wireless network with friend/neighbor

[svtour]

my friend live a few houses down the street, and we were thinking about getting a wireless network goin. would the signal be strong enough? how would i connect to his computer, and would other people be able to see my connection? and how far can good wireless cards go? thanks in advance

 

[svtour]

also, what would be a good pci card to purchase, with an antenna prefferably

 

[svtour]

nobody?

 

[ludeicruz]

sure, WiFi wireless would work just fine... 802.11b actually has a fairly long range. However, the range of the reception is more dependent on the antenna than anything else. Unfortunately, every WiFi device comes with a proprietory antenna that's fairly weak out of the box. With a decent custom antenna, receptions could go up to 5+ miles.... but 1 mile is a much more realistic range...

 

[CTMorseJr]

I have 2 Linsys wireless access points that I use to bridge my ethernet lan at work with my lan at home (right next door). With the antennas that came with the AP's I was only able to get about 50' range, and that was when they were both placed in windows. I purchased 2 external antennas from netnimble.net (the antenna's are only about $40 each, but the cable can get really expensive in a hurry) and now I get a great connection at about 100' (and I'm sure it would go even farther). You really need to have dirrect line of site between the 2 antennas though. I have a friend that I met while I was taking the MSCE track and he suggested Orinoco (they used to be Lucent I believe). He's used them and says they have a much greater range than most consumer stuff (and they don't cost that much more). When you get it working right, it's just like being on a wired 10baseT network. Plenty of speed and bandwidth for large file transfers and gaming (my UT2003 server is next door at work). Good luck

 

[svtour]

hmmm. thanks for the info. only one of us would have to purchase a better antenna though right? know of any links to wireless reviews?

 

[svtour]

also, will my neighbors with wireless be able to see my connection and vice-versa?

 

[CTMorseJr]

You might be able to get away with only one of you having an antenna. If you go with the better equipment, an antenna migh not even be necessary if you're only a couple hundred feet apart. Check out www.80211planet for wireless news and reviews. You can configure a wireless network with several different degrees of security. Of course, the more secure you make it, you add more overhead and the slower it gets.

 

[JackMDS]

Few houses down the road?

With Direct line of view, may be.

With obstructions, I doubt very much.

PCI with Antenna, if the Antenna is suck behind the Desktop/Tower. No Way. :Q


Look at the following link.

AnandTech - FAQ. What do I need for wireless Networking?

Then do a search on this forum using the term Wireless.

I doubt that will get any more info anywhere else

 

[ktwebb]

only one of us would have to purchase a better antenna though right?

Antennas you can buy relatively cheaply are uni-directional, meaning your boosting the transmit. In other words, if you buy an antenna, and your friend doesn't, then your helping your AP get to his but not helping his signal get to you. That is a generalization and it will help your receive sensitivy to some degree but if you have a decent gain directional and he has a standard dipole or USB antenna then your link is not being helped overall that much unless your transferring data to him.

As Jack mentioned, the variable that is most important with wireless links of moderate to long distance is line of sight. If you have line of sight a few houses down then it's only a matter of AP output power, decent gain with a directed radiation pattern, and quality of radios, meaning you can get a link, you might just have to get directional antennas due to distance. If you have house(s), tree(s), in the way, then you might not have a shot, regardless of antenna or power.

 

[svtour]

what is the deal with hotspots? it says there is one near me at 802.11hotspots.com. does that allow me to do anything?

 

[Dowfen]

A friend and I did the same exact thing. A couple of years back, before we have had this wireless revolution that we've had, we did some research and decided to go with an ethernet bridge consisting of two external antennas and that's it.

We bought the Lucent BR232 model or something like that, they only sold a few of them. Expensive as they were, they were so simple. You just connect each external antenna each respected person's hub. The transfer rate is phenomenal, and it's never down. Over the past two/three years it hasn't been down once. Your houses are probably closer, but if you have the money, I recommend a wireless bridge. Lucent may or not make them anymore, but I know there are others out there.

Eric

 

[JackMDS]

Originally posted by: svtour
what is the deal with hotspots?

Yeah, Hot Spot gives you the "Pleasure" to stand in close proximity and steal some bandwidth.

It has nothing to do with you and your friend having a small private LAN.

Basically, each one of you should buy a nice Wireless Bridge (D-Link 900AP+, or Linksys WAP11, about $100 each).

And then foray into an "Educational" endeavor.

See here: Wireless Networking Reference - Antennas / Range Boosting.

 

[svtour]

another one of my friends a couple of blocks away is interested too. this is kinda off topic, but they both have cable modems. if i was connected to them both and using there internet, would i get combined speeds? or would i only be able to use one connection's internet?

 

[svtour]

bumpage

 

[Marauder-]

good question about the combined speeds - I'd also like to know this. I was thinking about connecting a few APs together but I'm currently working on a solution to how I might get this done. But if the speeds were not combined, I'm not sure if it'll be a worthwhile venture.

 

[ktwebb]

if i was connected to them both and using there internet, would i get combined speeds

Wirelessly, your bridge, assumably a bridge in Point to Multipoint, would only communicate with one other wireless device at a time. In PtoMP you have a Parent bridge and however many child bridges you care to put on an 11 Mb segment. The Parent bridge only communicates with one child bridge at a time. It may switch from child bridge to bridge every few milliseconds if data is trying to be passed from the childres bridges but it is a shared segment in essence at the parent. So the short answer is no. You'd only have one gateway anyway but the IP configuration of what your suggesting is a whole other story. In terms of a wireless PtoMP link, one data stream at a time.

 

[CZroe]

My OfficeMax is sold out and yours might be also, but I just got two PCMCIA cards with two free PCI adapters there. They're crappy Belkin models without an external antenna but they're introducing me to WiFi for less than $80 for the whole setup! I knew I would need a PCI adapter if I was going to avoid buying an access point so I knew this was the deal for me. I just threw a PCI adapter in one of my PCs, threw the PCMCIA card in my laptop and set 'em up in ADHOC mode. I told XP to bridge the two network cards in my PC and the laptop is now online. I just wish I could find out why it keeps crapping out on me...

 

[svtour]

Originally posted by: ktwebb

if i was connected to them both and using there internet, would i get combined speeds

Wirelessly, your bridge, assumably a bridge in Point to Multipoint, would only communicate with one other wireless device at a time. In PtoMP you have a Parent bridge and however many child bridges you care to put on an 11 Mb segment. The Parent bridge only communicates with one child bridge at a time. It may switch from child bridge to bridge every few milliseconds if data is trying to be passed from the childres bridges but it is a shared segment in essence at the parent. So the short answer is no. You'd only have one gateway anyway but the IP configuration of what your suggesting is a whole other story. In terms of a wireless PtoMP link, one data stream at a time.

thanks