My dad is having DirecWay satellite internet installed in his home office today. The office is attached to the garage which is detached from the main house. Problem is I am 99% sure a basic wifi router wont get a signal to cover the house. So, how do you recommend I get internet into the house. I was thinking HPNA networking, but then read that hpna 3.0 is coming out. Any one know about this? I have heard only bad things about power line networking. I cant run a 10bT cable as I'd have to run conduit etc etc.. the conduit that houses the phone wires (3 double pair) is quite full and I'm not encouraged about messing with his phone (business) setup. The other thing I was thinking would be some sort of high gain antenna for 802.11. But what would be most efficient? I can?t put holes in the outside of the garage, as it is stucco, so the antenna would need to penetrate the garage and then a few walls in the house.
-
We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.
Dad gets DirecWay today, need to network
- Thread starter eaadams
- Start date
There is No magical solution that you do not know off. You will have to try (and that means spending).
If you have facing windows you can try to bridge with two Access Point. Placing on the windows, you might be lucky..
Given the nature of your Walls it would be my guess that none of the Entry Level Hardware will work from inside (the garage) to inside (the house). You probably will end up drilling. Making a small hole to ?snake? CAT5 in Stucco is not really a big deal you need a bit for stucco + bit extension (both for about $20 in home depot). Of course you will have to convince your dad that your future is in the 21st century and one little hole in a wall should not jeopardize your future.
If you put a good external Antenna on the garage it probably will ?penetrate" into the house.
Extending the Distance of Entry Level Wireless Network.
If you have facing windows you can try to bridge with two Access Point. Placing on the windows, you might be lucky..
Given the nature of your Walls it would be my guess that none of the Entry Level Hardware will work from inside (the garage) to inside (the house). You probably will end up drilling. Making a small hole to ?snake? CAT5 in Stucco is not really a big deal you need a bit for stucco + bit extension (both for about $20 in home depot). Of course you will have to convince your dad that your future is in the 21st century and one little hole in a wall should not jeopardize your future.
If you put a good external Antenna on the garage it probably will ?penetrate" into the house.
Extending the Distance of Entry Level Wireless Network.
gunrunnerjohn
Golden Member
There are a host of outdoor hi-gain directional antennas that can be had pretty inexpensively, I can't believe you can't figure a way to move the data between the two buildings. I'm not at all sure that HPNA will totally satisfy you, they're topping out at 10mbit, and even that is somewhat optimistic, depending on the specific wiring involved. With some decent antennas and 802.11g, you should be able to get 2-3 times that actual throughput.
I have Direcway Satellite (Earthlink) in my home right now. Thank God I finally got cable installed and will be getting true Broad Band installed today.
First of all, at least with my set-up, the top end is 400kbs and even that is never achieved. There is noticable lag due to the signal traveling 22k miled out and 22k miles back.
The biggest disappointment is that (again, with the equipment I received) the connection coming out of the satellite modems is USB and both ends are type 'B'. The problem with this is that there are no routers with USB inputs to match up to the modem. My only solution was to ICS to my other computers, which was really slow on the downstreem computers. (still a little better then dial-up).
I am so happy to be getting cable today and setting up my network again.
First of all, at least with my set-up, the top end is 400kbs and even that is never achieved. There is noticable lag due to the signal traveling 22k miled out and 22k miles back.
The biggest disappointment is that (again, with the equipment I received) the connection coming out of the satellite modems is USB and both ends are type 'B'. The problem with this is that there are no routers with USB inputs to match up to the modem. My only solution was to ICS to my other computers, which was really slow on the downstreem computers. (still a little better then dial-up).
I am so happy to be getting cable today and setting up my network again.
InlineFive
Diamond Member
As long as the router has a powerful antenna you should be fine. My Netgear MR814 (with 3dB antenna) can cover about 80 feet with a 2.4GHz phone interfering with it.
