Help Long Range Wifi Network!!

Hi I currently have a t1 line in my condo for my home office. I live on the top floor of an 11th story building and out my window I have a huge 30 story hotel directly on the ocean that is about 1100 feet away. Currently I have a linksys open source router and my software ready to go. I went ahead and ordered a 18dbi directional panal antenna to see if that would be able to provide access to the building. I have a 1 foot connection from the router to my antenna.

I drove over to the hotel to try the connection and I was able to log in. The signal strength flucuated from 2 to 5 bars, out of 6. I would like to buy a more powerful antenna, preferably the best antenna I can buy to ensure a strong and stable connection. So which antenna should I buy? Should i get a high gain Grid antenna? A parabolic antenna? Im not sure what will do the best job. Just to add I am trying to supply a signal from my balcony to the hotel, I am not able to put another antenna on the hotel itself. Also Im somewhat confused on ampiliers for the signal, if someone could just send me a link of what would help that would be great!

I would appreciate any input you might have thank you!

I'm a little confused here - lets get this straight: you wish to access the internet through the hotels internet service from your apartment approx 1100 feet away? - is that correct?

i have my internet hooked up to my open source linksys router with my hotspot software, from the router I have it connected to my antenna, I just need to know what type of antenna will be able to produce the highest distance/stregth to shot to another building,(the building im shooting at doesnt and wont have another antenna or router to connect to, im just creating a hotspot with an antenna and trying to get people to connect) Which antenna is best for this situation, thanks

Okay - go it!

Theres a bit of math here to maximise the potential of this link - simple stuff: 1100 feet, the the length/size of the building where you want to establish the link to.

This will give you an angle: meaning an angle from the point source of the antenna spreading out to cover the length of the building (and therefore all points in it where people could be with computers).

That angle in turn, is the angle you want your antenna to be able to cover e.g. lets say the length of the building as it will be facing the antenna will mean a 30degree spread (a hypothetical example) - you want find a sector type antenna that gives a 30degree beamwidth spread, and associated with that 30degree beamwidth spread, you want it to have as much gain as possible.

The key words here are (in bold):

Antenna type: SECTOR type - that is the type of antenna you want.

BEAMWIDTH: use the distance to calculate the beamwidth/angle required from the antenna (straightforward math)

GAIN: as much "power" as possible (you are looking for a figure followed by the letters db, dbi or dbm - the higher this figure is the better - anything from around 9dbx up to 16x or so will be fine. Makes little differance if its db, dbi or dbm - dont worry which one it is, they're ll relative)

So then - which antenna? Well, there are loads of manufacturers who make these types of antenna's - go to any one of the hardware suppliers linked to this forum, they'l all be able to offer a sutiable type of antenna. i can;t really recomend any particular one as they all do much the same job.

Good luck