Broadband Satellite Initernet Wireless Routing??????

[gwoiler]

I am trying to find some people that have had experience with broadband satellite internet reception and then making it available with a wireless router. We are up in the mountains in Idaho at a Christian Ministry and have 4 buildings that would be nice to have internet at better than a snails pace. I have been reading on the internet and talked with a saleman and it looks like we should get a Direcway Satellite Internet reciever, and then a wireless router with an external whip antenna to install on the outside of the building and then on 2 buildings we would have external antennas with wireless units that the networks would plug into. In one home we would just have a wireless card in a laptop.

Total distance between buildings is maybe 1200 ft and less. There are some trees in the way and some could be taken out.

If you have messed with this type of sytem and could share some of your experience with me, it could very well save me from re-doing some of it!

thanks, Glenn Woiler

[808smokey]

I've heard you get SUPER fast DL speed 256mps+ but only get 56K dial up for UL. Just what I heard so don't quote me on it.

an external whip antenna

I would imagine that wireless will be in the gigahertz range so adding a 10ft. antenna won't do anything, it would probably hurt you more. Those are for VHF (CB Radios). A 2.4ghz single is @ only 1cm per wavlength. That's why cell phone antennas are so short.

I read this somewhere...

A general rule of thumb in home networking says that 802.11b and 802.11g WAPs and routers support a range of up to 150 feet (46 m) indoors and 300 feet (92 m) outdoors.

[redwudz]

I would like something in writing that the wi-fi system could reach 1200 ft. That seems to be stretching it without special hardware to boost the signal strength. Otherwise, probably the best you can get at your location.

[glockjs]

i just bought a special antenna from frys, given its a corner antenna but its supposed to give a 15 dbi gain. well i got 1 extra bar given i live in apartments i can understand the polution, but still i should be picking up a full signal for days with 15dbi. but nope, one bar.

[redwudz]

15db gain over what? A 'lab' reference antenna? I had the same problem with a cell phone antenna that quoted a 10DB gain. It was definately better than the 'rubber duckie' the phone came with, but the gain was really about 10-15%, which was good, but knowing advertising, I never expected miracles.

[gwoiler]

Peter at L-COM told me these systems have a line of sight range of about 2 kilometers. Through the trees will be less. I don't know why you guys are thinking in terms of 150 feet or so. Wireless is everywhere. And about cell phones... where I live in northern Washington, I am off the beaten path and have 2 cell phones for my home. I have a cell phone antenna on top of my house and it is much better than the antenna in the phone.

These are some links to equipment I am considering. I just want to hear from people that have done it and can say how well it works.

My local internet provider has wireless internet and it goes 18 miles line of sight. I just don't happen to be line of sight.

http://www.l-com.com/jump.jsp?lGen=productleader&itemID=8829&itemType=PRODUCTLEADER&iM...ProductID=8829

http://www.l-com.com/jump.jsp?lGen=productleader&itemID=8060&itemType=PRODUCTLEADER&iM...ProductID=8060

http://www.l-com.com/jump.jsp?lGen=productleader&itemID=7785&itemType=PRODUCTLEADER&iM...ProductID=7785

http://www.l-com.com/jump.jsp?lGen=productleader&itemID=8060&itemType=PRODUCTLEADER&iM...ProductID=8060

Anyway.... although the distances are not published directly, I don't think the sales manaager of L-COM would tell me 1-2 kilometers if it only goes 150 feet. that is a BIG difference.

I was visiting a boarding accademy in Pasco WA and they had a nice whip antenna on one building (hub) and all the other buildings had wireless network and some buildings were 1000 feet apart or more. I should go ask them how they did it.

Glenn Woiler

[tekkieman]

I just bought a wireless b router and USB adapter. They are both Netgear. In the manual, it does list the distance as 150ft indoors. It also list a max range of 1500ft, but that is only at 1Mb/s. If I recall the spec right, 500ft was at 5Mb/s and 1000ft was at 2Mb/s.

Now if your BB connection is a 1Mb/s connection, this isn't too bad. My DSL is 3Mb/s, but the wireless unit is only 20ft. from the router, and gets the full 11Mb/s rate.

If you are going to be doing lots of file transfer stuff, a g router would be better. Same goes if your BB speeds are over 5Mb/s.

[mujahid7ia]

i hope you're not a gamer... Satellite gets horrible pings!!

[gwoiler]

Here is some more info about long range wireless networking. So... lets add at least another zero to 150'

Marie Lingblom, 26-Mar-2003

SMC Networks Tuesday unveiled a new wireless PC card with longer-range capabilities as the first product in its new EliteConnect High Power family.

The SMC2532W-B 2.4GHz 802.11b High Power Wireless PC Card, scheduled for early April availability and priced at US$139.99, features transmit power of up to 200 milliwatts and operating range of up to 2,700 feet. That range can be increased by attaching an optional high-gain antenna to one of the two available MMCX connectors, according to the company.

SMC's new wireless PC card is IEEE 802.11b-compliant and Wi-Fi certified, can be configured to operate in ad-hoc (peer-to-peer) or infrastructure mode and operates on any 802.11b network, according to SMC.

Connections are secured via 64/128-bit WEP encryption and the new Wi-Fi Protected Access, following an update in the second quarter. Also expected in the update is 802.11x user authentication, which helps ensure that only authorized users can access the resources of the wireless network.

Jon Bettino, SMC's network product marketing manager, said the new wireless PC card is aimed at providing better range and security to customers. SMC plans to release other products in SMC's EliteConnect wireless networking product family soon, according to the company.

This story first appeared in CRN, a US-based CMP publication.

I am getting closer... I just want to make sure I get the right antennas with wireless routers and access units.

Glenn Woiler

[gwoiler]

Wow... the longer I look, the better range I am finding. Check this site out: http://www.accelenet.net/wireless.html

glenn