I have a line of sight view between my house and a mates (about .75mile).

If we wanted a simple (and cheap) wireless bridge between the two places, what are our options?

IF you have the right aerials, two APs in bridge mode should work

DIY aerial http://www.usbwifi.o...hosting.net.nz/

softscoop is right about that but if its a DIY aerial or any aerial make sure you match up any connectors properly otherwise you might get impedence mismatch which would result in something similar to back pressure loss. Also be aware that although it may appear that you have a clear line of sight you might need to raise the aerials sufficiently if there's not a proper RF line of sight such as fresnel zone incursions which need to be less than 40%

Eat some crisps and try a couple of cantennas.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

The antenna at my end would probably be mounted on a chimney, so therefore needs to be weather-proof (where as the one at my mates might be slight more accessible, but ideally we don't want to be eating too many tubes of crisps....)

Initially I was wondering about something like this: http://www.broadband...?ProductID=9769

Just had to google to find out what Fresnel zone incursion is :-)

Edited 31 May, 201313 yr by mbames

If you want a very high quality robust system that you can just install and forget about then these are the best http://www.zcomax.co.uk/products/index.php

We have them between two factories line of sight and about 300 yards between them. Theres a few trees that have grown between the two antenna's yet the signal strength and quality are still over 80% its saying currently that the connection has been live with zero packet loss for 562 days. Not bad ehh!

One problem with putting the aerial on a chimney is going to be the length of cable. The nearer the equipment to the aerial, the better.

Two of these might work:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Antenna-Aerial-2-4Ghz-Yagi-17dBi-WLAN-WIFI-RP-SMA-Wireless-BT-Openzone-Booster-/281079272619?pt=UK_Computing_Boosters_Extenders_Antennas&hash=item4171a154ab

The networking equipment would be in my loft, so not too far away from the chimney.

So a one of those at each end and a cheapo AP connected to it?

One problem with putting the aerial on a chimney is going to be the length of cable. The nearer the equipment to the aerial, the better.

Two of these might work:

http://www.ebay.co.u...=item4171a154ab

Wont make any difference if he uses the euipment i said to use as the power is sent along the Ethernet cable and the Antenna/dish is integral to the access point in an IP rated enclosure. This means you can locate the antenna upto 100mm from your Switch and Power supply in the garden on a pole if you like. If you tell them the IP range and subnet mask of your network then they come preconfigured aswell so they are plug and play.

Whats the purpose out of interest is it to split the broadband bill, business partner or LAN gaming etc?

Whats the purpose out of interest is it to split the broadband bill, business partner or LAN gaming etc?

To play/experiment and maybe split the cost of fibre :-)

Any idea on the prices of the kit you are suggesting scribbler?

Edited 31 May, 201313 yr by mbames

To play/experiment and maybe split the cost of fibre :-)

Any idea on the prices of the kit you are suggesting scribbler?

You would have to contact them for a quote they normally use a third party reseller but they will sell direct i think not sure what their latest models are priced at but i think we paid circa £300 for both antenna's i wired them up myself and provided the exterior grade CAT 6 cable. they will afix to a wall or jubilee clip to a pole. i bet you can get a good deal on some end of line last years models for perhaps £100. Perhaps sounds expensive but there is a massive difference between the off the shelf TPLink / netgear stuff and then this Specialised Proffesional stuff. The throughput speeds are like working on a wired network.

Depending on what you want to do with the network between two buildings and how much traffic you're sending down it, would you consider a Frame relay connection?

I have one such connection between my office and another. It's cheap but reliable and all you need to a leased line, decent router supporting Frame. I get a CIR of 44Mb (this is network speed not internet) but frequently burst above. Distance between me and the other office is 2 miles.

Very easy to configure. You will be assigned a DLCI value which you configure on your router and then you map it to the remote IP address. You can use either IPv4 or Ipv6 is your router supports it. You can also run PPP over Frame which means the connection can be authentication using either CHAP (3 way Hash) or PAP (2 way plain text)

I'm not knocking wireless but just saying theres another option depending on bandwidth intensive you want to go and there's QoS considerations if you require that too. Wireless range has limitations which are quoted as 150-300ft on 802.11n access points but if you get a P2P aerial you might be able to go a range in x miles although as I said before you got to keep the connectors as close to the same impedence rating in Ohms as possible otherwise you end up with problems. Also another thing I want to mention is, is that wireless is half duplex right (meaning 130Mb is actually going to be 65Mb or less) and contention based meaning it uses CSMA/CA. You could end up with collisions and hidden node problems if say your external environment changes. Had a friend of mine have this issue where a swinging crane between him and the remote location caused issues.

If you go the wireless route, when you connect the ethernet cable from your PC to wireless AP, use a min CAT5e (supports 1Gb/ps) and get a shielded one plenum rated ideally if it's running through various parts of your house.

Edited 2 June, 201313 yr by newskoda