bridges between two buildings

Greetings,

I want to connect a stand-alone computer in one building to the
network in my home, consisting of three computers and a hub.

I'm thinking about buying two wireless bridges, or two wireless access
points with bridging capabilities, and connecting one of the bridges
to the stand-alone computer's network card and the other bridge to the
hub in my home. That should be possible, right?

Linksys WAP11 and D-link DWL-AP900+ both seem to be nice and cheap
units, could one of them be something for me, or should I go for
something else? Speed is not very important to me.

The two buildings are located at a distance of about 100 metres from
eachother. I can see one of the windows of the other building from my
kitchen window; am I likely to be able to establish a connection if I
put the APs on the window sills, or do I need external antennae?

The only potential obstruction is a birch. It has no leaves on it at
the moment, but that's going to change pretty soon I guess. How much
will leaves obstruct the signal?

--
Peter Haglund

Peter Haglund wrote:

> Greetings,
>
> I want to connect a stand-alone computer in one building to the
> network in my home, consisting of three computers and a hub.
>
> I'm thinking about buying two wireless bridges, or two wireless access
> points with bridging capabilities, and connecting one of the bridges
> to the stand-alone computer's network card and the other bridge to the
> hub in my home. That should be possible, right?
>
> Linksys WAP11 and D-link DWL-AP900+ both seem to be nice and cheap
> units, could one of them be something for me, or should I go for
> something else? Speed is not very important to me.
>
> The two buildings are located at a distance of about 100 metres from
> eachother. I can see one of the windows of the other building from my
> kitchen window; am I likely to be able to establish a connection if I
> put the APs on the window sills, or do I need external antennae?
>
> The only potential obstruction is a birch. It has no leaves on it at
> the moment, but that's going to change pretty soon I guess. How much
> will leaves obstruct the signal?
>
Leaves are pretty much a killer. You need to find a clear year round
line of sight.

David
_________________________________________
Usenet Zone Free Binaries Usenet Server
More than 120,000 groups
Unlimited download
http://www.usenetzone.com to open account

On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 10:22:11 +0100, David Goodenough
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Peter Haglund wrote:
>
>> Greetings,
>>
>> I want to connect a stand-alone computer in one building to the
>> network in my home, consisting of three computers and a hub.
>>
>> I'm thinking about buying two wireless bridges, or two wireless access
>> points with bridging capabilities, and connecting one of the bridges
>> to the stand-alone computer's network card and the other bridge to the
>> hub in my home. That should be possible, right?
>>
>> Linksys WAP11 and D-link DWL-AP900+ both seem to be nice and cheap
>> units, could one of them be something for me, or should I go for
>> something else? Speed is not very important to me.
>>
>> The two buildings are located at a distance of about 100 metres from
>> eachother. I can see one of the windows of the other building from my
>> kitchen window; am I likely to be able to establish a connection if I
>> put the APs on the window sills, or do I need external antennae?
>>
>> The only potential obstruction is a birch. It has no leaves on it at
>> the moment, but that's going to change pretty soon I guess. How much
>> will leaves obstruct the signal?
>>
>Leaves are pretty much a killer. You need to find a clear year round
>line of sight.

How much is pretty much? I'm afraid I can't find a line of sight which
doesn't have a birch or two in it. The trees are not mine, so cutting
them down is not an option either. Besides driving copper nails into
the trees, is there nothing I can do? It would be possible to use
outdoor antennae, should that help.

I'm hesitant to buy a couple of wlan bridges without possibility that
they will do the trick, so I guess what I'm looking for is either
someone saying that he has tried every possivble way of transmitting
signals through vegetation and that there is no way to make it work,
or someone saying that it works for him because he uses Bridge X and
Antenna Y.

D-link says that the AP900 can cover a distance of 400 metres outdoors
(which I suppose means from behind a couple of windows, seeing as it
isn't an outdoor unit). Is that to be taken with a pinch of salt?

--
Peter Haglund

Peter Haglund wrote:

> D-link says that the AP900 can cover a distance of 400 metres outdoors
> (which I suppose means from behind a couple of windows, seeing as it
> isn't an outdoor unit). Is that to be taken with a pinch of salt?

It means under ideal conditions which do not include any windows. If you
used an outdoor antenna at each end and use a short pigtail, my educated
guess would be that it would work. I'm shooting through trees using
outdoor antennas in a few locations and it works just fine. But I don't
mean to imply that I'm breaking the laws of physics, just working with
them. Just yesterday I spent $225 having some trees topped out so that I
could get better signal at two of my links. (shh ... and the trees
weren't mine).

On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 13:51:06 +0200, Peter Haglund
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 10:22:11 +0100, David Goodenough
><(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>Peter Haglund wrote:
>>
>>> Greetings,
>>>
>>> I want to connect a stand-alone computer in one building to the
>>> network in my home, consisting of three computers and a hub.
>>>
>>> I'm thinking about buying two wireless bridges, or two wireless access
>>> points with bridging capabilities, and connecting one of the bridges
>>> to the stand-alone computer's network card and the other bridge to the
>>> hub in my home. That should be possible, right?
>>>
>>> Linksys WAP11 and D-link DWL-AP900+ both seem to be nice and cheap
>>> units, could one of them be something for me, or should I go for
>>> something else? Speed is not very important to me.
>>>
>>> The two buildings are located at a distance of about 100 metres from
>>> eachother. I can see one of the windows of the other building from my
>>> kitchen window; am I likely to be able to establish a connection if I
>>> put the APs on the window sills, or do I need external antennae?
>>>
>>> The only potential obstruction is a birch. It has no leaves on it at
>>> the moment, but that's going to change pretty soon I guess. How much
>>> will leaves obstruct the signal?
>>>
>>Leaves are pretty much a killer. You need to find a clear year round
>>line of sight.
>
>How much is pretty much? I'm afraid I can't find a line of sight which
>doesn't have a birch or two in it. The trees are not mine, so cutting
>them down is not an option either. Besides driving copper nails into
>the trees, is there nothing I can do? It would be possible to use
>outdoor antennae, should that help.
>
>I'm hesitant to buy a couple of wlan bridges without possibility that
>they will do the trick, so I guess what I'm looking for is either
>someone saying that he has tried every possivble way of transmitting
>signals through vegetation and that there is no way to make it work,
>or someone saying that it works for him because he uses Bridge X and
>Antenna Y.
>
>D-link says that the AP900 can cover a distance of 400 metres outdoors
>(which I suppose means from behind a couple of windows, seeing as it
>isn't an outdoor unit). Is that to be taken with a pinch of salt?
ABSOLUTELY!!!!