You could get lucky with just a wireless router...I'm in a dorm at college, six floors, cinder block all around, and I have noticed some wireless routers penetrating many walls. I'm on the sixth floor, and I've gotten signal from the first floor before. Keep in mind most of these routers run in the same wavelength range (2.4Ghz), so there is also interference. You might not get lucky with your router choice, however. Thus, I would buy from some retail store from Best Buy: if the router works, keep it, if not, return it for one that does. The previous poster who said they had a netgear router...I agree, there is some "NETGEAR" network that appears on my laptop all over the place.
I thought I felt my ears burning, and then I came here and saw that Jack had mentioned my name... 🙂
The hompepna.com is a crummy link, I don't think that page has been updated in years! Much better is http://www.homepna.org/. It has lots and lots of info and is fairly up to date. 3.0 is supposed to come out sooner or later, but it doesn't seem to be in any big rush.
You can often find the 2wire homeportal 100 pretty cheap at Ebay or even in stores. I also like the Netgear PE102 and rp334, if you can find them cheap. The Linksys hpb200 and hpro200 are also decent options.
I used to be pretty much all hpna before I got wiring installed. I still use it a little bit. My recommended setup would be a router with a PE102 attached to it. Then, if your machines have ethernet jacks in them, get some more PE102s. Or, Netgear has some USB devices too (PA101 I think it is). But the Linksys and 2wire stuff are probably ok too, if you can get them cheap.
I'm not sure how much of this stuff you can even buy new! And it may be wildly overpriced if it is new. But Ebay can be a good source.
Edit: If you get a cheapie 2wire homeportal, be careful about how new it is. Newer ones can be configured in bridge mode only, but older ones cannot, i.e. you have to use them as your router, you can't disable the routing features.
The hompepna.com is a crummy link, I don't think that page has been updated in years! Much better is http://www.homepna.org/. It has lots and lots of info and is fairly up to date. 3.0 is supposed to come out sooner or later, but it doesn't seem to be in any big rush.
You can often find the 2wire homeportal 100 pretty cheap at Ebay or even in stores. I also like the Netgear PE102 and rp334, if you can find them cheap. The Linksys hpb200 and hpro200 are also decent options.
I used to be pretty much all hpna before I got wiring installed. I still use it a little bit. My recommended setup would be a router with a PE102 attached to it. Then, if your machines have ethernet jacks in them, get some more PE102s. Or, Netgear has some USB devices too (PA101 I think it is). But the Linksys and 2wire stuff are probably ok too, if you can get them cheap.
I'm not sure how much of this stuff you can even buy new! And it may be wildly overpriced if it is new. But Ebay can be a good source.
Edit: If you get a cheapie 2wire homeportal, be careful about how new it is. Newer ones can be configured in bridge mode only, but older ones cannot, i.e. you have to use them as your router, you can't disable the routing features.
You don't want a wireless router in the house (because you don't want two routers) but a WAP would be fine.
Here is how I use phoneline now:
* Netgear PE102 is hooked up to my router, which is upstairs.
* Another Netgear PE102 downstairs is hooked up to a Netgear ME102 Wireless Access point.
This helps extend my wireless range through more of my house. It sounds like that is what you want to do, except your router is in your garage. The HPB200 is the Linksys equivalent of the Netgear PE102.
This of course assumes that you have the same phone line and number in both the house and the garage!
Also, are you sure you can hook up a router to the satellite? I think that can be problematic sometimes, but hopefully not for you.
And one last comment: I think of an HPNA/Ethnernet bridge as basically converting your phone wiring into ethernet wiring and your phone jacks into ethernet jacks. So, if there is something you could do with ethernet wiring and jacks, you ought to be able to do the same thing once you have hpna/ethernet bridges (it'll just be slower, less reliable, and maybe cost more!) So, if there is something you could do with ethernet, you ought to be able to do it with hpna/ethernet bridges. HPNA is not necessarily the best solution, but when wireless won't work and wiring the house just isn't feasible, HPNA may be a good option. It could become a great option if 3.0 ever comes out and lives up to its promise.