Need to set up a strong wireless network between two buildings

[BBCMember]

I have a client who wants to network the 2 new computers that he will be purchasing for an office across the street from his current office with the 4 computers in his current office.

There are three possibilities that I thought of on how to do this:

1. Set up a wireless network
2. Set up a wired network, and have someone run an ethernet cord across the telephone poles like ATT did for their new phone lines
3. Se up a new network where their "server" would be an online server that all the computers would access and save their data to in real time

The best option would be a wireless network, and that is what he chose to start with.

It is an auto body shop, and I did warn him that it might not be the best type of business in which to have a wireless network, but he wanted to go ahead and give it a shot. The two buildings where the offices are are quite close to each other. I would say they are 30 - 40 feet apart. The walls are made of cement, however the doors will always be open, or at least be open 99% of the time.

He says that the access points could be mounted on the walls on the outside of the building, as they have protection from the rain via a roof canopy and roof. However, I'm not sure how it would weather a windy rain storm where the rain would be coming from all directions. But that does not happen too often here in Southern California.

If we were to mount them on the outside walls of the offices, then I'm thinking it could have a wireless N router inside the office where the modem is, have an access point (wireless N) right outside the office posted on the outside wall of the office repeating the signal of the router, and then have another wireless N access point posted on the outside wall of the other office across the street that would be repeating the signal of the 1st access point.

What equipment (make and model) would you suggest for this situation. I need something reliable and durable.

Opinions? Suggestions? Would you suggest another way of setting it up?

 

[BBCMember]

I just called Linksys, and they suggested that the WRT600N would be sufficient on its own. What do you think?

 

[aE0n]

It sounds like you need a Outdoor wireless bridge, such as http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=376. Unfortunately these are pretty expensive but very reliable. Another option might be a less expensive indoor bridge with an antenna wired to the outside.

 

[JackMDS]

It might be that putting a good Access Point in a windows or outside the main building with a directional Antenna toward the
Body shop would do the trick. In the body shop a unit like the WET54G with a directional Antenna toward the source Access point can be the Client Wireless and would feed the computes.

This page has a variety of configurations, http://www.ezlan.net/bridging.html

I would not use Draft-N since it is more expensive less flexible and might be a problem when the real 802.11n comes out.

P.S. Because it is only 40 feet, depending on the environment, it might work with one directional Antenna on the source, and the client Wireless might be able receive with a regular Antenna indoor.

 

[cparker]

Does he have access to windows in each location that face the other and that are not blocked by traffic or obstructions? If so that distance is easily bridged using 2 inexpensive indoor wap54g units located at the windows, possibly enhanced using simple cardboard parabolic reflectors (www.freeantennas.com has the templates). You don't need to be outdoors if you have visuals between the two windows. You set the 2 wap64gs up in bridge mode so that they only communicate with each other. Pretty straightforward, inexpensive and elegant.

I would also keep everything else wired on both sides of the bridge. You can plug each of the wap54g units to switches that the other computers are also plugged into on either location, and the switch at the primary location could be plugged into a router to handle the dhcp and internet access.

 

[Jamsan]

We used these to connect our 2 buildings together. They are about 100-200ft apart and have line of site to each other. It's only about $4xx for the pair, and the configuration is simple as pie. The only other cost you may incur is for power converters if you don't have PoE switches.

Actually, in reading the description, it looks like it comes with it from the site I linked. We've had bad weather and the bridges haven't missed a beat. Speed is very good. Not as good as being on a 100mb wired LAN, but I'd say easily between 20-30mb per sec (if not more, can't remember the exact numbers. If you need me to, I can run some tests tomorrow if you'd like exact figures). This will extend the network to the other building, and it will be completely transparent to the end user. The setup goes something like this:

Main Building Switch <--(cat5)--> Bridge 1 <--(wireless)--> Bridge 2 <--(cat5)--> 2nd building switch

 

[BBCMember]

OK. Thanks.

Jack, do you have a suggestion for the make and model of a directional antenna?

