Outside Wireless Point

[Pear]

I've been asked by PE if it is possible to have a wireless point externally on the building for their pdas internet access. So it has to cover the school field which has 3 or 4 football pitches, I'd say we're talking somewhere between 100-200m with no obstructions. Has anyone else had this done, will it reach that far wth a good signal and can you tell me how much more this costs than an internal one ? (I'm assuming it needs protection from elements)

[Geoff]

Yes, you can get 500m+ externally with a good antenna and clear line of site quite easily.

I'd suggest you look at a Buffalo AP, they can have external antenna including ones for outdoor use. You'd have to mount the AP internally someplace (you can get wall mounting kits) then drill through the wall/roof/etc to get to a decent spot for the external antenna.

You'll need:

1x Buffalo 54g Wireless AP WLA2-G54L
1x Wall Mounting Kit
1x "Pigtail" apdator for external antenna's
Some Cable 5m. 10m and 20m lengths are avalible.
1x External Antenna Mounting Pole
1x External Antenna

** WARNING **

You need some sort of lighting strike protection near your external antenna otherwise a direct lightning strike to the wireless antenna will fry large chunks of your ethernet network. Very expensive!

You'll also need to ground your antenna correctly.

[plexer]

Wouldn't go for that particular Buffalo point but one of the pro versions which has a better securing method for the pigtails. The standard ones I have found to be pretty poor fit.

The pro version also support POE without additional equipment on the receiving end you'd just need the POE injector for the cabinet end. This would mean no need for a power socket next to the access point

The compact versions of the access points also have a mounting cage with them.

Ben

[fooby]

When our PE department needed wireless for their laptops, we were recommended to get one of 3Com Wireless LAN Access Point 7250 These have small aerials on them, however have a massive range through walls and such, the aerials are screw on, so if the range isnt sufficient, then external ones can be attached. The AP is expensive, however you get what you pay for. With these (about £200) you should expect a better standard than a cheapo AP with big aerials. However YMMV whichever way you go.

[tarquel]

sounds good Geoff

I think theres some 3com kit you can put together that will do this too - remember seeing stuff when i was looking up a wireless AP.

I'd have thought that u'd need to be careful with wireless rules and radiation and stuff when putting up something as "grande" as Geoff's above setup tho

2p
Nath.

[Geoff]

2.4Ghz is unlicensed. You can do what you like aslong as you don't cause interference on other bands.

[Ric_]

I have a d-link AP-2100 with an external antenna set up to provide a PTMP wireless bridge and the range seems decent - I've not tried checking the signal strength at 200m though!

Maybe if you come down to look at the thin clients you could bring one of the PDAs and we could test it. putting a decent aerial at the AP end won't necersarily help unless you have decent aerials on the clients.

[webman]

Some people may be interested in a PoE Buffalo in a waterproof box if your coax ends up being too long. The less coax you have to use, the better... the loss is terrible at those sort of frequencies.