Need: Long-Range Airport

N

Numbers1820

IXOYS
What I want is an Airport network that will reach ~100 yards -- through several brick walls and a small parking lot, from one building to the next.

Background: I want to run my home computer (PowerMac) and my office computer (iBook) through the same DSL connection to save money and allow me to receive/make calls while online, etc. (Currently, I do not even have DSL. Airport is what would make the expense of DSL over dial-up worth it for me.) One advantage of living in my area is that my commute is a murderous 100 yards or so from home to office : ). BUT that is still two different buildings, and 4 thick walls away.

I want to hear from people who have gotten Airport to reach from point to point in real-world applications similar to mine. I want to buy and install with confidence and minimum hassle, not buy this, return that, fiddle and diddle until it works. Ideally, I want to get up and running with a first time installation, about 4 hours work tops. The less the better, as long as I can still do it myself without getting a tech to me (a near impossibility in my remote area, and would would be horribly expensive).

Advice?
 
I had the same problem. My offices are in a historical district so it's a big no no for any kind of change. Heck it takes 6 months if we want to change the colors of a wall. Fortunetly, we have friendly neigbors that allowed us to place a couple wirelsss hubs in their offices so basically I have 3 hubs and a router. This cost us about $1000.00 bucks two years ago. It might be worth while to pick up 3 or 4 of these new airport express and secretly plug them into the closets of neighboring buildings creating a secrte network to your building. Heck 100 yards aint to far. I can easily get 100 yards from my wireless hub. It's a linksys with an external ant.
(coat hanger)
 
Would a Dr. Bott ExtendAIR Direct Antenna (http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APP...Dzbk4oo2zJ3iv51R7vR1MN/7.0.9.1.0.6.25.7.5.3.3) do the trick? it says it "increases the effective range of AirPort to approximately 500 feet with a 70' beam width of coverage." 500 Feet is a good 200 feet over 100 yards, so at least in theory it could work. I have never tried one, though, so I don't know. It would probably be easier and cheaper than using multiple secret AirPort Express hubs, albiet less fun :)
 
Because of the very 'directional' nature of the link you're trying to establish, a cantenna, or the optional directional antenna for AirportExtreme, could be placed at either end of the gap.
I think Dr Bott's has a directional antenna that would be suitable, there is also a Cantenna availabale from a company called (I think) WaveGuide, as well as a lot of other commercially available options for 802.11 networking. Also, you could whip up your own cantenna using a drink can-the advantage being that it can be made to just the right length to give a focus that will cover the area you want (a long cantenna will project the signal further but have a narrower focus). Some good info on modifying an existing Airport to a directional system is available at:
http://www.macmod.com/content/category/6/59/2/

If it were me, I would be mounting an external directional antenna on top of each of the buildings, perhaps on the TV aerial mast, and make sure you have a line of sight between them so you can go over the top of all the buildings in the way.
 
I had looked into doing something similar and this is what I was told by the Apple store people: If you plug in to the external antenna port, the internal antenna no longer functions.

So, you would want to put the directional antenna on the side that has the PowerMac. Otherwise you would not be able to connect wirelessly with your iBook.
 
Thanks, fellas, for all your help.

It seems from some of your replies that I need to give some more background information. That may or may not change your advice, but here goes:

I am a Christian pastor in rural Nebraska. My work office (iBook) is in the church (of course ; ), and my home office (mostly used by my wife) is in the parsonage (PowerMac).

Physically, this is the way the buildings are set up: The home office is in a north-facing room of the parsonage, then there's about 15 yards of lawn, 30 yards of parking lot/sidewalk (for the church), then the church building begins. It's quite high and has thick brick walls. (I suppose that affects radio reception/interference.) My office is in the far northern end of a recent addition to the church's north side. That's what gives me the ~100 yard distance.

There are no other buildings in between the office and my home (unless you count the original church sanctuary), but futzing around with aerial antennas on top of buildings doesn't sound like fun to me. I could do it if I had to, but...

Plugging in several Airport Expresses along the way sounds the simplest, by way of comparison. I would have total access to various electrical outlets along the way. (I'd just have to make sure to post "Do NOT remove" stickers by them!)

Is there a differnce between 802.11b and 802.11g range that would make a difference in my case? Is there any way around buying an Airport card for my iBook, an Airport base station for the PowerMac, and seeing if/how far it reaches, and buying and futzing with external antennas or Airport Expresses until I get it to work? I'd like to be able to make a rock-solid prediction of what I need and then just buy it and install it in one fell, easy swoop.

Further ideas, anyone?

Thanks ahead of time.
 
I would recommend against going the multiple airport express route. Not only would it be expensive, but I also think you would want to avoid doing a bunch of relaying of wireless signal.

If you don't already have the DSL yet, I would probably suggest that you try to get it hooked up at the church. This way it would be a "business" expense. Also anyone that worked for the church could use it then.

