Long range wireless router help

[DeereDoc]

Disclaimer - I know very little about computers/networking/etc.

I live in the country - no cable internet and not even DSL available. I have been getting by with a wireless card for a few years now but it sucks. I test my "speed" on the internet and get stuff like 0.24 Mbs download and 0.12 upload or whatever....... and that's on a good day.

Anyway my neighbor has Hughsnet and she thinks it's pretty decent. She has encouraged me to scab off of her's for awhile or forever but her wireless router doesn't extend to my house. It is about 600 feet from a window near her router to a window near where we usually get on the laptop. Clear line of sight.

Basically what I am looking to do is buy a wireless router with a healthy range to put in at her house and hopefully get a signal at mine and try it. Worse case scenario is that it just doesn't work but then I'll just use it at my place and get my own satellite internet. The only reason I am not just getting my own anyway is due to the $250 up front cost and 24 month commitment.........and I have heard from several independent sources that there may be bigger things coming down the pipe in satellite internet and I don't feel like being locked into a contract. But if I can get on hers and like it I will probably get my own eventually.

I have searched every last thing I could find on the internet to try to decide which router would be best in this situation with basically no success. I don't really care to get into the directional antenna, repeater, bridge stuff - both because it will probably cost more (and if I get my own internet later it will be wasted equipment) and also because I simply don't understand it all that well. The second point is the bigger concern i.e. I just don't understand all the repeater, subnet, IP address, DD-WRT, SSID, WEP, etc. etc. etc. stuff very well. I cannot seem to find a concise educate-me type website anywhere either.

Any router recommendations, or other pearls of wisdom, would be greatly appreciated.

One last thing - we plug the wireless card into a cradlepoint device and that allows us to print wirelessly. I assume that all routers these days have that capability.

 

[JDgreen227]

Disclaimer - I know very little about computers/networking/etc.

I live in the country - no cable internet and not even DSL available. I have been getting by with a wireless card for a few years now but it sucks. I test my "speed" on the internet and get stuff like 0.24 Mbs download and 0.12 upload or whatever....... and that's on a good day.

Anyway my neighbor has Hughsnet and she thinks it's pretty decent. She has encouraged me to scab off of her's for awhile or forever but her wireless router doesn't extend to my house. It is about 600 feet from a window near her router to a window near where we usually get on the laptop. Clear line of sight.

Basically what I am looking to do is buy a wireless router with a healthy range to put in at her house and hopefully get a signal at mine and try it. Worse case scenario is that it just doesn't work but then I'll just use it at my place and get my own satellite internet. The only reason I am not just getting my own anyway is due to the $250 up front cost and 24 month commitment.........and I have heard from several independent sources that there may be bigger things coming down the pipe in satellite internet and I don't feel like being locked into a contract. But if I can get on hers and like it I will probably get my own eventually.

I have searched every last thing I could find on the internet to try to decide which router would be best in this situation with basically no success. I don't really care to get into the directional antenna, repeater, bridge stuff - both because it will probably cost more (and if I get my own internet later it will be wasted equipment) and also because I simply don't understand it all that well. The second point is the bigger concern i.e. I just don't understand all the repeater, subnet, IP address, DD-WRT, SSID, WEP, etc. etc. etc. stuff very well. I cannot seem to find a concise educate-me type website anywhere either.

Any router recommendations, or other pearls of wisdom, would be greatly appreciated.

One last thing - we plug the wireless card into a cradlepoint device and that allows us to print wirelessly. I assume that all routers these days have that capability.

Not sure is any wireless router is available with that kind of range, even today. Might be a stupid question, but would it be possible to run a cable from her setup to your house and install your router there? One of my neighbors 400 feet away had a cable tv hookup with broadband internet, even after hooking up a wireless router the signal would barely travel half the distance to my house. I too wish I knew more about the subject, but I am sure there must be many websites to inform you. We finally got DSL after waiting 15 years, it's an improvement over dial up, most of the time.

