Newbie Assistance PLEASE

Hi all.

Looking for some assistance here. I've spent some time looking for some
answers, and I don't know if I just can't find the sites or what, but my
searches have thus far proved pointless.

Let me give you a quick overview:

I have a wired/wireless network in my house. Works great. Router is a
Netgear FM114P (but I shall be upgrading to a FWG114P in December). My
internet is acually wireless as well, as I live just outside a major center
in Canada, and no cable or DSL is available to me.

Now, my parents happen to live a very short distance away (less than 500
yds), and being in a rural setting, there is an excellent line of sight
between the 2 houses (literally down a hill). I want to be able to share my
LAN with them, ane wiring the 2 houses together is not the option I want to
go with. Therefore - extending my wireless network.

I have been told not to expect my current network to provide services to
their house. Beyond the range, etc. I have accepted this, and now want to
move ahead finding a way to get this to work.

Now, as I said before, I am a newbie at this stuff, and literally all my
research has turned up dead ends. I have found a couple of things tonight,
but i'm dead tired, so not sure if I even understand what i'm reading.
Another note is that I'm an IT guy, and while great with computers, doing
things like cantennas is not my cup of tea.

So, the long and the short of it is... What do i need to do?? Do I just
need an AP at their house to attach to their computer? Will I need an
external antenna of some kind at my place? If so, where do I go to find
antennas that may fit the bill and help me get this working.

And, a second question. My best friend lives across the 'street' (basically
around the same distance in another direction - again - straight line of
sight). If I want to get him on my LAN also, does that change things? Are
antennas only single direction and I need another WAP to point in the
direction of his house? Or is there such a thing as a multi-directional
antenna (if one is even required).

Thank you so much for anything you can give me.

On Wed, 12 Nov 2003 07:26:47 GMT, "Lord Carnage"
<lord_carnage_2000@*SPAM*KILL*yahoo.com> wrote:

>I have been told not to expect my current network to provide services to
>their house. Beyond the range, etc.

I have transmitted at 11 Mbit/s over 1km across a valley, clear line
of site. So range is OK.

You need wireless kit that will accept external antennae and some
directional antenae with a bit of gain 8 or 14 dBi perhaps

you don't say where you are , local regs restrict maximum power
output.

High gain antennae just focus the output from a sphere to either a
cone (directional) or a flatter disk (omnidirectional). If you want to
provide a service in two directions an omni may work but might
struggle with big elevation differences - also as at least 50% of the
signal is going the wrong way it may not be ideal.

suppliers with useful sites:

http://www.solwise.co.uk/networkingwireless.htm
http://www.hyperlinktech.com/
http://www.fab-corp.com/

Phil

Thanks for all that. Great start.

Just another quick question - will I get better reception by using an AP at
their place as opposed to just putting a wireless NIC into their machine?

Thx again.

Your best solution would be to put an AP in your house and then use a
wireless bridge (ie, WET11) at the remote site(s). I used plural because
you could support multiple WET11's from a single AP.

The advantages of using the WET11 include the fact that in can support
multiple PC's if desired plus you can position the WET11 in a location
within the house for best reception. The WET11 connects to other devices
via RJ45 ethernet and also supports the ability to use an external antenna.

I put a system in almost 18 months ago for some people in a apartment.
Supported 8 people in 4 different units using the WET11's and a WAP11.
Never had a problem.