Wireless router distance

swintonphoto

I am opening a new photo studio that is about a block away from my apartment. I was wondering if anyone knew if there is a way to send a wireless signal that far? Are there routers or antennas or receivers that can be utilized to make it work in that distance?

colourbox

There is definitely equipment like that out there. It is easier if you buy a router with an antenna port. Here is one example, and another. I haven't tried them.

jdryan3

Here is another resource. A little less expensive. :wow

rdlugosz

Yea, search the web for something called a "cantenna" - IIRC it's kind of a DIY project to pick up distant WiFi signals. You may need some reasonable line-of-sight though... this may mean that it all depends on your location, building materials, etc.

You also could look into some 3rd-party firmware for your router. The stuff available for Linksys routers will allow you to turn up the transmission power on the router.

good luck!

LuckyBob

Part of my job entails supporting medium to large wireless networks, from multi-access point (15+ in one building) to long range (several city blocks). Yes, it's totally doable provided you plan it out properly. You'll need a line of sight between the two locations, and a good highly directional antenna. We purchase all of our antenna-related stuff from Hyperlinktech.com, since a good directional dish antenna runs about $35 from them; waterproof to boot. They also have all the adapters/pigtails/cables you could need.

Several tricks I've learned over the years:

• Get a WiFi scanner (or install one on your laptop/PDA). You'll need to find out what channels are clear; long range networks suffer horribly from interference with other WiFi equipment.
• Use the shortest antenna cable possible. Assuming everything's outdoors, that means get an antenna with a N-male connector and use the shortest N cable you can get your hands on to reach the router. Get an N-to-SMA/SMC/RP-SMA/TNC/etc pigtail to adapt it to whatever router you use.
• If it's outdoors, one would assume there's no AC power available. Invest in an access point that supports PoE (Power Over Ethernet), and pick up a cheap PoE injector - we use DLink a lot. This will allow you to run one Cat5e/Cat6 line to the equipment carrying both data and power.
• Make sure your data and antenna cables are outdoor certified and if there's any electronics outside that they're well sealed in some sort of enclosure - Home Depot sells stuff that works great, as long as you caulk the holes you drill in it.
• We've had fairly good luck with Netgear Prosafe WAPs for low end equipment.
• If you mount the antenna outdoors (especially on a roof), make sure it's secured well. Antennas (even the hollow dish ones) are quite prone to changing direction with the wind. Guy wires work quite well to cure the issue.
• Highly directional antennas are much better for longer distances, but they're a pain to aim at each other. Mount one of the laser straight-line devices to the front of the antenna (if you can do so) to help aim it.
• Despite what people tell you, WiFi's never totally secure. Don't think it is.
• Encryption slows down the transfer speeds across the link.
• Don't add other devices onto the WAPs connecting the two buildings - sharing the limited bandwidth available in the WiFi link will cause you more hassle than good.
• If the signal strength's good enough, force both WAPs into G-only mode, as the mixed mode in all routers runs slower and tends to have weaker signal strength. If it's weak (or it's only being used to utilize an internet connection), force it into one of the slower B-only modes, since it will afford you better stability.
• Some [good] WAPs have options to set paramaters such as preamble length or maximum packet size - altering these options can radically increase the network's stability.
• If you've got a Mac/Linux rig available to you (or want to download a better ping utility for Windows), take advantage of the ability to ping flood across the network - it's invaluable for testing stability and performance.

Good luck! Let me know if you have any questions - I can go get some pictures of the installations we've done in the past also.


PS: In response:

rdlugosz wrote:

You also could look into some 3rd-party firmware for your router. The stuff available for Linksys routers will allow you to turn up the transmission power on the router.

There's a very small number of Linksys (or other) products capable of running alternate firmware; the common Linksys models have been off the market for years save for the special order WRT54GL. Turning up the transmit power won't help much at all, and can lead to overheating (and locking up) or a radically shortened lifespan of the router. Not to mention it doesn't alter the signal to noise ratio, which helps signal strength more than anything else. See http://wiki.openwrt.org/Faq#head-90c2e50fca397125fd055d4f9d06ba3b07b8b9a8

dogwood

jdryan3 wrote:

Here is another resource. A little less expensive. :wow

Wow... some very interesting (and a little geeky too) reading here. Lots and lots of booster antenna ideas ranging from cardboard and aluminum to chinese cookware! I love it!