Wireless bridge between two houses - Trying RT-AC66U's

[ickybot]

I'm trying to setup a wireless bridge between two homes that are about 170ft apart. I had one, and bought a second Asus RT-AC66U router and am trying to figure this out. I have direct line of sight between the houses except my primary router has to go through one wall (I can probably increase the distance 10ft and put it in a window instead). I was able to get a 2.4GHZ connection on my phone by standing next to a window in the house #2 but it wasn't very fast. I was hoping to get an AC bridge between the houses but now I'm not sure the signal will reach that far (on my phone 5GHz drops out in house #2).

I'm playing around with the two Asus routers just 20ft apart right now to see how bridging works. First I tried media bridge mode bud realized that I don't want that because then the secondary router can't have any wireless devices connect. Then I tried playing with the bridge settings and couldn't get it to work at all. I finally realized that having my encryption set to WPA2 was likely the problem because the feature only supports a WEP connection. This came as a huge surprise and now I think I've made a mistake in my hardware choice. After a little googling it seems like most routers only support bridging with WEP.

I'm wondering what you guys think I should do. Is there a better hardware solution that won't break the bank? Should I buy an outdoor and/or directional antenna? Will there eventually be Asus support for WPA bridging? Will the RT-AC68U offer a significant enough range improvement that I should consider returning these and getting those?

It seems like the media bridge mode might still be cool with WPA2. What if I use that then add an old N router as an access point to the secondary RT-AC66U?

Just so you know, I run a home-based business and I'm going to move some of that business into the other house. I really want a fast, secure connection to share resources and sync data. I really want everything to act like it's on the same network, plus be able to offer a guest network where users will not have access to all my network resources. I figured my hardware choice would do all this but I'm venturing out of my field here.

Thanks for your help!

 

[bill001g]

It is quite a waste to use those routers as bridges because as you found you lose almost all the other capabilities. Really the only way to get house to house connectivity is to use outdoor equipment. You could I guess try to hack your own but if $150 is within your budget you can get devices designed to do what you want. Ubiquiti and Engenius both make inexpensive equipment , about $75 per side. You would need to get a ethernet cable run outside but at the distance you are talking you should have few issues. You do want to be high enough to avoid someone parking a large truck in your path.

 

[RealBeast]

It is quite a waste to use those routers as bridges because as you found you lose almost all the other capabilities. Really the only way to get house to house connectivity is to use outdoor equipment. You could I guess try to hack your own but if $150 is within your budget you can get devices designed to do what you want. Ubiquiti and Engenius both make inexpensive equipment , about $75 per side. You would need to get a ethernet cable run outside but at the distance you are talking you should have few issues. You do want to be high enough to avoid someone parking a large truck in your path.

+1

Take a look at the picture near the bottom of THIS PAGE labeled "View Point to Point Wireless Installation Diagram Below." It's just a good illustration -- you don't want their products, as bill001g says go with Ubiquiti or Engenius for a relatively cheap and very solid solution.

 

[ickybot]

Thanks for turning me onto the Engenious stuff. I'm thinking about keeping one of the Asus routers as my main router, then adding an access point either outside or in the top floor of house #1. Given that the distance is only 170ft might I be ok going with something inside like the EAP600? The next option I see (an option with Gigabit NIC) is the ENH210EXT. Will these units be able to bridge and repeat? If doing this cuts the bridge throughput in half maybe I'd be better off with an additional AP in house #2. Or maybe the radio in house #1 will be so strong that I won't need to repeat in house #2?

I would really appreciate a bit more help. Thanks!

 

[bill001g]

Not sure you would have to read the fine print to see if they can act as a repeater. But as you guessed it will cut the speed in 1/2 at the very least many times it is much worse. So you are always better off with a bridge and a AP since the radio functions are dedicated for the purpose and can be made non interfering by using different radio channels and such.

Most times I would leave this at that BUT when you start looking at companies like this that sell more profession gear....and not just 29.99 magic "range extenders". You can get what everyone used to call a repeater before the cheap junk got on the market. If you look you will find true repeaters. These contain a bridge and AP in the same physical box. The clue to look for is the word backhaul. They use one radio to talk to the bridge connection and a second radio to talk to the clients. It still tends to be cheaper to build your own with physical devices but that may change in the future.

Be careful they also sell the junk repeaters too where they transmit both the connection to the remote location on the same radio as the connections to the clients.