Help setup long distance 802.11 wireless

[mikepeck]

I have 3 homes on a ranch that would like to share a satellite internet connection. The house that will have the satellite connection has a line of sight to one of the houses 1/3 of a mile away. The other house is closer but the line of sight is not there because of some very large trees.

House 1:
Satellite connection, line of sight to house 2 1/3 mile away
House 2:
Line of sight to house 1 and 3, 1/3 mile away each
House 3:
Line of sight to house 2 1/3 mile away. 200 yards to house 1, but numerous trees in the way.


Which is the best method for connecting these houses? Would I have to setup a repeater on house 2 for house 3 to connect to?

Also, what antenna options would be best for this type of installation?

THANKS!

 

[xSauronx]

if i were you id search wireless articles at slashdot, seems ive read a few there on people doing long range wifi setups
doubt itll be cheap though, and alot of trouble to boot. id prolly rather just have a staellite at each house...maybe thats just me

 

[TheBoyBlunder]

It depends on how cheaply you want to do this. If price is not an object, you can probably have the signal go from one house to an external antenna (check the various companies like d-link, linksys, etc.) and then to a WAP at the next house or something.
If it is an object...you might be able to get away with a "build your own antenna" and a couple of WAPs set to repeat with "build your own" antennas attached to relay the signal. Range on those things is about 10 miles on a clear day, so that wouldn't be a problem. What could be is the odds that you'll fry something...you should wait for more responses.

 

[ktwebb]

Parent bridge at the house with line of sight to both of the remote houses, then child bridges at those sites. Classic point to multipoint. You mention numerous trees. That might be your backbreaker right there but you wouldn't know for sure until you tested. If it is completely obstructing your line of sight then you should probably look for another option or get out the chainsaw. The comment about the 10 miles is accurate in that it is feasible at long distance (you would need VERY tall towers to get a 10 mile shot however and clear day has nothing to do with it either) but 2.4 or 5 Ghz microwave, especially at thes power levels is line of sight past very short distances. Site survey or outright testing would be the only way to tell you for sure if you can get a link, but the PtoMP solution is one that would work well if the environment is right. Omni at the parent bridge and directionals, yagi or grid at the remote sites. You have to factor in transmission cable runs as well though. Loss is usually introduced in this area so you will probably be better off having your cables made (crimped) for you once you determine how long the run will be. Definitely test with no cable first to see if you can even get a link from A to B and/or B to C.

 

[mikepeck]

Thanks for the response ktwebb. For some reason I was thinking that the access point (parent bridge) would have to be at the house with the satellite connection, but it makes sense to put it at the house that has line of sight to the other two. One question though, for house 3 to get to house 1, it would send to house 2, then house two would have to send to house 1 and then retrace the route backwards. How much latency/bandwidth loss could one expect with this setup? Also, would it be adviseable to go with 802.11g for this setup? The access points are not that much more.

 

[ktwebb]

Latency? A millisecond or two each hop. Your bandwidth would be cut though. You are in essence using the parent bridge as a repeater when it is placed off the backbone. Assuming your association to both remote bridges was good, latency would be a non-issue. If high throughput is a goal then yeah, going 54G would be the better choice. That is assuming the hardware your looking at can do Point to Multipoint bridging.

 

[skyking]

Throughput will be fine for your satellite link with 802.11b, but not for big file transfers over the wireless LAN. I would get some 802.11b equipment that has antenna connections, and do a quick test with cantennas. Those are pretty cheap to build. buying all 802.11g equipment will add some cost, and you can carry a burned cd or two over for big transfers

 

[gsaldivar]

Big project! I'm working on something similar myself, but it's still a work in progress. I can help you out with some links though:

Here is some conceptual info on wireless bridge ranges:
Link1

Here are some homemade 802.11 directional microwave "cantenna" designs:
Link1
Link2
Link3
Link4

Here are some links on cabling, and connectors:
Link1
Link2
Link3
Link4

Good luck!