help a guy in the arctic

Really new here and in need of some help.

The situation is this I work in the arctic and have no access to stores
except for shopping online. So I can not try things out to see what will
work and what will not work. So I turn to you for your knowledge!

I teach up here and also run the computer lab... as best I can... what
I want to do is extend the range of my wireless nextwork so I can work
from home. I live within 200 feet of the school and it is pretty much
LOS. Right now we have linksys 802.11 G routers, well right now we have
nothing but they are on the way.

I have it down between two ways, I think!? I could swap one of the
linksys G routers and put in a 802.11 N router, which then means that I
have to upgrade the nics in my two laptops at home as well, right? That
way I could work from home and switch between my home network and the
802.11 N.

The other option I guess is by using a range extender at school and
then another one at my house. I could even plug it into the uplink port
on my router and that way I would not have to upgrade my wireless in my
laptops, right?

I guess I am a little lost. Any help would be great!!


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View this thread: http://www.wirelessforums.org/showthread.php?t=27781
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craig_borden wrote:
>
> I have it down between two ways, I think!? I could swap one of the
> linksys G routers and put in a 802.11 N router, which then means that
> I have to upgrade the nics in my two laptops at home as well, right?
> That way I could work from home and switch between my home network
> and the 802.11 N.
>
> The other option I guess is by using a range extender at school and
> then another one at my house. I could even plug it into the uplink
> port on my router and that way I would not have to upgrade my
> wireless in my laptops, right?
>
> I guess I am a little lost. Any help would be great!!
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry, if you actually believe that the range is better with a new improved
more expensive product that linksys can make a few bucks off of like their
'n' crud, you've been reading their marketing department lies....In
actuality, there are no N specs yet (not even scheduled to be voted on for
possible adoption until dec of 2008), they just hope people are silly enuf
to buy the stuff they lie about (actually what everyone else that's halfway
honest calls pre-n).... PS I have a bridge to sell you

Bottom line, forget N.... And range extenders cut the speed in about 1/2...
Just look at directional antennas and a bridge, and maybe an el cheapo
wap/router in the house (under $50 at walmart, then you can use the existing
stuff your laptops already have)

On another tangent, how is it during the winter, and do you have metal snow
roofs? When I was putting stuff in No Idaho/canadian border, during the
winter the snow got deep enuf so there was not enuf clearance for a fresnel
zone, wanted to use the attic/roof areas, but the buildings had metal snow
roofs... Had to go with a bridge on the TV antenna mast at the house, and
another roof mounted mast/tripod at the remote building, and that connected
to a wap/router in the outbuilding so I could use both wired and wireless
there...

craig_borden <(E-Mail Removed)> hath
wroth:

>I teach up here and also run the computer lab... as best I can... what
>I want to do is extend the range of my wireless nextwork so I can work
>from home. I live within 200 feet of the school and it is pretty much
>LOS. Right now we have linksys 802.11 G routers, well right now we have
>nothing but they are on the way.

What is on the way? Any particular make and model? Type of antenna?
Outdoor equipment or indoor? Line of sight to the antenna?

>I have it down between two ways, I think!? I could swap one of the
>linksys G routers and put in a 802.11 N router, which then means that I
>have to upgrade the nics in my two laptops at home as well, right? That
>way I could work from home and switch between my home network and the
>802.11 N.

Nope. I haven't done much with Pre-N hardware, but my experience
seems to show that one can get two forms of improvement:
1. It will go faster than 802.11g when you have a very strong signal
and/or are fairly close to the wireless access point.
2. It is somewhat more reliable in the presence of reflections and
interference than 802.11g.

Neither of these apply to your situation. Worse, both mutations of
Pre-N proscribe the use of external antennas which is what you really
need at your end.

As for requiring an Pre-N client radio, that's true for the multiple
stream (Airgo) version of Pre-N, but not true for the beam forming
method (Ruckus Wireless) method. However, realize that at long range,
where the signal levels might drop considerably, Pre-N reverts back to
802.11g or even 802.11b speeds. In other words, you're getting no
benefits from the MIMO technology.

>The other option I guess is by using a range extender at school and
>then another one at my house. I could even plug it into the uplink port
>on my router and that way I would not have to upgrade my wireless in my
>laptops, right?

Some range extenders work for some users. My luck has been dismal.
Search this group for "range extender", "range expander", and
"wireless repeater" for a wide selection of failures to function.

>I guess I am a little lost. Any help would be great!!

Yep. The basic problem here is that you've itemized the solutions
without detailing the problem. My guess(tm) is that you can probably
find a location at your house that has line of sight to the skool.
That means you can install an external directional antenna, pointed at
the skool access point(s), and you're done. The antenna will be
outside and in the ice, so some effort should be made to reduce its
size, wind loading, and survivability. I have little experience with
this, but if you look around, you probably will find fiberglass panel
antennas and wire mesh grid parabolic dish antennas.
<http://www.fab-corp.com/home.php?cat=276>
Look at parabolic and panel antennas. Ignore yagi and omni antennas.

For a radio, all you need is a wireless ethernet client bridge. See:
<http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi#Wireless_Ethernet_Bridges>
For a list of candidates. I would recommend a Buffalo TWI-TX4-G54HP
adapter. These work for me.

You probably don't want to mount the client radio outside, although
that has been done successfully using the internal heat generated by
the wireless client to prevent freezing. You'll need some number of
feet of Times Microwave LMR-400 coaxial cable. The maximum length is
largely determined by range and signal strengths, which are currently
indeterminate, but can be calculated if you supply some numbers.

There is another alternative worth considering. My guess(tm) is that
the skool could probably tolerate more than one wireless access point
for its network. The backhaul (connection to the skool network) will
probably be CAT5e cable or fiber optics. Locate the extra wireless
access point in some location where you can see if from your house. If
the range is sufficiently small, you could just put the wireless
ethernet client bridge in a window that has line of sight.

Also, you might want to contact Floyd L. Davidson.
<http://web.newsguy.com/floyd_davidson/>
He's up in Barrow(?), Alaska and has quite a bit of experience in
running 2.4GHz wireless in arctic conditions. He's also posted quite
a few articles in this newsgroup:
<http://groups.google.com/groups?as_ugroup=alt.internet.wireless&as_uauthors =floyd+davidson>


--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558