Setup wireless network with friend 1 km away.

[bseos]

Id like to know how i can setup a wireless network, (no internet sharing is needed) with my cousin who is about a kilometre away from me. What hardware do you suggest i use, and could you be kind enough to list the procedure on how i would go about on networking them. Thanks.

PS: Im using a desktop computer planning on getting a Netgear WG311 802.11g 54Mbps Wireless PCI Adapter,,, while my friend is using an Intel® Centrino® Mobile Technology laptop. Not sure on his wireless.

 

[jjw]

At those kind of ranges you will need external directional antennas on both ends. The internal antenna in ALL notebooks will be the weak link in the system.

First you should check if you have line of sight between the two locations. If you stand on your roof, and your cousin on theirs, can you see each other? What is in the way? Trees and earth are bad. Can you get your antennas up high enough to 'see' each other. Then think lightning rod... 8O

Seatle wireless has a lot of information to get you started on this project.

 

[bseos]

"First you should check if you have line of sight between the two locations. If you stand on your roof, and your cousin on theirs, can you see each other?"

Yeah, sort of, theres a few double story houses in the way of the direct line of sight though. Is that still ok.
My house is 2 and a half stories high, and my cousins house being just single story.

I would also like to ask if i need a wireless hub or can i connect directly to his computer/laptop.

PS: I also want his brother to connect to the wireless network, so what is the setup therE??? A wireless hub at their house or dont i need one???

 

[jjw]

His brother could connect directly with a wired connection, or it is likely that a second wireless network could be set up.

Back to the long haul link...

Any structure in the line of sight is an issue. Your signal distance will have a 'Frenzel Zone' of about 17' at your link distance. You will need a 17' hole to drive your signal through.

Some tools for computing wireless links
More tools
More

Try searching the net for wireless network antennas, there is tons of info out there.

Your setup will look something like this:
-- Wireless Access/Router with external antenna connection for Link "Endpoint A".
-- Wireless "access point with bridging" or Bridge or Network card with external antenna connection for "Endpoint B"
-- 2 directional roof mounted antennas (remember line of sight) with a gain of about 9-18 dB. should be able to buy something for ~30/40$ per end. Some antennas...

The higher the gain antenna the stronger the link, but more difficult to align. You will likely have to get your antennas above the roof by the distance computed by the frenzel zone to avoid interference from the houses in between. (Earth and trees are still bad too)

You can not 'bridge' a router to a router unless one or both support bridging. Some routers support adjusting the power output, Buffalo comes to mind, and many of their hardware has external antenna connections.

 

[bseos]

Thankyou jjw for your indepth research on my topic. I will do some research on the antenna as you said.

One thing which i would like to ask you is what hardware will i need? Say from scratch.
i.e wireless network card (x 3), wireless hub (x 1). FOr example. Can you please list the hardware required.

 

[bseos]

jjw, sorry to say but i was wrong before about the line of sight. I jus tmade an assumption that they would be in line of sight, but it seems that there are just too much houses in the way. Almost all being double story houses, i cannot see above their rooftops or around. Theres just too much in the way between my house and my friends house. Plus, if i do mount a antenna on my roof it wouldnt be in level with my cousins? Mines adouble story house, his is single, and the land is not flat and it dips down towards my cousins house making his house even lower.

Can i mount a third antenna on another house so that i can then have that house in sight of my cousins. But then again, if my cousin were to mount his antenna it wouldnt be level with the otherhosue, since that too is double story.

 

[jjw]

If you can find someone to let you mount an antenna to their roof then you are good. It will double the amount of hardware you will need. To reach your cousins house you can just adjust the angle of tilt (point it down.)

You might be able to eliminate the house in the middle if you can mount the antennas on a tall enough mast. But the neighbors may complain, and a tall tower is bound to attract lightning!

With the addition of a 3rd house your setup sounds more like the network being built by seattlewireless.net.

 

[bseos]

Can oy uplease list me all the required hardware i need. Please.

 

[bseos]

IS there any way of setting it up if there is no way of gaining los?

 

[bseos]

http://img132.imageshack.us/my.php?image=image19au.jpg
http://img209.imageshack.us/my.php?image=image21fg.jpg

My house is the one closest to "Copperfield Drive", now i want to connect to the house furtherest to me (my cousins house), which is on "Rockland Ct".

Problem is there is no line of sight betwen these two houses, and the only way to achieve LOS is to setup a third antenna on my friends house, which is in between my house and my cousins house.


Now, can someone please tell me what hardware will be required for this. Thakyou.
<like recommended antennas i should use, Wireless NIC, and etc, including the amount of hardware of that type)

 

[jjw]

Look at these:

WHR-HP-G54 - Access Point
WLI-TX4-G54HP - Ethernet Converter


The above buffalo products are supposed to have a higher output power and have a connection for an external antenna. You can look at other companies with bridging products too, but it seems that they have lost interest in this type of thing...

