Looking for help with wireless network on a farm

[neonfiremanqtip]

Hello,

I'm looking to network 4 houses on a farm. This way, an internet connection at one house (the "source") can be shared with the other 3. The longest distance between houses is probably on the order of 2500 ft. From the souce house, one house has full line of sight, another has partial line of sight, and between the source and the third house there is significant obstruction due to trees.

I've had some trouble finding info, but i bet it's partially because I haven't nailed the right keywords yet. Anyway, I found some examples of hardware that might work, such as this. Am I on the right track? Does anyone here have any other recommendations or first hand experience?

Thanks!

 

[JayBlay77]

No first hand experience but what you'll be looking for is a point to point setup and a powerful access point. Possibly be using yagi antennas. If you want some recommendations go here Air802 Contact. Give that company a call and ask to talk to Mike and explain what you want. He's very knowledgeable and can give you at least an idea what you need. You can also browse their site and look at their high powered access points and yagi antennas.

Hope that helps.

 

[xSauronx]

the tranzeo stuff is good, but too pricey and powerful for a half-mile link. you can get radios for under $200 a piece that can handle that. newegg probably carries some outdoor 2.4 gear that would work, its been a long time since i looked.

also, youll need an omni antenna on one of them to act as the AP. with partial LOS, if its not too bad, you may be able to elevate the radios to get a signal...but if they have to be at the top of a building, youre talking about basically adding a lightning rod to the place. i wouldnt even be comfortable with that if it was properly grounded.

as for your foliage....802.11 gear wont handle it at all if its really significant. 900mhz and 700mhz can do it, but itll be damn expensive, and may not work anyway, if the foliage is really that heavy. in order to bypass the LOS problem, can you jump from one house to the next if you need to?

 

[JackMDS]

The key is to use directional Antennae, and put the Antennae outdoor and High so that there woild be a direct line of sight.

When you put the Antenna out and high, you have to use Access Points that are installed on the masts and receive the signal via cat5e, and the power via POE. Weather protection is needed too.

As for the topology itself, this page might help.

Wireless Bridging - http://www.ezlan.net/bridging.html

 

[drebo]

If this is a business where uptime is paramount, the only product I can recommend is a Cisco Aironet bridge solution.

If it's for home use that doesn't matter when some/all of the links go down due to a soft breeze or rain, then you could probably use a consumer router that's configurable in a bridge mode with directional antennae.

You could spend a little or you could spend a lot, and your success is going to be directly proportional to how much you spend.

 

[ScottMac]

Wireless ain't gonna cut it, according to your description.

No full line of sight = no signal (look up "Freznel Zone" on the Cisco site or Google)

Buy a couple big spools of MM fiber and rent a Ditch-Witch. Once you have the fiber buried, call out a contractor to terminate it for you. You'll be much happier with the end result.

Good Luck
Scott

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: ScottMac
Wireless ain't gonna cut it, according to your description.

No full line of sight = no signal (look up "Freznel Zone" on the Cisco site or Google)

Buy a couple big spools of MM fiber and rent a Ditch-Witch. Once you have the fiber buried, call out a contractor to terminate it for you. You'll be much happier with the end result.

Good Luck
Scott

i expected someone to suggest fiber at some point. but i know dick all about anything fiber-related, so it wasnt gonna be me.

Originally posted by: JackMDS
The key is to use directional Antennae, and put the Antennae outdoor and High so that there would be a direct line of sight.

if its too high its basically an expensive lightning rod. i went to a customer site once that had an 8 foot mast with a canopy radio on top of their roof....on a 2 story home with no trees nearby.

it took a direct hit. as far as im concerned, theyre lucky that the only damage done was to the radio and their wireless router (which partially blew apart): the line wasnt grounded, but im not sure id be happy with one on my home even if it were

lightning: do not want.

oh, and the cat5 line was beat up 😉

 

[neonfiremanqtip]

Thanks to everyone for all the replies.

Buy a couple big spools of MM fiber and rent a Ditch-Witch. Once you have the fiber buried, call out a contractor to terminate it for you. You'll be much happier with the end result.

I was hoping to avoid this option because it seemed like perhaps the most expensive and I'd be zig-zagging all over the place trying to avoid fields that are being worked during the year.

The key is to use directional Antennae, and put the Antennae outdoor and High so that there would be a direct line of sight.

When you put the Antenna out and high, you have to use Access Points that are installed on the masts and receive the signal via cat5e, and the power via POE. Weather protection is needed too.

I think this is the most feasible option for me.


It'll be a little while before I attempt to get this all working. I'll be sure to report back with my lessons learned (and hopefully with a success story!)

 

[kevnich2]

I agree with using fiber as well. The cost isn't as high as you think. When you factor in all the wireless equipment your going to need, a tech to install it (Unless you are a professional with wireless electronic installations, you shouldn't be installing it) and having to worry about lightning protection, fiber installation would be the best and cheaper option. Plus, with fiber,you don't have to worry about lighting protection. Dig the ditch several feet down, lay PVC pipe the entire way, then have an electrician install the fiber and terminate it for you.

 

[ScottMac]

Well, you can go aerial with fiber as well, you can even get "figure eight" (integrated messenger wire) with a kevlar messenger. The nice thing about fiber is that you CAN zig-zag around quite a bit and still get excellent performance.

It sounds like you may end up doing both fiber and wireless, you won't have much choice (shy of cutting down some trees) with the partial and full obstructed views.

Good Luck
Scott