Then I would suggest that you hook up your base station (Airport or whatever brand you choose) in your office at the church, so you can use your iBook wirelessly. You will have to get an Airport card for you iBook. I don't know of any other brands that work in the airport slot. (Try eBay).

At home, I would suggest getting a wireless to ethernet bridge like the linksys wet11 (they also make a 802.11g model, but I don't know the model number) and a directional antenna (I have a panel antenna compatable with the WET11 if you are looking for one, or I can suggest a website. They cost around $50, or you can make a cantenna, but you'll need the correct connector). This would allow you to use your ethernet card in the powermac to connect to the wireless network and into the DSL and it would be much cheaper than buying two base stations.
 
I really think if you can place the first access point or wireless router closest to the 2nd building maybe even up in the attic of the first building to give it a little more height. Then get a second wireless bridge very close to a wall or again up in the attic or high shelf of the 2nd building you should be in good shape.

I just received our two airport expresses today. They are both being used as wireless speaker bridges in our home so, I wasn't able to actually test how far they would reach. I might ask a few of our neighbors and try it down our street. One nifty thing that I didn't even think about using the airport express for for it can double as an intercom...We've been playing with it at our house with a couple of our macs and some speakers and instead of yelling for the kids we just announce it over the speakers in the house now. My wife says we need to install one on a bullhorn outside so they can never be to far out of earshot.
 
Ok, fellas...

Let's see if I can distill the advice:

1) Get DSL at my work office. (Make sure it just plain works.)
2) Get an Airport base station and Airport card for my iBook (my work computer). (Get familiar with wireless in a sure-fire location.)
3) Fool around with trying to beam the DSL signal (probably not the correct term, but oh, well) to my home computer. (Some sort of external antenna is almost certainly warranted. Some sort of fiddling with the placement of the Airport Base Station at work is also probably warranted.)

This is more tinkering than what I wanted, but what we want doesn't always match reality, doesn't it?

Thanks for the advice. I'll be monitoring this thread for any more replies.
 
ofcourse wireless is nice to have,
but why not run an ethenet cable from home to office?

i think they can be something like 100 meters easlily

makes file-sharing from home to office much faster too
(but you shouldn't take you work home ofc0urse)


arri
 
blue&whiteman said:
stronger/farther reaching signals = more wifi bandwidth hijacking.
Click to expand...
If you are really worried about someone using the network without permission, turn on mac filtering or some form of wireless encryption and turn off SSID broadcast.

arri said:
ofcourse wireless is nice to have,
but why not run an ethenet cable from home to office?
Click to expand...
From my understanding of the problem, the 100 yard span crosses open ground. So wireless would be the cheapest and easiest solution.
 
I'm replying to the last three posts here...

blue&whiteman: Your concern for hijacking is noted. I do live in a very rural /small town area, and the chances for one of my neighbors to have wireless access and be devious enough to try just that sort of a trick is not too high, but precautions should be taken nonetheless. Thanks.

arri: As Gnomo noted, the distance between home and office is not the only factor; the fact that it covers about 40m of open ground (actually, a parking lot and my side yard...) is more significant. An Ethernet cable would involve either burying it or (probably) illegally stringing it along electric utility lines (which might cause all sorts of interesting interference problems for all I know). But thanks for the obvious question.

Gnomo: Thanks for the suggestion as to how to limit the chances of wifi hijacking. Kudos also to paying attention to my geographical specifics.

Sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you guys (3 weeks!). IRL responsibilities, you know. At least I'm a lot better informed and warned than I was previous. Just what I look for in a site like this! Thanks for all your work.

As the title to this post indicates, I plan to implement wireless in the near future, but I don't have any more questions for now. I am subscribed to this thread, however, so if anyone else posts, I'll pop in for a look and, hopefully, reply promptly.

Thanks again!

numbers1820
 
One thing I would watch out for is you are probably stepping on some FCC regulation regarding the frequency of your transmitter and sending it from one location to another with what you are proposing.

Not sure, but it wouldn't hurt to check it out further.
 
Natobasso,

Another thought (and this admittedly without looking at the articles you suggested) ... If my proposed setup could be running afoul of the FCC, then how is it that I could have, for example, an 802.11g network running out of my home, and inform my neighbors that if they want to piggyback on that connection, they may do so for free or for a fee we agree upon. Isn't that an example of a signal leaking out (more or less intentionally) from the building of installation?

Thoughts, anyone?

numbers1820
 
Numbers,

First, I don't think you need to worry about problems with the FCC. 802.11b & g are in the 2.4 GHz range which is an unlicensed frequency. What you would be doing is basically wireless bridging and is perfectly legal, many places use it to connect networks in different buildings.

As for allowing your neighbors to piggyback on your connection, that could get you into trouble with your DSL provider. Most would consider it similar to cable theft, since they lose the ability to sell DSL to your neighbors.
 
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