Tying together two buildings w/ a wireless bridge/router

[Transition]

Here's the situation:

I have two buildings - we'll call them A & B. Building A is the main branch - roughly 40 workstations connected to a DSL connection. Building B is literally across a 75 foot parking lot - clear line of site between them. Building B has roughly 20 workstations / mobile RF units. What i want to do is connect building B to building A - and since running cable is out of the question my only option is to use a wireless bridge/router.

I'm scoping out some equipment but not sure exactly what's the 'best' out there. My main concerns are reliability,speed (latency primarily), and of course security. Now since i've got a relatively small distance to go and a clear line of sight i'm assuming this should be a fairly straight forward process. Does anyone have any recommendations of good gear to use for this? I want to mount directional antenna's on both buildings and make sure we have the best connection possible. Money really isn't a concern - would like to keep the entire cost of the equipment + antenna's below $2k.

Anyone have any personal suggestions? Please keep in mind latency is a pretty big concern for us. Right now Building B is connecting to Building A through a frame relay connection and typically sees 60-90ms latency which is perfect.

Edit: Oh yea, there isn't a lot of shared files or any large bandwidth requirements.
- RJ

 

[Joony]

run fiber!

How about two linksys 802.11g bridges with yagi type antennas on both ends.

should cost about 500 for just that. Then get PoE to run them remotely inside a weatherproof box.

 

[Transition]

Originally posted by: Joony
run fiber!

How about two linksys 802.11g bridges with yagi type antennas on both ends.

should cost about 500 for just that. Then get PoE to run them remotely inside a weatherproof box.

Yea i could definitely do the Linksys route. I'll be mounting the briges indoors though - need to find an antenna with a cord ~10 feet long though to accomodate.

 

[JackMDS]

Do a conventional Access Point Bridging (No Wireless Routers etc.)

Use Cisco or Proxim/Orinoco Access Points.

As far as placement, take into consideration that Long Coax extention for Antennae creates a rather large lose in RF.


:sun:

 

[Transition]

What do you guys think about YDI - in specific their BRiB product...

YDI BRiB - ~$900 for the complete setup

 

[JackMDS]

I never used this product.

Judging by the page it looks good.

2W Radio would do very well in your situation.

However as far as security goes it does not mention WPA

It states: The new 128-bit WEP-Plus encryption, if enabled, provides
extra security above standard 802.11b WEP.

I would call and find what this means, WEP-Plus.

:sun:

 

[Rufio]

sent u a PM, transition.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Hawking makes some nice directional and outdoor 802.11 antennae. It sounds like you would be better-served by equipment that is a step up from the home-user type of WiFi equip. If you only need a single point-to-point bi-directional link, you might also consider "SuperG" or "Afterburner"-type technology, to increase the bandwidth between the two points. Adding 40 + 20 workstations together, and you could have a sizable amount of network traffic over that link, I'm guessing.

I would be very careful about security though, someone could sit in the parking lot and potentially sniff the traffic. They wouldn't even have to stay in their vehicle to do it, just leave a laptop and a WiFi card and a sniffer running.

 

[skyking]

This can be done wtih two Linksys wrt54g routers and the satori firmware.
Enabling Wireless Distribution.

 

[skyking]

OK, I have it going in a test mode in my house. I put the router that connects to the WAN at the other end of my house, as a dhcp client on my linux router. I have the remote router in my computer room, 45' and two walls away. I have a computer plugged into one of the ports on router 2, and it works fine. The dhcp is turned off on router 2, and I am running WEP on the boxes for starters. I will move to WPA and RADIUS next.

 

[Brazen]

We use Proxim Tsunami wireless bridges for connecting those hard to reach remote sites (one is 10 miles away!). They are professional grade though, and may be a bit overkill for crossing a 75-foot parking lot.

I'm pretty sure you can do this with regular linksys Access Points. You probably wouldn't even have to worry about changing antennas or mounting outside, just place them next to windows that are facing each other from each building.

edit: Linksys WAP54G can do it - look here.

 

[Dowfen]

3Com Bridge

Hands down the easiest, most reliable wireless bridge I've used out of Linksys, 3Com, BreezeCom, etc.

Eric

 

[Colebert]

whatever happened to old fashioned just running unshielded Cat5e out your window, across the parking lot --suspended in the air, and into the other building?


when did you lose your way?

 

[Confused]

We're using a pair of these at work to bridge connections while the original area is being refurbished.

Very easy to set up, and have been working perfectly since I installed them ~4 weeks ago.

In the same amount of time, I've had to reset my GF's Netgear access point 6 times.


Confused

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Colebert
whatever happened to old fashioned just running unshielded Cat5e out your window, across the parking lot --suspended in the air, and into the other building?

when did you lose your way?

Definately NOT SAFE, from a electrical/grounding/lightning POV.

 

[Colebert]

lol, i know.

 

[skyking]

Yeah, VirtLarry needs to recalibrate his sarcasm meter
That linksys/satori firmware stuff I have here is still going strong, never need anything like a reboot.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: skyking
Yeah, VirtLarry needs to recalibrate his sarcasm meter
That linksys/satori firmware stuff I have here is still going strong, never need anything like a reboot.

Err, you're right, my own extreme sarcasm apparently overloaded it. Fixed now, thanks for the correction.

 

[jjoyner]

Originally posted by: JackMDS
Do a conventional Access Point Bridging (No Wireless Routers etc.)<BR><BR>Use Cisco or Proxim/Orinoco Access Points.<BR><BR>As far as placement, take into consideration that Long Coax extention for Antennae creates a rather large lose in RF.<BR><BR><BR>:sun:

Exactly...don't EVER use residential grade WAPs for a commercial application. It will never be stable enough.