Need help Selecting hardware for WAP for 1-5 miles

I would like to make a wireless gateway for my community college.. basically they put me up to the challenge, and I have NO experience with selecting hardware to do this job. But they gave me a budget of max 5,000 dollars which hopefully is enough, if not I can report back to them I need more.

So I need a wireless router that gives each peer connected a limited amount of bandwidth and speed. and directs the peer to the schools homepage right when they connect. I live in a small city and i've contacted other forums, but they say rig up a WRT54G.. and that sounds ridiculous.. probably not enough power..
the school has 500+ students, so most likely something that can support 500 users.

I DID find this on ebay, but.. idk if this is right ? maybe?
Trango Broadband MS5830-AP-60 WiFi access point **NIB** - eBay (item 270447055076 end time Aug-31-09 13:23:42 PDT)

anyhow... if any of you guys could help me out it'd be GREAT!

thanks!

Ubiquiti Bullet2

alright, so what about antenna and gateway management etc? Ubiquiti Bullet2 ?? that is a Wireless access point students laptops can connect to? If I want to put it on our ROOF of our building what about weather? and the antenna? Thanks SOO much for replying back!

...sounds like you need to create a long link. I replied at work this morning, to what seemed to be the purpose of this post. Didn't have time for details.

Ubiquiti Bullets are APs or clients that are designed for long links. Their purpose in life is to make a single high speed link over long distances. They are a completely separate thing from a SOHO AP or router

The difference between a Ubiquiti Bullet and a standard WiFi router is the difference between a big rig and a city bus. the tasks performed are different enough to require entirely different designs.

Further reading makes me believe you want to do something different. Apparently the task of designing a campus wide network has been thrust upon you, a complete beginner? This is ridiculous. This is a job for an experienced professional.

standard home routers can handle about 20 users each. 500+ users equals at least 25 routers. at $65 each, that would be $1625, or a third of your budget. WRT54Gs are fine and wonderful things - I have 14. But in 2009, you need to be using 802.11n hardware on a campus.

I would use a mesh network on a campus that size. I would use freifunk firmware on WRT54Gs if the budget was $5000, and if I DID NOT need a captive portal ( directs the peer to the schools homepage right when they connect ).

research:

Coova
freifunk
ZoneCD
Chillispot
WiFiDog

for free captive portal software. with that ridiculous budget, you will need all the free you can get.

So you are saying multiple routers? is there any one router I can get that will extend at least 1 -2 Miles so peers can connect to? Like I can put on top of our building and it will cover our campus? Is a budget of 10k better to work with? I suggested it to them this afternoon and they said that is fine... wow ... WONDERFUL! What type of hardware would I be looking at now? that nearly doubles my budget, but hopefully there is something for this, wiring multiple routers may not be the best solution.. too much to keep track of I believe.
also thanks for your advice so far!

Dude,

WiFi is a TWO WAY RADIO! Both sides need to talk, and hear. If the router could be heard over a mile radius, the laptops would need to be heard over a mile radius to talk back. I don't want my eyes inches away from a laptop that can be heard for a mile.

a hundred foot radius is barely realistic. consider an open area with shade a hundred feet in diameter. how many students with laptops would be using that space on a sunny day?

ergo, the mesh network noted above. research the freifunk I mentioned.

A tutorial on networks for beginners and mesh networks will appear under How Tos above soon, just need to tweak some drawings.