Wifi over 200 foot radius with many trees and buildings...what hardware?

So I'm totally new to this. I've tried searching around but I mostly saw help for people setting up long range directional links or large indoor networks.

What I have is a 4 acre area where I would like wifi to be available. The land has many small buildings and just as many trees. There would be as many as 30-40 computers with light internet access needs. Furthermore, obviously, all the computers are indoors.


If possible, I'd like the system to be extremely low maintenance. I have a wrt54gs right now, but can upgrade. If I bought a suitable amplifier and antenna could I simply flood the area with a signal?

I worry that the client computers, without special antennas, will not be able to respond back suitably... what if the buildings contain laptops? Is there any hope for a laptop, inside a building, to communicated to an omni antenna in the center of the propery? Or will I need to mount bridges on the buildings that require wifi access locally....

I can use repeaters but this would need more maintenance and add complexity to the system. I need this to work without me being there to babysit it.

I'm sorry if this information is already available, please link me if this is the case.

Thanks!

you could start with a 8, 12, or 15dBi Mast ounted Omni directional antenna in the location attached to the WRT54GS, in the other locations you could use either WET54G Ethernet brides and driectional antennas pointed at the Omni, and where you require access for the laptops you could install a WRG54 and a WET54 unit, or you could use Multiple access points around your location in a WDS or client type mode

Well, i'll keep that in mind. Thanks.


For a thought experiment, lets say that i can't mount any special antenna's in the buildings. Consumer grade wifi cards/adpaters only. Is this even remotely possible?

I really doubt that it would be stable enough. but haveing 1 omni directional antenna mounted to teh WRG54GS will solve some issues but trees are going to be your biggest problems, some of the computers will connect and some wont. I think it really depends on the quality of service and stability of connection you want

try 900Mhz stuff its doesn't nescessarily require direct line of sight, 2.4Ghz however does require good line of sight, trees are a killer

The only problem with 900Mhz is that client laptops won't connect directly to it, so you will need a unit to bridge the connection on each building. I think el is onto the right track with high gain omnis and a mesh network, however WAP54Gs are better suited for this type of application than the WRT54G/WET54G combination.

Trees don't seem to affect reception too badly if they are only lightly scattered about. Stay away from amps; you will end up spewing out tons of power but the weaker cards in the laptops will struggle to send a signal back to the main AP. Building materials are also an issue; concrete or brick walls will make reception very difficult for laptops inside, whilst wood is more forgiving.

__________________
Jeremy

Marlborough WiFi Project

The buildings are wood and stucco (sp?). I walked around the propery and the trees are fairly numerous but not totally opaque, lots of openings through the branches and such.

I think what needs to happen next is a walk around the property to audit where the line of sight is. I already have a router in place in the middle building, it sounds like I can buy a high gain omni, put it on the roof, and see how far that will take me...

Any suggestions for this first step? Like an 15-18db omni right?

I think that a 12dBi would be suitable enough for the task but you would have to get an adapter and a cable to connect the antenna to the Linksys router. if you can afford a 15dBi its marginal of you would see any greater inprovment, (remember this is just 1 opinion)

I'll give that a shot. Thanks for the help guys. One thing I realized is that the trees are not terribly precious, at least the branches. I can't clear them out but I can do some trimming in key places. I'm hoping that will be enough if I can get a strong antenna, and then the problem spots can get repeaters.

I'm going to search around for a good roof mounted antenna, mounting kit, pigtail and wire. I'd welcome any site suggestions but i'm sure i can figure it out.

try Go Wireless NZ Home Selling 802.11 Wifi Cables, Connectors and Antennas or Networkx.co.nz your place for wirleess antennas, network adapters, routers & accesspoints these sites carry a good range