WLAN, how to, cost general newb questions

[beechum1]

hey, how's it going, i'm jeremy, i'm a closet techie, but have very little knowledge about these things.

my office has dsl connection. I live in mexico. connection costs down here can be somewhat expensive (looking to spend about 1000$ for a year for home broadband connection.) since the office is already wired, and i live about 1 mile away, what could be a setup to be wireless at my house and still get a decent signal. let's say 11mbps i'll accept. i've got this friend (don't we all) who says about 2k$ and i can set it up right, but i'm thinking there's got to be a cheaper way to do it. any thoughts from the peanut gallery?

[Jayhawk]

Here's a few starting numbers.

The standards (PC Magazine) for 801g indicate 120M line of sight outdoors. I have read articles about people getting reception at 1000 feet using some of the newer MIMO technolgy under perfect conditions (no standard yet on 802n).

I believe a mile is roughly 5,280 feet so you would need to use several "extensions" which are like repeating access points. I believe the greatest difficulty using "off the shelf" technology would be finding 7 or 8 places along the route to install the repeaters. Then again, you have to have a wireless router hooked to your office network to start the whole thing off.

For $2,000, your friend must be talking about an "industrial solution" similar to what some of the Amercan cities are starting to install (very large broadcast dishes basically).

[beechum1]

k, so without those repeaters there's no budget solution to my problem, i'll just have to eat it.

[rallynavvie]

Yeah, directional antennas are probably good to about a 1/4 mile on a clear day, far less during inclement weather or if it rains mirrors and lead sheets.

Is it feasible to run a fibre-optic cable underground between the two? If it were mostly rural between home and work it could be a feasible alternative. I think the terminals on each end may be pricey, but not $2k pricey. And then you'd have blistering fast speeds with your LAN between home and work.

[beechum1]

yeah, it's not going to be worth it in the end. i'll just have to pay at the house too.