 

[k0ua]

I have searched every last thing I could find on the internet to try to decide which router would be best in this situation with basically no success. I don't really care to get into the directional antenna, repeater, bridge stuff


You have basicly told us you dont want to try any of these methods, so there is very little we we could do to help you. The only thing I can think of is trying some of the engenius access points or wireless router. here is a link.
They are supposed to be a long range product, but I cannot vouch for them.

The wireless stocking distributor that offers free technical support before, during, and after the sale.

James K0UA

 

[justwater]

i dont know alot about this subject, but i have an apple airport extreme base station.. my dad barely picks it up at his place 280-300' away.

600' is a ways... if you dont want to get into the alot of gizmos like the antennas/repeaters/etc, i think your best bet would be (like mentioned) to run underground cat5 or cat6 line from her router to another at your place. 600' is a long ditch though, so you might as well make the most of it. go ahead and drop a water pipe in it too just in case one of your water goes out (assuming you are on a well) so you can feed off the other temporarily.

jmo, i'm no expert.

 

[Haoleguy]

DeereDoc - From my house I can see the wifi service from a boatyard that is at least 600' away. They provide wifi to all the moored boats in our town's harbor some of which are farther away than my house. My guess is that one answer lies in how harbors, campgrounds, ski lodges, etc provide wifi from a central signal....Gary

 

[KTurner]

It is about 600 feet from a window near her router to a window near where we usually get on the laptop. Clear line of sight.

I don't really care to get into the directional antenna, repeater, bridge stuff

repeater, subnet, IP address, DD-WRT, SSID, WEP, etc. etc. etc.

Couple things. First, no consumer grade off the shelf equipment is going to have 600ft+ range. So, either you're looking for not so "off the shelf" (we do that here on TBN all the time, right?) or professional grade (mucho money). Second, you're talking about a router at your end. That complicates things. If you only need to hook up one device to the internet, skip the router on your end and look at the wireless NIC (card) in your computer.

There's many of them that will allow an external antenna. The external antenna can be anything from a store bought unit, to a cantenna made out of an old pringles can, a homemade yagi, or a surplus 18" satellite dish. People have established wireless links over many miles using 18" satellite dishes as very high gain directional antennas with all other equipment being standard stuff. Now, getting it to work over miles is tuff stuff, but you should be able to get something that does 600ft.

There are different approaches to using a dish, but the simplest is taking a USB wifi adapter and zip tying it about where the LNB is, and running a USB cable from the wifi adapter to your PC. I haven't tried this yet myself, but have an extra dish on a pole in the back yard which I will be trying at some point soon.

Keith

 

[KTurner]

run underground cat5 or cat6 line from her router to another at your place. 600' is a long ditch though,

Standard networking (ethernet, 10/100/1000 BaseT) has a cable run length limit of 328', so this would also include equipment not normally used within home networking.

Keith

 

[radioman]

You are going to be more frustrated trying to find right combo of wireless over 300ft. Its been done, but it was done with right know how and equipment laying around with combo of retail and business equipment. Also your variable will be prayers for no cloudy days/rainy to mess up wireless networking.

My suggestion at this point- assuming you can get power at the halfway point, get a hub (repeater). get 2 300ft cat 5. plug one end in your home in a switch(if you dont have a switch, use your router but do not use the wan port) and other end in hub halfway. second cable in hub and other in your neighbors router. reboot everything and you SHOULD be all ready to go.

 

[justwater]

Standard networking (ethernet, 10/100/1000 BaseT) has a cable run length limit of 328', so this would also include equipment not normally used within home networking.

Keith

my bad, I had buddy that was in surveillance a while back, I thought he told me once that u could run that stuff a long ways, maybe he was just talking about our run. ..or maybe he was just blowing smoke

 

[MossRoad]

First off, what you want to do is illegal.
Second, some satellite internet services that I will not mention by name get horrible reviews due to initial cost of equipment, frequent lack of access, limited bandwidth and bandwidth throttling.

