[olug] Max range on WAPs

[Phil Brutsche]

<half joking>

trench some single-mode fiber between the houses and put an AP at your
grandma's house.

</half joking>

I doubt a new WAP will help any, you're talking about crossing a 450
foot void using "rubber duckies" with obstacles at both ends. If there
was *literally* nothing but air between the AP and the laptop you might
be able to do it...

If the fiber idea won't fly (c'mon, i *know* you wanna!) I suggest a
second AP with a yagi antenna (or some other directional - like a
biquad) pointed at grandma's:

http://www.l-com.com/familylist.aspx?id=2149

Another idea would be to put in an amplifier:

http://www.l-com.com/productfamily.aspx?id=6376

Being out on a farm I seriously doubt you'll run into regulatory issues
pushing your WLAN signal up to 3 watts (or even higher) - most APs run
at 100 mW or less, so 3 W is a substantial power boost. A 3W amp runs
about $250 :(

The antenna idea is the cheapest and the fiber idea is the most expensive ;)

On 2/25/2010 10:08 PM, Obi-Wan wrote:
> My mom just got a new laptop with 802.11n networking.  Their current
> 802.11g WAP works fine around their house & yard, but it won't work
> in my grandma's house about 150 yards away.  Both houses are on the
> same farm, so there's no legal problems with sharing Internet access.
> Mom is grandma's caretaker and spends lots of time there.
> 
> Do any of you have any recommendations for a new WAP or antenna or
> something that will help the laptop stay online in the other building?
> 
> Alas, I can't remember off hand which brand/model of WAP they currently
> have in place.
> 


-- 

Phil Brutsche
phil at brutsche.us