distance of wireless

jasperok

thinking of setting up a wireless Lan (so i can share an internet connection) between two houses 100 metres apart- is this possoble? each pc is located in the room closest to the destination house (ie signal only has to travel through one wall of house to get outside and into one wall of other house - not multiple walls and elictric wires etc)- is it just as easy as buying two wirless pci cards and away you go?
ta
jasperr

Random

If it's 100m you may well be pushing the signal, expecially if there's 2 external walls in the way.

The distance of standard Wireless is 100m, line of sight.

Best way is to try it and find out, but I reckon the signal will be too weak.

cormy

If you were using a wireless router/Access Point at one end you might have a chance of making this work, but with 2 wireless PCI cards (an 'ad hoc' network), this just wont work out over that distance and without line-of-sight. A similar setup to the one you propose that I tried didn't work over a distance of 5 metres, when passing through 2 plasterboard walls! By all means try it out - but preferably with borrowed hardware (to save yourself from shelling out for the 2 cards etc).

If it doesn't work, the next step would be to get a wireless access point/router (recommendations on model anyone?), and a wired ethernet card for the PC that has the internet connection (PC 1) (if it doesn't already have an ethernet port), plus one wireless card for the other PC (PC 2). Then connect the whole shebang roughly as follows:

Internet connection -> PC 1 -> Ethernet Card -> Router/AP -> Wireless link -> Wireless PCI card (PC 2) -> PC 2

Clear as mud? - There's plenty of how-to's much better than the above on web. If you do try it with the 2 PCI cards only let us know how you get on...

Capt'n Midnight

at present , wireless in the kitchen, through firewall to attic, then 8km wireless link to next hop...

of course an external antenna is needed for the 8,000m link.

it depends on what the walls are made of - unless you are in japan and use paper it's going to kill off most of the signal - try near a window - if you can get pci cards with external antennas it may help - or usb devices so you can put the device near the window or at the focal point of a dish / wok.

borrow a laptop to try it out

nilhg

Have a look at this, give Justin at wi-pipe a ring and he will sort you out.

alantc

Hi, I'm planning on doing the same thing this week. I just moved into an apartment block and want to share someones connection. They're living on the ground floor, me on the third and we're both on the same side. I was planning on buying a router/modem and putting it at her window and my PC is by my window anyway.

My PC is a shuttle so I have to buy their own wireless card. (link below)
The specs on the web say

Operating Range:
Open Space: Up to 400 Meters
Indoor: Up to 100 Meters

so I assume it'll be ok. Should any bog standard wireless router do? I just want you guys to reassure me that I'm not investing e200 in paperweights.

Anyone know of particular brands that do distance better?


Thanks.

will





http://eu.shuttle.com/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-123/241_read-1761/

dub45

alantc wrote:

Hi, I'm planning on doing the same thing this week. I just moved into an apartment block and want to share someones connection. They're living on the ground floor, me on the third and we're both on the same side. I was planning on buying a router/modem and putting it at her window and my PC is by my window anyway.

My PC is a shuttle so I have to buy their own wireless card. (link below)
The specs on the web say

Operating Range:
Open Space: Up to 400 Meters
Indoor: Up to 100 Meters

so I assume it'll be ok. Should any bog standard wireless router do? I just want you guys to reassure me that I'm not investing e200 in paperweights.

Anyone know of particular brands that do distance better?


Thanks.

will





http://eu.shuttle.com/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-123/241_read-1761/

From what I have read it is very difficult to give a guarantee that any particular equipment will work without actually trying it as every situation is unique. Cant remeber where I read the article but apparently some of the major wireless network equipment companies have experienced lots of problems in Europe and the UK (number of equipment returns is much higher than the US) because of the thickness of walls and the materials in the walls.

As someone suggests elsewhere might be best to try and borrow a laptop and see if it picks up a signal before you spend the money.

Some of the shops in town sell the
Kingston WiFi Finder certainly Peats did have them. They light up in the presence of a wireless signal - only problem is the signal they are detecting may not be your friend's!!!