Help extend my wifi

[billhydeiii]

Hello, I am trying to extend my wifi to my family that each live in seperate houses about 300' apart from each other and are staggered around on the property. We live in a remote area on acreage. I plan to do the following;
Location 1. From my wifi source and modem, connect my modem to a Linksys WRT54G (WAN), #1, from a numbered port of #1 hardwire connect to a WAP54G, #2, with an outside hi gain directional antenna and configured as a "repeater". At this location I should have a wireless network from #1.
Location 2. At this location I will have another WAP54G, #3, with an outside hi gain omni-directional antenna and configured as a "repeater" which would be connected to another WRT54G, #4, router which would provide this location an exclusive wireless network AND provide repeater service to location 3?
Location 3. This location will be equipped exactly the same as location 2. Location 4. This location also would be the same as 2 and 3 except it will have a directional antenna.
I do know that I will have to configure the WRT54G' and WAP54G's just not sure which have to match and which have to be sequencial?

 

[FLATBR0KE]

one of my sugestions would be to have the other house members use a cantenna you can make this on your own and it will help them boost your signal I use one at work. you can see an example here http://www.ebay.com/itm/CANTENNA-KIT-TRIPOD-USB-WIRELESS-WIFI-ANTENNA-802-11b-g-/170444458535?pt=US_Networking_Boosters_Extenders_Antennas&hash=item27af480a27 just so you can see what you would need to make your own.

 

[eibgrad]

Hmm, not sure about anyone else, but you lost me somewhere between locations #2 and #3. Might be more helpful to have a diagram in this particular case.

Anyway, directional antennas certainly help. And depending on distance AND whether it’s line of sight, might require better, long range equipment. But putting that aside for the moment, my major concern would be performance.

One of the downsides of traditional repeating is that since it’s based on a single radio performing two functions (wireless client on one side, wireless AP on the other), it needs to continuously toggle between them. And since only two wireless stations can communicate on the same freq/channel at any given time (all others must WAIT), each wireless “hop” has the potential to cut your effective throughput in HALF! And perhaps worse, can wreak havoc for response time sensitive applications (e.g., VOIP, gaming). IOW, it’s not very efficient. And the problem can grow exponentially as you add more repeaters in parallel (which I *think* may be the case here, as I said, I got kind of lost after a while).

Sometimes you’d be better off creating your own repeater using separate devices. Now you’d have TWO radios, one dedicated to each side (client and AP), and thus throughput and response times would improve, perhaps dramatically. But of course, that adds expense and perhaps even more complexity to what is already a rather complex setup.