wireles building to building

[7andY]

I need to connect two buildings that are about 800m apart. Wired would be a problem, so I'm looking at wireless. We use D-Link kit, so that would be the best solution for me. It seems to me that a WAP at each end in bridge mode, with a high gain directional antenna at one end would do the job.

 

Has anyone already done this? - and - how effective is it??

 

Cheers, Andy E.

[RabbieBurns]

we connect our 2 remote buildings with wifi. from A to B it is fine. Works like a charm. But it is clear line of sight with no obstacles.

 

To the other building is a different story. Cant seem to get a decent signal. It goes over trees and bounces accross rooftops. Currently trialling some 11a gear which seemed to work better until the crap weather this week.

 

For the 11g stuff that works great its just netgear bridges with external netgear antenna

[pscott]

ANT24D18

 

They work very well for point to point, tested ov 1km distance (Line of Sight) and had no issues in any weather!

[RabbieBurns]

ANT24D18

 

They work very well for point to point, tested ov 1km distance (Line of Sight) and had no issues in any weather!

 

Yep they're the ones we use. Works great for A to B but from C to D just doesnt seem to work at all with all the trees and rooftops etc etc spoiling the signal.

[cooper]

ANT24D18

 

They work very well for point to point, tested ov 1km distance (Line of Sight) and had no issues in any weather!

 

What AP do you use with that?

 

Cooper

[RabbieBurns]

We use Netgear WG602 s'

[Andrew_C]

We had lots of trouble in the spring & summer. Yep, trees in the way. Sorry, but no idea which kit in use.

[powdarrmonkey]

If you want high throughput, investigate point-to-point laser.

[User3204]

We've had a couple of Cisco APs with directional antennas for a few years now, (they're 11mbit, so that should give you a clue as to their age). They're these Cisco Aironet 350 Series Wireless Bridge [Cisco Aironet 350 Series] - Cisco Systems

They're fine, apart from the kids like to kick footballs at them, and this damages the cover, but a new antenna is about £140 (I've had to replace twice now, and have to do it again).

 

It allows what we want, but now I am looking into Laser, which will go upto 100mbit, and can be put inside a METAL cage, I have had quotes back that are around £4k.

 

If it's along distance see if you can get hold of a company to come in and quote for laser/wireless. I would have preferred a fibre cable, but it's across a road.

 

We've had issues with:

1. antenna being knocked off target;

2. trees blowing in the wind, but there was a bit of judicious pruning by the grounds staff - losing connection;

3. antenna being knocked off the building (and it went missing);

4. heavy fog, heavy rain, heavy snowfall - the sort when you can't see the building, it loses connection;

5. Staff disconnecting the AP from the mains;

 

But, it does reconnect very quickly.

 

We run a single VOIP phone line through this link, which works well, despite upto 5 staff using the link to connect to the main site.

[use-IP]

Have they come up with some cunning modern way of accurately aligning laser sender/receivers?

I was always taught that alignment was a big problem with laser; I guess the laser beam is really narrow, and 800m is a long distance to maintain that accuracy of alignment between the transmitter & receiver.

It's probably an urban myth, but they used to say that just weather changes causing the mounting brackets to warm & cool was enough to cause misalignment.

Is anybody using laser over this kind of distance?

 

Some wireless mesh units can utilise dual radio to give you better bandwidth between points (70Mbps), or you can daisy-chain them to go on forever without a reduction in bandwidth, or in mesh-mode they'll find their best wireless routes between units to cover great areas e.g. university campuses or whole towns (watch this video of USA SuperBowl city-wide police coverage). These units are even used to connect wirelessly to vehicles driving through the mesh-covered area!

[powdarrmonkey]

I've never used PTP lasers, but with my physics hat on I would say that the beam isn't neccessarily so narrow: lenses would see to that. Don't know if it's practical though.

[AzteQ_Grant]

I need to connect two buildings that are about 800m apart. Wired would be a problem, so I'm looking at wireless. We use D-Link kit, so that would be the best solution for me. It seems to me that a WAP at each end in bridge mode, with a high gain directional antenna at one end would do the job.

 

Has anyone already done this? - and - how effective is it??

 

Cheers, Andy E.

 

Hi Andy, I am not sure if we are too late for you as we are a UK accredited installer of Laser Link and Wireless Building to building solutions.

Please see attached.

Laser intro 2008.doc