Do I need a repeater, a bridge.. or something else for shed + house + driveway?

[Isolder]

This is a lot of text, but I appreciate any help.

My cousin has a two-story home which for some reason or another does not work well with Wireless. The far corner of the shed is less than probably 75 yards away. The drive-way is in between.

I've been reading several threads and I'm not quite sure what I need here. He wants all of these places to have access to his home wireless. The wireless router is connected at the corner of the house farthest from the shed and driveway. With this setup, anyone in his house can connect, but they are unable to in the driveway.

If I put the router in the attic, he can't connect on the lower floor unless he's practically right under the attic area.

It'd be best if I could leave the router where it is and somehow provide wireless to the driveway + shed, but I'm not understanding if I could do this with a repeater or if I should set up a bridge. It seems like I *maybe* could accomplish what I need with this: http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=0&pid=357, but I'm just not sure. I really want to keep the cost of this under $150-200. Initially all that matters is having wireless access in the shed and driveway, but if a wired lan could be set up in the shed that'd be an even added benefit.

Thanks for your time.

[singha]

You're on the right track.

It sounds like the house has pretty thick walls that attenuate the signal from the existing AP. The first thing you can do is download a free program called Netstumbler. It will allow you to measure the signal strength at various locations and determine where a "boost" is needed the most. Of course, you'll need a laptop so you can walk around with Netstumbler.

Any old wireless router may be a handy tool. When you determine the weak spots--the driveway and the shed included--set up the old router in the spot where you think additional AP is most needed. Turn it on and walk around with Netstumbler again to see if all areas are covered by the two routers.

You may be all covered or may be not. At this point you may consider adding access points or resigning to whatever area is covered by the two. Note that some routers like Linksys WRT54G come with detachable antennas which can be replaced with high gain directional antennas that could concentrate enough signal to reach the shed.

With little bit of work some cheap routers like Liknsys WRT54G can be turned into repeaters using third party firmware. You can also make it as simple as connecting the two routers with ethernet where the second router will act as a wireless access point and conduct traffic to the first router through the wire.

WRT54G costs about $40-60. Bufallo WHR-G125 is currently $25 after rebate at Best buy website (I think it's Best Buy and I hate the chain but cheap is cheap). The Bufallo is quite powerfull. Probably better router than the Linksys. The transmission power of both can be boosted using a setting that third party firmware like DD-WRT (free) unlocks.

Here is some plain language info (http://www.skifactz.com/wifi/wrt54g_repeater.htm)on setting up repeaters if that's what you decide to do. There are also some interesting DYI antenna projects. Good luck.

[M/Q]

I would like to insert a note of caution. Repeating seems to be a cure all that is IMO over rated and being suggested as a solution way too often in this forum. Repeating is not the best solution in any situation. It should be a last resort solution. Using a repeater will cut your throughput bandwidth in half automatically and that is if and only if you have excellent signal strength.

I would suggest setting up more access points in appropriate locations that will give you the coverage you need. There are multiple ways to accomplish this.

[Alan87i]

I agree.
The best way is survey the desired area as mentioned above.
Determine if you need 1 or 2 or more wireless stations.
If only 1 is needed get a simple access point and hard wire it to the existing router.
If 2 are needed use a second router. Turn off the DHCP server and hard wire it with one of the 4 switch ports . and daisy chain additional Ap's from this router.

Allan
VA2CBE

[Isolder]

Thanks everyone for your replies.

My biggest difficulty in determining the best course of action has been in that I can't lay any wire between the two buildings. There's layers of concrete between the two buildings and it wouldn't be acceptable to have a wire /conduit on the surface.

If I consider that a repeater is *not* a good option..losing half my bandwidth (I assume you mean the wireless bandwidth) doesn't seem terribly bad.. That's mean I'd get like a 5mbps connection vs a 10mbps right? All that would really occur would be some light web surfing in the shed or driveway and most traffic is small enough to fit in that size.

If I took a secondary router, added an external antenna that pointed towards the house I could set up a wireless bridge.. and that would allow me to connect wireless clients from the shed, right?

I can't seem to grasp the right thing to do with the cheapest solution. I would think I could add another access point inside the house, but from what I understand the signal would bounce off the shed and anyone in the shed would have little to no access.

[singha]

Yes, I agree with you both. Whenever a cable can be run it should be the first choice.

[Alan87i]

From what I understand The main goal you have is to get wireless across the yard to a shed?
I would get 2 access points. The same brand and model.
Trying to keep it on the cheap . If the attic has a window facing the shed run a wire from the router to one Ap there. Set this Ap in AP mode. Use a channel far away from the current channel on the router.

Now for the shed you set the second AP in client mode. I would look up FAB corp for 1 place to buy a directional antenna. 19 dbi parabolic grid works well.
Try and install the antenna in a spot with the best line of sight towards the AP in the attic.

Also do your best to mount the AP in the shed as close as possible to the antenna. Less COAX the better. Configure this AP in Client mode and have it connect to the AP in the attic.

Options are//// Add a second antenna on the wall of the house pointing at the shed for stronger signal.
If wireless is not required in the yard set the AP's in Bridge mode. Faster connection.

Allan
VA2CBE

[Isolder]

For some reason my replies are either taking very long to show up or not showing up at all.


How will the AP in the shed provide access to wireless clients, since the antenna will be on the outside of the shed? If there's no antenna in the shed any inside clients won't get signal, right?

[Alan87i]

OH sorry I figured the main point was to get wireless to the shed.
Will there be any desktops in the shed?
Another Ap could be added inside the shed. A switch is all that is needed to connect the two Ap's at the shed together as well as cables to desktops.
Keep the channel on the second Ap different from the rest.
Also a long shot would be to try a directional antenna at the house pointing at the shed. My set up is now a bridge. Before I did that The Ap where the router is has a 19 dbi directional antenna , I could sit by the window over 800 feet away with an Ibook and get 45 % or better signal.
If this won't get inside the shed per your requirements , Then I would set up 2 Ap's on a switch. one to receive in a good location and 1 to connect clients in the shed.
Repeaters work ,, but as soon as a few clients hop on the speed will drop !
Allan
VA2CBE

[Isolder]

I'm gonna kind of regurgitate what I think you've told me and you can tell me if I've got it right:

Get *three* of the same kind of access points. I haven't found a lot of information on this.. but it looks like I want to choose WAP's that only have *one* antenna since that's how external antennas are made to connect. Right?

house
=====
One access point will be in the house attic. This access point should push out signal to the yard/driveway nearby.


shed
====
One access point will be set up to pick up the house WAP's signal by having an external directional antenna pointing towards the house. To make sure I understand.. this directional antenna will just help make sure it picks up the house WAP's signal.. but it won't stop other people from picking up wireless in between.

Third WAP gets set up inside the shed. Now, to get wireless access or wired access inside the shed I'll connect another WAP to the WAP that has an external antenna pointing towards the house. This second WAP will be what the inside shed connects to.. right?


With the above setup I'll have *some wireless* between shed and house and definitely wireless inside the shed. Right?


Did I get it all correct?

[Alan87i]

Sounds like it.
You could try an external antenna at the house first or instead of the shed.
It depends on the width of the area you want to cover in the yard between the two buildings.
This might also improve the signal inside the shed. I can't say with out actually being there to investigate it my self.

Try just 1 Ap and antenna at the house,,, use a lap top to survey the signal quality in the yard and in the shed. From that you should be able to determine what if any additional equipment is needed.
Allan
VA2CBE