Increasing distance

I have a LAN in what I'll call Building 1. Building 2 is about 400 feet
away from Building 1. Building 2 has a single computer in it that I want
connected to Building 1's LAN.

Building 1 very conveniently has a 100' tower outside.

What I'm thinking about doing is connecting a 9 dBi antenna to a Linksys
WRT54G router, with the antenna mounted somewhere on that tower. If
necessary, I can mount it high enough that there's line-of-sight to Building
2.

The computer in Building 2 will have a Linksys PCI card with a Linksys High
Gain antenna on a 6' cable. The antenna will be inside. The building is
concrete.

Does this sound like it'll work? And am I still within FCC regulations?

Thanks for your help!

ADY
--
adyoung (at) sbcglobal (dot) net

On Mon, 30 Aug 2004 16:30:07 -0500, "MousePad"
<adyoungentirely.too.much.junk.mail.in.my.mailbox@ sbcglobal.net>
wrote:

>I have a LAN in what I'll call Building 1. Building 2 is about 400 feet
>away from Building 1. Building 2 has a single computer in it that I want
>connected to Building 1's LAN.

No problem. Any wireless client card/adapter will do the trick if
there are no obstructions?

>Building 1 very conveniently has a 100' tower outside.

Is there anything on the tower that is already belching 2.4GHz
signals? If so, you may have a serious interference problem.

>What I'm thinking about doing is connecting a 9 dBi antenna to a Linksys
>WRT54G router, with the antenna mounted somewhere on that tower. If
>necessary, I can mount it high enough that there's line-of-sight to Building
>2.

Hopefully, your 9dBi gain antenna is a direction antenna such as a
panel (patch) antenna. This is not a good place for an omni antenna.
Yes, line of sight is manditory. However, at 400ft, range will not be
an issue.

>The computer in Building 2 will have a Linksys PCI card with a Linksys High
>Gain antenna on a 6' cable. The antenna will be inside. The building is
>concrete.

Concrete as in no windows, holes, or vents through which a signal can
be leaked? Oh-oh.

I'm not sure that a PCI wireless card is the right idea. The loss on
even the best coax cable is horrendous. You'll probably end up using
LMR-400 for your coax run. It's much easier to put the radio near the
antenna and use just a short pigtail for the RF. Lots of ways to do
it. There are integrated USB and panel antennas such as:
http://www.ydi.com/products/usb-ant.php
There's the same idea using PoE (power over ethernet).
http://www.ydi.com/products/mini-etherant.php
You can also assemble your own with an ethernet "game adapter", and
antenna, and some do it thyself PoE boxes. The advantage of all of
these is that they eliminate the high coax cable losses.

>Does this sound like it'll work? And am I still within FCC regulations?

Sure. You're well under the FCC limit. The only way to go over is to
use a tower mounted xmit power amplifier (which has other problems
associated with it).


--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831.336.2558 voice http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
# (E-Mail Removed)
# 831.421.6491 digital_pager (E-Mail Removed) AE6KS

since you have a wrt54g check out www.sveasoft.com , they are
developing alternative firmware for that router. I'm using it on
several of the wrt's with great sucess. among many other things it
allows you to adjust the mw of the radio upwards. I put a wrt in a
window with a pair of linksys 7db replacement antennas and
successfully logged on to that router from inside another building 560
feet away. I had clear line of site between the two. 400 feet window
to window should be doable. if you have to go 100 feet up to get line
of site then the raido will have to be up there with the antenna.

MousePad wrote:
> Building 1 very conveniently has a 100' tower outside.
>
> What I'm thinking about doing is connecting a 9 dBi antenna to a Linksys
> WRT54G router, with the antenna mounted somewhere on that tower.

The question is if the mere 9dBi will not be more than soaked up by the
long coax run. I've got 100 ft of Cat 6 I can let you have cheap: run that
and power up the tower to a weatherproof box (could be a very simple food
container) with the router and a www.freeantennas.com parabolic reflector
in it (the X12 model).

Avoid losses by sending a digital signal down (or in this case, up)
ethernet cable and convert it to RF (via the router) at the point of
departure.

Put a similar parabolic reflector on the antenna at the other end.


--
Steve
Re-defeat Bush in 2004