Wireless- extend reach?

[dave.81]

We have an odd building sat out on it's own which until this week has never been connected to the network. But now we have a new Chaplain who, as someone told me, of the "internet generation" and needs connected to our network.

 

So i've setup a HP 10ag AP in the nearest building, sat in the nearest window and also sat the laptops usb wireless bit in the window. The link is dodgy at the best of times, low strength no where near 54.

 

Is there any way of boosting the signal strength or am i going to have to get it hardwired in?

[pooley]

Linksys do a Range expander WRE54G, works well in the couple of schools ive needed to use it in. Not any good if using Radius though.

[Face-Man]

depending on your AP you may be able to change the aerial to a directional one to extended the range but lower the spread.

[dave.81]

Unfortuantly the AP has fixed aerials so cannot be changed to a directional one Will look into the linksys and see what it can do. Thanks

[sdc]

We have a similar situation and are using one of these without any issues at all - it's NEVER been a problem to us and was really easy to set up.

 

Repeatit SU-5410a Outdoor 802.11a 5GHz Bridge Unit| Repeatit SU-5410a Bridge Unit

 

Stephen

[dave.81]

Tempted to get 802.11n and try that as it'll still be cheaper than cabling it all in. Does it really have a greater strength/distance or is it all media hype?

[RabbieBurns]

We use netgear bridges and netgear external antenna and on one p2p link it works great, which is clear air, but on the other, which is over houses' roofs and stuff its pretty shoddy. Tempted to change the latter bridges for 802.11a to see if that improves it.. Or indeed, 11n

[Mcshammer_dj]

may be worth thinking about networking across powerlines.

 

can work for certain remote sites

[User3204]

I had a fibre run quoted at about a grand recently, but this is being attached to existing phone cable runs, and you can run lots of stuff down it.

 

What about getting a couple more expensive APs and setting them in a bridge mode ?

We have a couple of Cisco APs running a bridge (I can't remember the numbers), which works beautifully (it's only 11mbit), we've had it a while. The only issue we get is when the kids kick footballs at the antenna and manage to smash the protective "can".

 

I think we've been quoted about £3k for Laser.. whooo.. unnecessary purchase...