more powerful wireless

[jimmyj68]

In the house I have a wireless Linksys router connected to a cable modem that shares internet access with my wife's computer on the first floor - I'm upstairs.

She has a USB external adapter with a bitty antenna. This works fine for us. I've just put together a system for our church multipurpose room and would like to be able to piggy-back it also for internet rather than get new service.

The church is a very old wood frame building which would be about 150 feet max from my computer and is directly visible from my window. I'm presently using the Linksys WRT-54G V4 router. What do I need to do, if anything, to reach across the street?

 

[OoteR02]

umm, have the church pay for the service instead of "stealing" it for the church would be my first response...

if you have any signal at all in the church from your house a linksys WAP54g would do the trick to extend the coverage in the church quite well for wireless.. i'm sure someone on here may have a better WAP, but I only have experience with that linksys.

 

[nweaver]

I would get a wireless bridge in a rootenna and mount that on an old satellite mast on the wall facing you. Tranzeo, smartbridges are both ones I have used in the past. putting one at each end is the best idea, but if you put your router in the window, you can likely get by with just one on the church side.

 

[spidey07]

Wow. Talk about moral, ethical, legal bankruptcy.

At a church no less.

 

[JackMDS]

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

 

[OoteR02]

Originally posted by: spidey07
Wow. Talk about moral, ethical, legal bankruptcy.

At a church no less.

the fact it's a church doesn't surprise me at all.. watch the news, or read a paper and this seems to be mild compared to most of those stories...

and once again, Jack proves to be the man.

 

[jimmyj68]

Wow did I ever not make myself clear!!!!

I/we are the Church. My wife is the pastor - we pay the majority of the church expenses. We pay for Comcast cable in our home and thought it reasonable to try to "legally" utilize that service for the Church. If there is some moral dictum that says I must pay for an additional service at the church I am unaware of it.

I haven't tried to see if it would work as is with another USB adapter. I'll try that and if no go I'll look into the external antennas. I thought we might have to go to the "N" technology and the 300N router in order to make it work. Thanks for the input thus far.

p.s. We don't cotton to religion that's a failed premise. We do cotton to Jesus the Christ and his teachings as the Holy Bible shadows and pre-shadows. We don't jump to conclusions or make moral judgements.

 

[OoteR02]

lol, I chuckled at my own instant judgment after posting and thought "i wonder if he or she is the pastor and the 'house' is the parsonage" .. lol I was right! Since the church is paying for it, it is likely just fine..

still laughing at myself, have a good one and good luck!

 

[montypythizzle]

I would use a wireless bridge.
Methinks 2 routers capable of wireless bridging would be better than making a WAP out of a computer (Done it before though )

What you could do though is put another wireless NIC in your wife's computer upstairs and make a cantenna and point it at the church, instant directional antenna/new WAP.

 

[jimmyj68]

How does this sound? A linksys WET54G Wireless Ethernet bridge connected to the ethernet plug on the church PC. High gain antenna kits for the ethernet bridge and the used now WRT54G wireless router? Haven't checked prices yet at the Egg or anyplace.

 

[nweaver]

Text

if you put the router in a window, and have line of site, one of those would work well (I would guess, it's hard to say without seeing it).

It would also be more reliable then a cantanna, etc. It's meant to be mounted outdoors, has a high gain antenna to send/receive, and is built for this specific purpose. It'll look better, and be more reliable.

It MIGHT cost more then a hacked together solution, but do you really want to set pringles cans on your church, or have the internet be flakey?

 

[JackMDS]

The WET solution would work, but you are much better using something like the Buffalo Router with dd_wrt firmware configured as a client or WDS, it is less expensive than the WET, and more flexible. Depending on the environment you might need an High Gain Directional Antenna on one of the devices.

http://www.ezlan.net/buffalo.html

 

[jimmyj68]

The Buffalo (sp?) looks good but I have a linksys router that seems to work pretty well. I think I'll get the ethernet bridge to start and go for the souped up attennas if I can't get decent signal with the stock antennae.

I worry a little about Linksys because so many people seem to have problems getting stuff to work properly. Is it Linksys or the user? So far the only router I've had problems with was D-Link. People even complain about firmware with the Buffalo routers but they give them a much greater number of eggs on the EGG.

Thanks for the info but I'm not about to try and make my own "cantenna".

 

[montypythizzle]

I think they are the most popular routers (Linksys') therefore they have the most complaints.

 

[JackMDS]

If you will avoid buying something because of Complains than you would buy Nothing.

In addition it is important when looking at the complains to put aside the complains that are Not functional n nature, or indicated that the users, is the trouble with technical issues, and or need some personality tuning.

E.g., a typical nonsense compliant is about the Hard menu system in the Router.
So, it might take few minutes more at the first use to find an entry in the menu. Is this is functional drawback that impede the actual function of the device?

 

[skyking]

As Nweaver pointed out, 150 feet with both devices in the windows will work like a charm.