Outdoor wireless network for club

[SurpriseSlayer1]

So I have a beach club that I want to extend the WiFi system. I want to extend the network down to the beach for all of the members, so their will be a lot of network traffic. It is about 200 yards from the router that is inside the office in the club. I also want the network to extend on the deck outside, which is only 20 yards from the existing router. There are also tennis courts that are about 100yards from the club. How should I go about this? I don’t mind running cables to wherever needed. Also what equipment should I use. Thanks

 

[kanewolf]

Is there power available at the beach? Light pole(s) maybe?

If you have a clear line-of-sight, the deck and tennis courts aren't too hard. They probably both have power. I would wire an outdoor omnidirectional 2.4Ghz outdoor WIFI access point on the outside of the building for the deck. Something like this -- https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833168118

I would create point-to-point 5Ghz links for the beach and tennis courts. A PAIR or outdoor wireless bridge units pointing at each other. Something like this -- https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833168116 Then wire from the bridge to a 2.4Ghz omni WIFI like I linked above.

So assuming the beach and tennis courts are in different directions, you would have TWO directional outdoor units pointing in the two directions plus the deck access point all mounted on the outside of the clubhouse.

Add a POE switch in the clubhouse to power the outdoor units at the clubhouse.

 

[SurpriseSlayer1]

So the problem is that I don’t have access to both ends of the beach. The club house is the furthest to the right that is our land. And we own the beach in front, but we don’t have power all of the way to the left. So I’m wondering, for the point to point access points, would there be a way to have one access point that beams to one side with nothing stopping it? Of course I don’t want to ruin the security, so any recommendations? The deck is above the beach and about 30 yards back. Would there be a way to mount like an antenna that beams out over top of the beach?

 

[kanewolf]

If you don't have power at the beach you could setup the beach end as a solar powered installation. The Engenius devices can be powered off battery. You have to get a solar cell, charger and batteries in a weatherproof enclosure, but it is doable.

 

[SurpriseSlayer1]

In response to Kanewolf, so how do I set that up with my router? In our office, I just have the basic Comcast router. Should I buy something else? And how would the wiring to the router work?

 

[kanewolf]

As I said in my first post. You need to setup point-to-point links to your remote locations. One to the beach and one to the tennis courts. You wire the clubhouse outdoor directional unit into the router just like a PC. I would recommend you get a POE (power over ethernet) enabled switch and connect all the outdoor gear to it. From the POE switch you run a single ethernet cable to each outdoor device. One for the beach link, one for the tennis court link and one for the deck access point. That adds three WIFI sources. One 2.4 Ghz for the deck and two 5Ghz directional signals to your remote locations. At each remote location, you setup another 5Ghz directional bridge unit to complete the wireless link. You connect each of the wireless endpoints via ethernet to a 2.4Ghz omnidirectional access point for use by your guests. My guess is about $600 worth of equipment. Plus the solar infrastructure required for the beach. The good news is this infrastructure will allow you to have security cameras which can use these same wireless links back to the clubhouse.

 

[SurpriseSlayer1]

Here is what Im thinking. Thanks a lot for all the help so far. I decided that I can just wire five different devices. First, wire one access point inside the clubhouse (easy). Second, wire another AP to the outside of the clubhouse, preferably on the farthest pole on the deck, pointing back towards the clubhouse. I will install another wire down to the tennis courts, and put an access point there. People won’t be using the WiFi too much down there, so probably just gonna go with a lower grade AP. For the harder part, I will run two wires down the walkway to the beach. One will split to the right furthest part of our beach, and the same for the left. At the ends of the cables, I will put up a pole and put the two WiFi bridges pointing at each other. I still have a few questions. Any recommendations on cables to use? Must be weatherproof and be able to handle the salt air (corrosion etc). Also, I want to go with Ubiquiti products. I don’t care about the money part of it, I just want good connectivity for the many guests there will be on at once. So what products should I use from ubiquity? Also, since I’m running cables to all of the products, what type of ghz should I go with? I was just thinking go with dual band products all around, but I’m new at this so would there be a downside to this? Thanks.

 

[SurpriseSlayer1]

Another thing I am worried about is the distance of the cables. Is there any way to put three different access points on the beach? So one on each of the far ends, and one right in the middle?

 

[smorizio]

you may want to contact a local networking comp for help. for the outside wifi i would set up a biz account for just that area. then use a com cable modem and switch that let a lot of users use the same account at the same time. think of mcd and other bis that give out free wifi you want them to log on using a password. also want to be able after a set time to turn off a device so you dont have leaches. also want to be able to block people from playing games or porn on your wifi.