there's someone called "Mad Mungo" just down the road from me.....

Now - surely it couldn't be the same Mungo could it???

J