Cparker, what if there aren't two windows facing each other, but the two doors will be open most of the time? Would you suggest the same setup, or do you think I would need a directional antenna like Jack suggested?

 

[BBCMember]

Thanks, Jamsan. What's a PoE switch? And what make/model would you suggest for a power converter?

I'm assuming behind each switch is a router? Would it be possible to replace the switches in your diagram with routers?

So this setup will pretty much make it seem like they are all on a wired network, right? The only wireless networking will be between the two bridges?

Do you remember how long it took for you to receive them once you ordered them? Did you order them from the link that you gave me?

And do you remember how long it took to set up?

Thanks.

 

[Jamsan]

Originally posted by: BBCMember
Thanks, Jamsan. What's a PoE switch? And what make/model would you suggest for a power converter?

I'm assuming behind each switch is a router? Would it be possible to replace the switches in your diagram with routers?

So this setup will pretty much make it seem like they are all on a wired network, right? The only wireless networking will be between the two bridges?

Do you remember how long it took for you to receive them once you ordered them? Did you order them from the link that you gave me?

And do you remember how long it took to set up?

Thanks.

A PoE switch is a Power-over-ethernet switch. It provides power to devices that are connected to it without needing a power plug. These bridges require power, which can either be supplied via a PoE switch, or with the power converters. The link I provided actually includes the power converters with it, so you can use those.

The only router you'll need is on the main building side. You're network probably has a router now, and you plug in the PC's to the router, correct? If so, you'll plug in the ethernet cable into one of the open ports on the router. For the other building, you won't need a router, just a switch. Something like this should work just fine. So you're network would like like the following:

Main Building Router <--(cat5)--> Bridge 1 <--(wireless)--> Bridge2 <--(cat5)--> Switch in Building 2

Yes, everything will work as if it were on a single wired network. Any servers/networked printers, etc. will be accessible from the second building, just as if you were in the first building.

It took us about a week to get them after ordering, but we ordered them through a local network company (not sure where they got it from). I didn't order it from the site I linked above, but you should be able to find them at other online resellers. Check the site's rating that I linked above. IF it's poor, look elsewhere to purchase.

The total time to setup was probably 3-4 hours. The actual configuration of the bridges took no longer than 30 minutes. The physical installation took the longest. Our switches were a good 20-30 feet from the outside wall, so we needed to run cabling up into the ceiling, 20-30 ft to the wall, drill into the brick and mount of the bridges (same deal for both buildings). Once that was done, it was very simple. It's as simple as setting up your consumer routers. Assign it an IP, give both sides the same encryption key (password), and I think that's it. It's been a while, so I may be leaving something out, but it was a rather simple installation.

 

[cparker]

BBCMmber:

As to the doors, well if they are both open and you can see one doorway from the other, this will be functionally the same as if you had a window facing another window. But if you closed either door you might have a problem as the radio waves might not penetrate the door to well, unless the door had a glass window on it. Again, you really don't need to buy additional antennas if you are using an indoor unit. The reflectors I described work fine. for example, I've set up a similar bridge using two wap54g units that are close to 1000 feet apart window to window using the push on reflectors. It's been going 24/7 for several years now without a glitch. At the time I bought them they cost around 40 dollars each with rebates, now I think they are stilll under 100 dollars each, and you probably could get them for 60 or 70 if you looked, maybe for less. 30 feet or so is such a small distance that if you could find any windows from which you could see the other building, even by looking off to the side, that too would work. I've done that here in another experiment where I "aimed" an access point's antennas (againe using the cardboard reflectors) off to a starbucks down the street around 150 feet away. Then I walked over with a skype wireless voip phone to see if it would work using my wireless signal and it did, although I had to sit at a window for it to have a strong enough signal. The key thing here is line of sight. If you can visually see the physical location of one access point or antenna from the other, with that short distance, it's a piece of cake. If you have to go outdoors that other unit that was mentioned looks very good at a reasonable price, all things considered. good luck!!!!

 

[BBCMember]

Great. Thanks, Jamsan and cparker.