A 10 mile broadcast????

Good day!

I read on some bulletin board about this guy that had a Lynksys router and
put some antenna on his roof and began "broadcasting his signal". He said he
could get reception within a 10 mile radius.

Could this actually be done? How would one do this (web link on a how to if
available)? Is it legal?

To be honest, I'd love to be at the Starbucks, Barnes and Noble, Library,
which are all 5 miles or less from my house, and gain high speed access to
the net and my network.

Jeff

> To be honest, I'd love to be at the Starbucks, Barnes and Noble, Library,
> which are all 5 miles or less from my house, and gain high speed access to

This will only really be feasible with line of sight. Inside buildings
and it is not likely to work at all at that distance.

It can be done but only with that proviso and high gain directional
antenna's.

David.

On Tue, 15 Jul 2003, Jeff wrote:
> Good day!
>
> I read on some bulletin board about this guy that had a Lynksys router and
> put some antenna on his roof and began "broadcasting his signal". He said he
> could get reception within a 10 mile radius.
>
> Could this actually be done? How would one do this (web link on a how to if
> available)? Is it legal?

Legal? Yes. However, it's not going to happen with "stock" equipment. [I
don't consider an external antenna that did not come with the device it's
ultimately attached to as a "stock" configuration.] This is easy if BOTH ends
have external antennae.

> To be honest, I'd love to be at the Starbucks, Barnes and Noble, Library,
> which are all 5 miles or less from my house, and gain high speed access to
> the net and my network.

There are people who do just that, but they generally live about 1 mile away.
Remember that the "other end" will be running stock equipment.

Jeff wrote:

> Good day!
>
> I read on some bulletin board about this guy that had a Lynksys router and
> put some antenna on his roof and began "broadcasting his signal". He said he
> could get reception within a 10 mile radius.
>
> Could this actually be done? How would one do this (web link on a how to if
> available)? Is it legal?
>
> To be honest, I'd love to be at the Starbucks, Barnes and Noble, Library,
> which are all 5 miles or less from my house, and gain high speed access to
> the net and my network.
>
> Jeff

It doesn't help to think of the ten mile radius as an area in which you
can roam. Think of it as an area in which you can connect to the AP if
you are using the correct equipment and have clear, stable line of
sight. As others have noted, clear line of sight does *not* include
shooting through walls, buildings, trees, etc. But you may be able to
get a link if you are using the right outdoors antennas, electronics and
computer setups.

As a proviso ... I've gotten links as far away as a mile going through a
few walls back to the outdoors AP. It's not reliable really, but it works.