Receiving then sharing wireless

[theeldergeek]

Slightly off topic perhaps but networking nonetheless -

A good friend of mine lives in a little Spanish village and the local 'council' provide free wireless internet connectivity at the 'Town Hall'. Village residents can simply go there with their laptops and use the free wi-fi as much as they need.

His house is about 100 metres from the Town Hall, and conveniently has line of sight to the building in question, and more importantly, the wireless broadcast antenna thereon. Unfortunately, he can't get a signal when in his house as the walls are about 20 foot thick!

He would like to a) fit a wireless receiving antenna onto his house, and then b) share the subsequent wireless out to 3 computers in his house.

Point A is relatively straightforward of course, but B is a little more out of my current knowledge.

What does he need to be able to do 'B'?

Obviously there'll be an antenna on the roof, cable down into the house, and then... ?

Advice on a complete setup would be very much appreciated.

[jamesb]

Cantenna hooked up to a wireless access point configured to act as a relay?

Edit: Something like this http://www.sysmaster.com/products/wireless_bridge.php with the antenna socket plugged into a cable running up to the roof, and a cantenna pointing at the town hall'd probably do it.

[theeldergeek]

Cantenna hooked up to a wireless access point configured to act as a relay?

Not going to go down the DIY route as he wants a purpose built Yagi or similar.
Any ideas of WAP's that can do what you say - manufacturers?

[jamesb]

Well, there's this pre-built cantenna which might help: Canny Antenna Design - www.wi-fiplanet.com

And I'd imagine any access point would do. One with two aerials would probably be best though, one to link to the cantenna and one to broadcast around the house. Otherwise you might end up having to use two networked together, and I've no idea whether that would work (can't see any reason why it wouldn't though).

Edit: Just as a thought, is there any sort of agreement that the town hall require which might be against this?

[theeldergeek]

Edit: Just as a thought, is there any sort of agreement that the town hall require which might be against this?

In Spain, they do what they want!

To be honest, they won't know (or be bothered) if he's sitting outside with his coffee (as he usually does) or on his terrace 100m away. I'm not concerned with the legalities of it anyway, it's 1000 miles from where I am; he has just asked for my advice as a techie.