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Long range wireless LAN help

N

NaughtyusMaximus

Diamond Member
I've got an interesting setup to make for a friend. He's a radio buff, and wants to be able to access his office network from home wirelessly (he lives ~1-1.5 miles away from his office).

What I've suggested is that he hook a Linksys WET 11, and hook that directly up to his switch at the office, then add a wireless card at home with the same network settings to access the LAN. (I'll be modding the WET 11 with a stronger antenna to send a stronger signal)

The only question I have really is how can I keep this connection secure?
 
You can use WEP for basic security. 40 or 128 bit depending on the equipment. Or just use VPN.

For directional antenna, you can read about some custom designs here

If your planning additional amplification, be careful not to juice the signal level too high (breaking the law and/or interfere with other people's 802.11b/g/bluetooth/cordless phones which might be between the office and home).

FCC part15

What I've suggested is that he hook a Linksys WET 11, and hook that directly up to his switch at the office, then add a wireless card at

You realize you will need a directional antenna (or otherwise modified antenna) at each side of the link right?

FYI, my linksys WAP11 barely reaches the 40 ft from my office to my crapper. You might want to investigate some more potent equipment.

Should be do-able with careful rooftop antenna placement. Do you have line-of-sight?
 
Line of sight isn't a problem. Is there any way I could go about amplifying a signal?

What other wireless products (similar to the WET) should I look into?
 
WEP is worthless. Run a vpn, maybe a BSD/Linux machine on each side running the vpn between the sites. The work admin should be able to get something like that approved. Also, make sure this is HEAVILY firewalled since it is still something he will have to worry about. The linux/BSD machine should be able to handle that too. On many of these Wireless Access Points you can restrict the MAC addresses allowed to connect to them. This would be a good first step.

EDIT: I dont think I emphasized how important it is to talk to the work admin about this. He will be introducing a potential hole into the network (even with the vpn, since I wouldnt trust the user's home pc). The admin should not only be aware of what is happening on his network, but should be in charge of it. Bonus: The user may get some free cool stuff for his network. Downside: If he is trying to circumvent the security at work, his equipment could meet the hammer. 🙂
 
Word is a pringles can and $10 worth of radio shack parts gives the $200 directional antenna a run for their money
 
You can check this place for HW needs. Like I mentioned earlier, you will need a fairly decent directional (shotgun or parabolic perhaps) antenna on both sides of the link. If you want to use a PCMCIA nic on one side, make sure it has the TNC connector for external antenna.

As far as security, I'm pretty clueless. I was aware that WEP 40 was easilty crackable, WEP128 slightly less so. Sounds like they are useless 🙂 I don't even turn it on because if someone manages to connect to my WAP11 from outside my house, they earned it!




 
For security you can either use WAP, but keep in mind that in most instances it will slow down the speed of your network, or you can always use a router which allows only specified MAC addresses access it. I know for sure Appple AirPort and Belking Access Point support that feature. There can be some others....

By the way, this belongs to the "Networking" forum =)
 
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