Now that we have that out of the way, we can continue with our technical discussion of how it would work. Just to prove the theory, of course. :laughing:

You need TWO ends. One at her house and one at your house. They both have to be able to send and receive to each other. One easy way to do this is with bridges. We have Cisco wireless bridges AIR-BR340 with good directional antennas doing a 17 mile link with no amplification(we have the advantage of having free access to really high towers :thumbsup. We also have them doing two 5 mile links and one couple hundred foot link. They work really well and can be found on e-bay for under $50 bucks. Then you need some directional antennas which can also be had on e-bay, some coax cables and some mounting hardware. You could probably get away with under $250 for a really good, 11Mb link, which is much faster than her satellite connection.

 

[MossRoad]

my bad, I had buddy that was in surveillance a while back, I thought he told me once that u could run that stuff a long ways, maybe he was just talking about our run. ..or maybe he was just blowing smoke

While there is a published limit on CAT5 cable, it can easily be exceeded and still work. I have a few runs of over 400 feet with no noticeable affects. As long as the cable is kept dry, straight, no kinks or sharp bends, good solid connections on each end, it can work. It is not recommended, but can be done.

 

[radioman]

First off, what you want to do is illegal.
Second, some satellite internet services that I will not mention by name get horrible reviews due to initial cost of equipment, frequent lack of access, limited bandwidth and bandwidth throttling.

Now that we have that out of the way, we can continue with our technical discussion of how it would work. Just to prove the theory, of course. :laughing:

You need TWO ends. One at her house and one at your house. They both have to be able to send and receive to each other. One easy way to do this is with bridges. We have Cisco wireless bridges AIR-BR340 with good directional antennas doing a 17 mile link with no amplification(we have the advantage of having free access to really high towers :thumbsup. We also have them doing two 5 mile links and one couple hundred foot link. They work really well and can be found on e-bay for under $50 bucks. Then you need some directional antennas which can also be had on e-bay, some coax cables and some mounting hardware. You could probably get away with under $250 for a really good, 11Mb link, which is much faster than her satellite connection.

I agree this could work, but I picked the old school approach since the OP is unkowledgable in what equipment to get and how to hookup.

As for illegal hook up- if it was direct wire connection, how can it be since his neighbor expressed saying go ahead , borrow my network? if it wireless, well its open for interpretation.:laughing: I'd be leery of trying to do a 17 mile hookup since her hookup is satellite and they are terrible for bandwidth issues. everybody would be trying to check out her network within 17 mile and each person trying to authenticate themselves will steal a little bit of bandwidth and each one will add up. hugesnet will cut back on internet bandwidth if MB exceeds said amount and will not tell you until you call and check.

 

[Putter]

Have you looked at Cell phone internet? I have had mine for six months and am happy with it. If you get cell phone signal where you are, your provider will probably set you up with a wireless hub for nothing. I have an Ericsson W30 just plug it in no antenna required. Might be worth a look. :thumbsup:

 

[KTurner]

First off, what you want to do is illegal.

How is trying to get internet from your neighbor, with their knowledge and permission, illegal? It might be a violation of the terms of service for his neighbor, but that doesn't make it criminal.

Keith

 

[JDgreen227]

First off, what you want to do is illegal.
Second, some satellite internet services that I will not mention by name get horrible reviews due to initial cost of equipment, frequent lack of access, limited bandwidth and bandwidth throttling.

Now that we have that out of the way, we can continue with our technical discussion of how it would work. Just to prove the theory, of course. :laughing:

You need TWO ends. One at her house and one at your house. They both have to be able to send and receive to each other. One easy way to do this is with bridges. We have Cisco wireless bridges AIR-BR340 with good directional antennas doing a 17 mile link with no amplification(we have the advantage of having free access to really high towers :thumbsup. We also have them doing two 5 mile links and one couple hundred foot link. They work really well and can be found on e-bay for under $50 bucks. Then you need some directional antennas which can also be had on e-bay, some coax cables and some mounting hardware. You could probably get away with under $250 for a really good, 11Mb link, which is much faster than her satellite connection.

