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Possible to make a Wireless network the size of a small town?

Andrew1990

Andrew1990

Banned
Now, I have been wondering if it would be possible to rig a very large antenna on top of my apartment roof so I could access my network anywhere within my small town. Lets say a square mile give or take a few hundred yards.

About the area

Mostly small 1-2 story houses
I live in one of the tallest buildings in town (Aprx 5 stories)
I have access to the roof


Now would it be possible to rig a powered Omni-directional antenna on my roof so I could access my network from a mile away?

 
A single omni? No. Several high-gain direction/sector antennae with very powerful radios? Maybe.

A square mile is a long way. Typically, you'd use a mesh network broadcasting your 2.4ghz signal with a 5ghz backhaul to mesh them all together. This, obviously, would require you to have access to several buildings in town and would run about $30,000 at the low end. Either way, it's not cheap, and probably not worth it.

Cellular internet access is free with a windows mobile smart phone and cheap with a broadband card. 10 year ROI isn't really worth it.
 
It would not work well.
Wifi over a large area works best with directional antenna. Remember you are not the only one sending out signal in that frequency range. Everything from cordless phones to microwave ovens and other wifi users are going to be using the spectrum , all adding noise and interference. That is the reason you do not see many companies going that route to cover a city. If it was as easy as putting up a single tower, they all would be doing it.
 
This would work really poorly. Having a big mismatch between base station / client power will result in hidden terminal problems. RTS/CTS is meant to solve this but it reduces throughput and is turned off by default in most cases. Additionally, the more clients you have the worse the CSMA scheme will work.
 
Originally posted by: drebo
Cellular internet access is free with a windows mobile smart phone and cheap with a broadband card.
Click to expand...
Free? Really? Where? Unless you are talking about hotspots tied to paid services via 802.11.




 
Free as in Windows Mobile has the ability to share your cellular data connection with your PC via bluetooth or USB tether.

"Plans" that "lock" you out of that are a simple registry key. Remove the registry key and you can tether.

I use Sprint with an HTC Mogul and it works great.
 
Originally posted by: drebo
Free as in Windows Mobile has the ability to share your cellular data connection with your PC via bluetooth or USB tether.

"Plans" that "lock" you out of that are a simple registry key. Remove the registry key and you can tether.

I use Sprint with an HTC Mogul and it works great.
Click to expand...

Gotcha. I have had similar setups with Tmobile and now with ATT. The registry tweaks get you so far, but there are other potential obsticles on the 'locked' plans depending on what you need to do (proxy's, download caps, etc). In any event, it's definitely a more realistic option than a personal WiFi network across town. 🙂
 
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