How to extend the range of wireless connection (using external antenna?)

Lets say I live on large property.

Can I at my main house, hook up something to my roof (say a 2.4 Ghz Wireless
Parabolic LAN Antenna) pointing at my guest house (1500' away).

Put another one on my guest house pointing at my main house.

Extend my 802.11g wireless network to both houses and share the lan?

Or, is there a product to do this that is legal?
Leo V.

Yes you can do this. In fact there are special routers you can buy to do
this, that are designed just for this purpose. They are not cheap, but do
have software design to overcome the problems in this kind of situation.
This is a better choice than simply running a wire to the second location.
Do a search on outdoor routers. It's also possible to do this with some
standard indoor routers, you will not get as good results as with the
routers design for this purpose, but the total cost is a lot less.

--
David Hettel

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group for everyone
to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions addressed directly to me in
E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

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"Leo Violette" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed). ..
> Lets say I live on large property.
>
> Can I at my main house, hook up something to my roof (say a 2.4 Ghz
> Wireless Parabolic LAN Antenna) pointing at my guest house (1500' away).
>
> Put another one on my guest house pointing at my main house.
>
> Extend my 802.11g wireless network to both houses and share the lan?
>
> Or, is there a product to do this that is legal?
> Leo V.
>

Hi

It can be done as long as you have a clear line of sight. I.e. the Antennae
are installed safely outside or by windows and are looking “Eye” To “Eye”.
It is legal to do so as long as you use legal equipment. If environment
allows the distances that you are talking about can be covered with legal
Entry Level (sub $100) Wireless Routers and or Access Point.



Under Normal circumstances, Entry Level Wireless was not meant to cover
distances longer then few hundreds feet outdoor. However, people as a
special project did mange to bridge distances as long as 5 miles.



If the Antennae has to be mounted outside on a mast (to over come
obstructions in the line of sight) they would be away from the Access Point,
When the Antenna is away from the Transmitter (Access Point) the Length of
2.4GHz coax cable that has to be used would cause very fast RF
deterioration. As a result, long coax is not used in such installations.
The APs are installed with the Antenna on the Antenna’s masts and run CAT5e
down to your source.



All of this must be adequately protected from the Weather elements, other
wise one lighting storm and ““your are back to the Future””.

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/...cles_range.htm



Assuming that you can execute such a project you would need to bridge the
two sites

This link has info about Bridging options,
http://www.ezlan.net/bridging.html

Jack (MVP-Networking).



"Leo Violette" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed). ..
> Lets say I live on large property.
>
> Can I at my main house, hook up something to my roof (say a 2.4 Ghz
> Wireless Parabolic LAN Antenna) pointing at my guest house (1500' away).
>
> Put another one on my guest house pointing at my main house.
>
> Extend my 802.11g wireless network to both houses and share the lan?
>
> Or, is there a product to do this that is legal?
> Leo V.
>

Wow. Great Jack. Thanks for the information.

So, here's what I think I need to do:
Main house will have a wireless network.
Guest house, just one PC.

So, I'm picturing Situation Two as described on this web-site.
http://www.ezlan.net/bridging.html

For the main house, I'd have my standard wireless router (Linksys
WRT54Gxxx).
I'd connect the PC's at the main house with standard 802.11 b/g wireless
cards to my Linksys router.
I'd connect to the Linksys Router to a Consumer Bridge like Linksys WET11
(or a directional antenna).

At the destination, I'd have a Consumer Bridge Wireless card (or directional
antenna) that would connect to a Switch and the PC would be wired directly
to the switch.

Okay, I suspect that there are some pieces missing in my picture. If so,
would you mind filling in the blanks? For example, I'm a little confused
about whether the Linksys WET11 would replace or be in addition to a
directional antenna.

Again, I'm wanting the PC at the guest house to be availabe (on the same
LAN) to my PC's at the main house.

Thank you very much for your time and advice!
Leo.


So, I'm picturing
"Jack (MVP-Networking)." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:OZ$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi
>
> It can be done as long as you have a clear line of sight. I.e. the
> Antennae are installed safely outside or by windows and are looking "Eye"
> To "Eye". It is legal to do so as long as you use legal equipment. If
> environment allows the distances that you are talking about can be covered
> with legal Entry Level (sub $100) Wireless Routers and or Access Point.
>
>
>
> Under Normal circumstances, Entry Level Wireless was not meant to cover
> distances longer then few hundreds feet outdoor. However, people as a
> special project did mange to bridge distances as long as 5 miles.
>
>
>
> If the Antennae has to be mounted outside on a mast (to over come
> obstructions in the line of sight) they would be away from the Access
> Point, When the Antenna is away from the Transmitter (Access Point) the
> Length of 2.4GHz coax cable that has to be used would cause very fast RF
> deterioration. As a result, long coax is not used in such installations.
> The APs are installed with the Antenna on the Antenna's masts and run
> CAT5e down to your source.
>
>
>
> All of this must be adequately protected from the Weather elements, other
> wise one lighting storm and ""your are back to the Future"".
>
> http://www.practicallynetworked.com/...cles_range.htm
>
>
>
> Assuming that you can execute such a project you would need to bridge the
> two sites
>
> This link has info about Bridging options,
> http://www.ezlan.net/bridging.html
>
> Jack (MVP-Networking).
>
>
>
> "Leo Violette" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed). ..
>> Lets say I live on large property.
>>
>> Can I at my main house, hook up something to my roof (say a 2.4 Ghz
>> Wireless Parabolic LAN Antenna) pointing at my guest house (1500' away).
>>
>> Put another one on my guest house pointing at my main house.
>>
>> Extend my 802.11g wireless network to both houses and share the lan?
>>
>> Or, is there a product to do this that is legal?
>> Leo V.
>>
>
>