house to house wireless network (WXP-Pro)

[fartman]

I am planning a setup for someone to use their neighbors internet connection (with their permission of course). So far I am planning a wireless router at house 1 hooked to an outdoor directional grid antenna on the roof. At house 2 there will be another directional grid antenna plugged into a wireless router acting as an access point on one end of the house. There will be another access point in the middle of the house(big house) and a computer in the middle and on the other end. The houses are about 300 ft. apart. My concerns are the following: If I use routers with two antennas on them, with one on each being the directional antenna on the roof, will they still transmit enough to work in each house? Secondly does anyone think this will work without the outdoor directional antennas? Third, is there any easier way to do this?

[jdharm]

If I use routers with two antennas on them, with one on each being the directional antenna on the roof, will they still transmit enough to work in each house?

Feel free to correct me on this Anyone, but I don't think this will work for you. As I understand it, having two antennae on a router is for one of two reasons, depending on the manufacture of the device. The first possibility is that the hardware could analyze the slight difference in the two signals received to possibly improve the overall reception or compensate for errors. In this case your proposed system would not be a good idea because the signals would not be 'slightly' different but vastly different, throwing the system off. The second possibility is that the system will choose to use one of the two antennae, based on the quality of the signals coming into each one. In this case your proposed setup would not be a good idea because the system's performance would be hampered by communication from one house to the next taking place in only one direction at a time on one antenna at a time. It may not work at all.

Secondly does anyone think this will work without the outdoor directional antennas?

Possibly, if you had a clear line of sight and didn't have anything but an exterior wall of each house between the two antennas...300ft isn't that far. But the stability and reliability of the link would be vastly improved if the antennas were outside. Alternately, you can find directional antennas that are flat panels and can be affixed to windows on the inside of the glass or frame...if you had two windows that could see each other then that would be just about as good as a parabolic on the roof. (<a target="_blank" href=http://www.pacwireless.com/products/inwave_series_10.shtml>FOR EXAMPLE</a>)

Third, is there any easier way to do this?

Given that I don't know if your split-antenna router plan will work I would (and recently have) suggest that you use a wireless bridge. You get two APs that are bridgeable and use them to create a link between the two houses. The two APs are locked to one another and don't care anything about any other wireless devices or networks you have going on. They will basically just take the place of a 300' cable run. You can plug the Ethernet interface of each AP into any switch/hub/router in each house and pretend that there is a run of CAT5 between your two houses. So each of you can do whatever you want in your own house as far as networking goes. Just be sure that if you choose to put a wireless network in your house you put the device on a channel as far removed as possible from the channel the wireless bridge is using.

Josh

Yet another site soon to be neglected:<font color=green>
<a target="_blank" href=http://www.zachmax.com>www.zachmax.com</a></font color=green>

[fartman]

what would be a good bridgeable AP? And how exactly would you create the bridge? I've never done that before. A linksys wrt-54g would probably not work for this I'm guessing, even if it would function as a bridgeable AP because it uses split antennas.

[jdharm]

I wrote a long explanatory answer, but I got bored reading my own post so I deleted it and started over. So, don't be offended if the following seems terse. I'll elaborate if you need me to.

what would be a good bridgeable AP?

Linksys WAP11. Cheap, simple to setup, seems hardy and stable.

And how exactly would you create the bridge?

In the AP's interface there is an option to turn on bridge mode. Select the radio button and enter the MAC address of the other WAP11. Aim the directional antennas at each other. Done.

A linksys wrt-54g would probably not work for this I'm guessing...

Not the WRT. If you have to have 802.11G speeds iinstead of the WAP11's B speeds you'd want the WET54g or WAP54g/gp/gpe. Check out their descriptions.

...even if it would function as a bridgeable AP because it uses split antennas.

It isn't the fact that it has two antennas that would keep it from working...it is the design of the system using the antennas that would prevent it. I don't beleive that the two antennas can be active at any given moment, just one or the other (as the system determines need). Maybe it would work, but it is my opinion that if it did work it wouldn't work very well and your purposes would be better served by having the house-to-house link and the household AP duties being performed by separate devices. Its as much a practical limitation as a technical one. If it was my own system or that of one of my customers that is the approach I would take.

Josh

Yet another site soon to be neglected:<font color=green>
<a target="_blank" href=http://www.zachmax.com>www.zachmax.com</a></font color=green>

[fartman]

also, since it seems like the split antenna thing will cause problems, what if I go into the firmware on each router and set the send and recieve antenna to the same and then plug an ethernet cable into another router.

or, could I use three AP's, one at each directional antenna and one in the middle of the recieving house, and no ethernet cables. Wow, I am confusing myself.