wireless conn through some obstacles; weather influences

hi,

i'm trying to connect two locations, cca 150 meter distance, there is
no LOS, i have two brick walls in between, one of them having some
wooden plates on the outer side; and a row of tress (perpendicular to
the line connecting the locations, trees are very sparse, no leaves)

i have two dwl-900ap+, one of them is AP (it also servers as AP for
multiple devices in that location), the second one is in client mode
connected to an internet gateway via ethernet

both devices have speed lowered to 1mbps because it is more then
enough for the purpose
i don't know how can i tweak the other parameters (rts treshold,
fragmentation) -> these dwl-900ap+ are C rev., latest firmware
installed (3.07b1 , Mon, 22 Dec 2003), but the values there are 4095
(both for rts treshold and fragmentation, even if default values
*should be* different)
whenever i change them and try to save the changes, i get an error
message about invalid rts treshold or fragmentation

the problem -> sometimes i have a connection, sometimes not
when it is snowing, no connection -> i can understand why
when it is warmer, walls get wet from the outside, i loose the
connection -> i can understand why

one of the solutions is to get one or both devices on the outer side
of the wall, but this is not that easy (please don't ask why, it is a
fact) so i'm trying to minimize the costs

my first question -> what can i achieve with bying a better antennas ?
as i've said, i lose connection only because of weather; now if there
is a snowfall, it can be that i have no chance; but whenever outer
side of the walls get a little bit more wet i lose the connection as
well -> this is quite disturbing
currently i'm using original antennas; which antennas should give me
an additional strength to penetrate a two wet walls (comparing to dry
walls) ?

i can't use directional antennas on the both sides unless i purchase
another AP

i have tried parabolic reflector (self made) -> i have seen an
improvement but not a significant one
actually, i have a feeling that just by trying different
position/orientation of the device, i can achieve more -> is this
normal or shall i try harder ?

btw. -> how much the orientation of the device really matters ?

and then one more question specific to dwl-900ap+ -> the client device
performs usually worse when 'external antenna' selected
diversity antenna and internal antenna are giving comparable results
what does this mean ? is it normal ? is internal antenna better then
the default external one ?

regards,
martin

To: (E-Mail Removed) (s0m3body)
Subject: Re: wireless conn through some obstacles; weather influences
In-Reply-To: <(E-Mail Removed)>
References: <(E-Mail Removed)>

Hi There
In alt.internet.wireless, you wrote:

> hi,
>
> i'm trying to connect two locations, cca 150 meter distance, there is
> no LOS, i have two brick walls in between, one of them having some
> wooden plates on the outer side; and a row of tress (perpendicular to
> the line connecting the locations, trees are very sparse, no leaves)

The trees and the wood panels will kill your signal, even if no leaves
in the trees now there will be in the spring which will be worse.

> i have two dwl-900ap+, one of them is AP (it also servers as AP for
> multiple devices in that location), the second one is in client mode
> connected to an internet gateway via ethernet

Shouldn't you have them in bridging or repeater mode with the ap
connected to gateway as the ap if using repeater mode ?

> both devices have speed lowered to 1mbps because it is more then
> enough for the purpose

Fine

> whenever i change them and try to save the changes, i get an error
> message about invalid rts treshold or fragmentation

I get the same

> the problem -> sometimes i have a connection, sometimes not
> when it is snowing, no connection -> i can understand why
> when it is warmer, walls get wet from the outside, i loose the
> connection -> i can understand why

If you got some sort of a connection that is a good start

> my first question -> what can i achieve with bying a better antennas ?
> as i've said, i lose connection only because of weather; now if there
> is a snowfall, it can be that i have no chance; but whenever outer
> side of the walls get a little bit more wet i lose the connection as
> well -> this is quite disturbing
> currently i'm using original antennas; which antennas should give me
> an additional strength to penetrate a two wet walls (comparing to dry
> walls) ?
>
> i can't use directional antennas on the both sides unless i purchase
> another AP

You can use directional antennae on the dlink. Also there is a
standalone 5db you can get for them or a 5db antenna which replaces
the standard antenna

> i have tried parabolic reflector (self made) -
>i have seen an improvement but not a significant one

With the 5db antenna and reflector I can link 350m line of site no
problem

> btw.
> how much the orientation of the device really matters ?

As long as both APs are orientated the same not a great deal although
if you use horizontal polarization you might get less interference
from other 2.4 devices, if you polarize the antennae diferrently you
won't get far at all

> and then one more question specific to dwl-900ap+ -> the client device
> performs usually worse when 'external antenna' selected
> diversity antenna and internal antenna are giving comparable results
> what does this mean ? is it normal ? is internal antenna better then
> the default external one ?

As far as I know diversity just means the APs will use either internal
or external depending on which one gets the best signal, if both are
on external you should get best results
> regards,
> martin

HTH
Lloyd