[SOLVED] Need help setting up a Marina for wifi

[cstraubs1]

Our clubhouse is only about 1000 foot away,direct line of sight to our small marina. Only other detail is the clubhouse is approx. 100 higher up a hill,and trying to get a good strong signal to all the 40 boats. Any good suggestions on a Booster/extender setup?

 

[bill001g]

Look at ubiquiti equipment for ideas.

The 1000 ft range you will need to use point to point connection. Not likely going to work from each boat. One end being higher than the other generally does not matter as long as nothing blocks the signal.

Likely the best option would be to put a direcitonal antenna on some central pole or small tower at the marina to connect back tot he main location. Then put outdoor AP on this location in the marina to talkt to the end boats. what exact equipment you use will depend on how much speed you need and how spread out the boats are at the far end. You may have to use directional AP equipment on the remote end to get better coverage. You want to avoid having to use directional equipment on boats since they move around.

 

[cstraubs1]

Look at ubiquiti equipment for ideas.

The 1000 ft range you will need to use point to point connection. Not likely going to work from each boat. One end being higher than the other generally does not matter as long as nothing blocks the signal.

Likely the best option would be to put a direcitonal antenna on some central pole or small tower at the marina to connect back tot he main location. Then put outdoor AP on this location in the marina to talkt to the end boats. what exact equipment you use will depend on how much speed you need and how spread out the boats are at the far end. You may have to use directional AP equipment on the remote end to get better coverage. You want to avoid having to use directional equipment on boats since they move around.

Measuring off of Google Maps..looks closer to the 500 foot range. Would you still suggest point to point?

 

[bill001g]

The end devices still will not be able to talk that far. If everyone was standing outside you might get a couple hundred feet and you would still need directional antenna on the main side.

Even if you use point to point to get the signal down to the marina if it is too spread out you will still have issues getting the signal from this new location to all the end users.

You have to remember people have issue getting good signal inside their house and the distance is well under 50ft. Walls and other materials absorb huge amount of signals.

 

[kanewolf]

Measuring off of Google Maps..looks closer to the 500 foot range. Would you still suggest point to point?

You setup a point-to-point or point-to-multipoint from the clubhouse to the marina. Then outdoor access points (yes multiple) as required to cover the distances. You need to put up a "test" AP, then go into a boat and see what kind of signal a phone or tablet SENDs to the AP. Continue to move further away and repeat. That is the only way to determine how many APs will be required.
You may decide that wired infrastructure at the marina with a wireless link to the clubhouse may be the best implementation.

 

[cstraubs1]

You setup a point-to-point or point-to-multipoint from the clubhouse to the marina. Then outdoor access points (yes multiple) as required to cover the distances. You need to put up a "test" AP, then go into a boat and see what kind of signal a phone or tablet SENDs to the AP. Continue to move further away and repeat. That is the only way to determine how many APs will be required.
You may decide that wired infrastructure at the marina with a wireless link to the clubhouse may be the best implementation.

Looking closer, there is a light pole directly down from the clubhouse that you could run a hardwire to and mount an antenna/access point. How many access point do you think would be needed (ballpark guess) for a 200 foot x 300 foot area.

 

[kanewolf]

Looking closer, there is a light pole directly down from the clubhouse that you could run a hardwire to and mount an antenna/access point. How many access point do you think would be needed (ballpark guess) for a 200 foot x 300 foot area.

You are going to have to do something similar to my previous post -- a site survey. You do that by setting up a test access point and moving a device around to see how well it can connect. If you want coverage IN the boats you need much better signal strength.

 

[bill001g]

Looking closer, there is a light pole directly down from the clubhouse that you could run a hardwire to

Ethernet cable is limited to 100 meters so take that into consideration. Fiber is generally used when you exceed this limit. There are some other technology like private dsl type connections but I don't know how well it works