If you tell the OP what he wants to do is illegal, and you provide advice on how to accomplish such an illegal end, doesn't that implicate you REGARDLESS of your cautionary warning? Keep this going, guys, I want to learn a way to do it...illegal or not.

 

[JDgreen227]

How is trying to get internet from your neighbor, with their knowledge and permission, illegal? It might be a violation of the terms of service for his neighbor, but that doesn't make it criminal.

Keith

Before we got DSL, one of my neighbors, whose house is 220 feet from ours, was paying for DirectTV Internet. ON a good day, I could see the wireless network he was using as an available one on my laptop, but I never tried to connect to it.

As I interpret your post, trying to get internet from a neighbor with their knowledge and permission is not illegal, but if I tried to get internet from my neighbor without his knowledge, would that be illegal?

My wife sometimes takes a laptop to her folks house, and is often able to connect wirelessly to a neighbors Internet, without their knowledge. Is that illegal?

 

[dodge man]

Do you have local phone service? We live in a rural area, and we get internet, cable TV, and local phone service all over the phone line. Its technology that came out a few years ago, and works well. It may or may not be available in your area.

 

[KTurner]

As I interpret your post, trying to get internet from a neighbor with their knowledge and permission is not illegal, but if I tried to get internet from my neighbor without his knowledge, would that be illegal?

My wife sometimes takes a laptop to her folks house, and is often able to connect wirelessly to a neighbors Internet, without their knowledge. Is that illegal?

I can't quote a section of the code or anything like that. I can say that it's probably close enough to stealing that, if someone wanted to, they could probably make you really regret connecting to their network (claim unauthorized access/hacking and get a subpoena/searchwarrant for you/your computer based on their logs showing your MAC address). Granted, if they had the technical knowledge to do that (ie, identify *you* as the person connected), they'd almost certainly have secured their network and you wouldn't be able to connect in the first place.

I can see both sides of the argument, that having the network unsecured and broadcasting is an invitation for other people to use it, and that unsecured networks are probably that way because people don't know better not because its an invitation (ie, leaving your key in the car doesn't give someone permission to use it).

On a couple different occasions, I've had my wifi open/unsecured and labeled it as such by setting the SSID to OPEN-BeNice, or something similar. To me, this is a clearly an open invitation. When I did this, I had two networks - one open one and a second private one. None of my data or computers ever hit the public one.

Another small possibility to consider is that someone has placed an open wifi network online so that they could steal data when people connect to it. Say, you use the same username/password for everything. They see you login to tractorbynet or some other msg baord and your bank. Of course, the bank login is encrypted but the msg board login is not. They can see your username/password, and they can see what bank you just logged into. Voila. Now they can login to your bank. BTW, this is not limited to anonymous unprotected wifi. This is one of the reasons why it's so important to use different passwords, at least for things that are really important (normally financial stuff).

Keith

 

[dmccarty]

If she allows you to access her Internet she will be in violation of her service agreement. Will the Sheriff show up and arrest both of you? No.

Since the two homes will be using the same connection you have no security over the shared connection.

You do not want to spend $250 to get DISH, but I think you are going to spend close too, if not more than $250, to use your neighbors access. Might as well get DISH and be done with it.

There is ALWAYS something better that will be here RSN, Real Soon Now.

We have cable, roughly a 1/4 mile behind us. Wireless access a mile away, not cell or WiFi. We have DSL but at 1.5MB down. There is at least 3 MB down on the road a mile away. I think all they provider has to do is put in a box and we are good to go. We are danged lucky to have DSL even at 1.5MB down.

We keep hearing we will have something faster RSN. Been waiting for years.

Later,
Dan

 

[nikdfish]

Is a wired connection (buried or aerial) an option, and if so, is power available at some in-between point? 1000' rolls of cat5 cable plus a plug crimp set are not very expensive, and an inexpensive powered hub/switch at a rough halfway point would be plenty to accommodate a run of that length.

Nick