Wireless LAN Extended to Shop - Success!!

[Ezzie]

This is a continuation of a discussion we had a few weeks ago about extending phone lines and internet connections to a shop that is over 500' away from the house. I want to set up a work from home office area so having the internet there is essential.

Here is what I planned to do to see if I could extend my LAN to the shop. After researching it extensively, I found the cheapest method would be to try and go with a wireless extension. I bought a couple of 2.4GHz external antennas (TrendNet units with a 14 dbi gain) and a wireless access point (Linksys WAP54G). 802.11g is better for this application than 802.11n since you don't want to mess with MIMO antennas when doing a directional point-to-point link. My ISP connection is in the house and distributed with ethernet cables to a couple of PC's using an 802.11g router (Linksys 4 port). Since the shop is about 700' away from the house, I built a point-to-point link line of sight between the two buildings by mounting one antenna on the side of the house and the other on the side of the shop - pointed at each other. Since the shop is metal clad, there was some concern that there might be poor reception due to reflections.

I finally got it all hooked up and running and am happy to report that it works like a charm! The Linksys PCI card I have in the PC in the shop says I have 100% signal strength. Both transmit and receive are at 54Mbps, noise level is -79dbm and signal strength is -49dbm. The 14dbi antennas are probably overkill based on this result but at $60 ea., no big deal.

 

[jam022316]

I remember reading about your dilema. Good idea. Figure sure you spent a little money but it sounds like you have a sweet setup now!! Now you can shop for tools at high speeds in your shop.

 

[rsanter]

I have a range extended that I am not using
let me know if interested

bob

 

[Tech Guy]

Nice job Ezzie, dont forget to seal the end of the conduit coming out of the shop to the antenna or you will have the bees trying to get inside. (yes I did see it last time I dropped by looking for you)

 

[tdkkart]

I have sorta the same issue, the shop is only about 150ft from the house but being a steel pole building I get zero signal inside. If I run the overhead door up and stand in the doorway I get all kinds of signal from my wireless network in the house.

I assume you've got the Linksys access point in the shop??
Which model antennae did you use, and where did you get it??

 

[Ezzie]

I put the wireless access point (Linksys WAP54G) on one port of my 4-port ethernet router in the house. The WAP comes with two small omni-directional whip antennas. I removed one of these antennas and connected the outdoor mounted directional antenna (TRENDnet TEW-A014D) to it with a 3 mtr. LMR195 cable (N male to a RP TNC male). Doing it this way allows me to have wireless LAN connectivity in the house still through the one antenna. If you already have a WAP in the house then you shouldn't need another one (if it has 2 antenna ports on it).

At the shop end, I connected the other directional 802.11g antenna directly to the Linksys WMP54GS card in my PC using another 3 mtr. LMR195 cable (N male to RP SMA male). I am only running one PC in the shop but if you want to have a wireless LAN going in the shop as well, you could put a second WAP there using one antenna port for the outdoor antenna and the other for an indoor omni-directional antenna.

I bought the WAP from a local Tiger Direct store, the antennas from an on-line store (just Google the part# for local sources) and the cables from a local RF antenna and cable manufacturer (www.superpassantenna.com).

 

[DaMaN]

I have a range extended that I am not using
let me know if interested

bob

rsanter can you shoot me a PM with what you have, I have a need for one and am in the market.

Thanks

 

[Jey]

I have ran similar set ups, sometimes using two access points as a wireless bridge and still doing wired inside (saves a few bucks on wifi network cards on the PCs, and allows shared printers etc easier).

Works pretty good once you get everything going.