As for external antennas, I linked a site above that has some. Try this:
2.4 GHz 14 dBi Backfire Wireless LAN Antenna It has a relatively wide beamwidth, making it easier to aim.

You will also need a RP-SMA Plug connector plug cable (at one end) and a N-Male connector (at the other end) to connect the buffalo box to the antenna. Verify this cable will work! You should be able to find longer cables, but not recommended, mount the buffalo box as close as possible to the antenna and run ethernet cable to it. It will need to be waterproofed, unless you plan to take it down on a daily basis (or it doesn't rain where you are)

There are several options to set up your link. You may be able to get your link to work directly to your cousin's but I wouldn't bet on it. Try setting up a simple link first (single point to point) Then if that works, go for the point to point to point linkup.

I think the rough cost of the the above is just under $200 (2 buffalo boxes, 2 antenna, 2 cables) this will give you a single point to point link. Double that to add the next link.

Since you are roughly halving the link distance by adding a central point; another option is to add an omni-directional antenna at the center link location and to use WDS to connect the dots. This setup would be a little cheaper as you would end up with 1 less buffalo box.

Either way start with a single link and play around. Get the hardware working in the same room first (configure the router, etc) That way you can focus on pointing antenna instead. First try the link from your house to your friends, then move the equipment from your house to your cousins and try that link.

You could try building your own antenna's; --there are many sites on the web and it doesn't look that hard, but it adds some risk or potential frustration.

 

[iskidoo]

Look at these:

WHR-HP-G54 - Access Point
WLI-TX4-G54HP - Ethernet Converter


The above buffalo products are supposed to have a higher output power and have a connection for an external antenna. You can look at other companies with bridging products too, but it seems that they have lost interest in this type of thing...

As for external antennas, I linked a site above that has some. Try this:
2.4 GHz 14 dBi Backfire Wireless LAN Antenna It has a relatively wide beamwidth, making it easier to aim.

You will also need a RP-SMA Plug connector plug cable (at one end) and a N-Male connector (at the other end) to connect the buffalo box to the antenna. Verify this cable will work! You should be able to find longer cables, but not recommended, mount the buffalo box as close as possible to the antenna and run ethernet cable to it. It will need to be waterproofed, unless you plan to take it down on a daily basis (or it doesn't rain where you are)

There are several options to set up your link. You may be able to get your link to work directly to your cousin's but I wouldn't bet on it. Try setting up a simple link first (single point to point) Then if that works, go for the point to point to point linkup.

I think the rough cost of the the above is just under $200 (2 buffalo boxes, 2 antenna, 2 cables) this will give you a single point to point link. Double that to add the next link.

Since you are roughly halving the link distance by adding a central point; another option is to add an omni-directional antenna at the center link location and to use WDS to connect the dots. This setup would be a little cheaper as you would end up with 1 less buffalo box.

Either way start with a single link and play around. Get the hardware working in the same room first (configure the router, etc) That way you can focus on pointing antenna instead. First try the link from your house to your friends, then move the equipment from your house to your cousins and try that link.

You could try building your own antenna's; --there are many sites on the web and it doesn't look that hard, but it adds some risk or potential frustration.

Using the above listed Buffalo unit and the backfire antenna with the suggested cables what do you think is the most distance you could achieve using that setup?

In the post about the 3.5 mile wireless bridge (David Taylor) said that it could be set up for under $100 bucks. I would be very interested in getting some more info about how and what is needed, and where to purchase the needed parts for that price.

 

[jjw]

I read the post you referenced...

My solution (~200$) is all off the shelf components. I would have to guess that his solution is using homemade antennas, and such. Thats OK, just more risk, hassle and such. If things don't work then you can only blame yourself. I also could not find any of the older generation bridges (802.11b) at the MFG's websites, these would be cheaper if you can find them. The buffalo hardware I suggested is pretty reasonable. (~60$ at newegg.)

My cost would be a little low, it does not include the cost of mounting hardware, waterproof enclosures, etc.

I have not done any calculations at to a maximum link distance, I just provided a solution that I felt confident of making the link. I think my suggestion would be overkill, allowing for some margin for error.

If you want to figure out the actual range you need to know the transmit power, recieve sensitivy, losses over the ground (usually provided in most online calculators) and the antenna gains. I provided links above to some of these tools, more are to be found.

One note, the FCC does care about how much power you are radiating into free space and does have limits. It has been a while since I've looked into it but I believe more transmit power is permited with higher gain antennas. They won't be knocking on my door, but your's 8O (not that I've heard of it actually happening!)