Scott Mueller's Upgrading and Repairing PCs Forum

Hello again Scott. My parents are retiring to their summer "home", it is in
need of repair thats why I put it in quotes. Anyway, it is out in the woods.
Their are two houses right now, and only one of them will have the Satalite
attached for internet. The thing is they want to have a wireless network so
they can get on the internet at either house. The houses are about 1/10th of
a mile apart, with some trees in between the two. I was thinking they could
get a wireless router with a directional antena at the house with the dish on
it. Still I know nothing about Satalite internet and I thought you told me
you had it at one point...Will the dish be wired to a router or "Satalite
modem"?. Or is it completely wireless and you can recieve the signal from the
disk itself?????. I have never known anyone who has had satalite internet but
it is their only choice out there, besides dial up!. I may set up the network
for them, so some info on how satalite internet works would help. I will have
to google until I get a response from you. Your explanations are so much
easier to understand to me than a lot of other peoples. That is why I like
your books so much!

Satellite internet is covered in my URPCs 17th edition book starting on page
1067: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0789734044

If you have other alternatives such as Cable, DSL, or fixed-base wireless,
then I'd choose one of those options instead, but if those options are not
available, then I currently recommend either DirecWay (now HughesNet) or
WildBlue satellite broadband:

http://www.hughesnet.com
http://www.wildblue.com

They are basically equivelant in capabilities and performance. Which one you
chose may depend mostly on your location and line of sight access to the
satellite without buildings, trees, etc. in the way.

Once the service is installed, you connect your network router to the
satellite modem just as you would to a cable or DSL modem.

As far as connecting the two houses, you could run an ethernet cable between
them (buried if necessary), or use wifi range extending products such as
amplifiers, directional antennas, and repeaters to extend the range:
http://www.hawkingtech.com/products/index.php?CatID=32

The current wifi distance record is something like 238 miles:
http://www.dailywireless.org/2007/06/18 ... nce-record

So I'd imagine connecting two houses 1/10 of a mile apart is certainly
doable. <g> Scott.

Thanks I saw the link, but can you recomend some specific products for this
situation?. I was thinking of just geting a wireless g Linksys router, and
then some kind of extender product like you suggested but don't know exactly
what to get...Would I need to mount an antena outside?.

See my previous response for a link to a source for amplifiers, directional antennas, and repeaters to extend the range. Scott.

Yep I saw that link. I actuall wrote to Hawking Tech Support and described the situation and they replied with this,

"We don't really have a solution for this type of envirnment. If you
had line of sight, we could do something. But a quarter mile with
buildings/trees in the way. Those will all block the signal range
and reduce it."

Yes I told the a 1/4 mile because I'm not sure of the distance exactly but I am positive it is not more than a 1/4 mile...

I'd start by using a pair of high gain directional antennas connected to a wireless access point (or router) at one end, and a wireless PCI adapter at the other.

If that doesn't work you can try professional (and expensive) solutions such as those from Alvarion: http://www.alvarion.com/solutions/privatenetwork

Your best bet will be to play with different wifi antennas, amplifiers and such as sold by Hawking. Scott.

Here's another source of WiFi amplifiers and antennas that can be used for long distance networking: http://www.radiolabs.com

Scott.

Thanks a lot Scott!. By the way, what exactly is an "N" connector?. I'm not too familiar with the different types of connectors on wireless devices although I did learn a few of them years ago....The only ones I know about or heard of on wireless routers are "SMC" and "Reverse Smc"...

N connectors are a type of RF connector used in most outdoor or heavy duty WiFi antennas.

Pasternack is a great source of coax cable, connectors and adapters: http://www.pasternack.com

Scott.