Long range LEGAL wireless router recommendation for my "farm"

[MotorSeven]

Good links Lebneh

Has anyone read about the effectiveness of the 900Mhz band that some sellers have for punching thru vegetation? You've got to have a unit on both ends and then pass it off to B G or N but I've an area with trees and it's that or a chainsaw.

Did you end up with a system yet? We are moving into the log house now, so I am researching this more seriously. The shop and house are on 2 different transformers, around a hundred yards apart, across a creek and up a 60 degree rocky slope....lot's of trees on the slope.

This is the line of site shot from the shop to the log house(you can see the roof in the upper center of pic):

I can't move the HughesNet sat dish up there...too many trees. Cell phone coverage is very spotty(I'm going to need a booster for that too). So what are my best wifi options to receive the signal at the log house from the shop?

 

[dmccarty]

Can you use the power poles to hang communication wire?

Later,
Dan

 

[The kid]

Did you end up with a system yet? We are moving into the log house now, so I am researching this more seriously. The shop and house are on 2 different transformers, around a hundred yards apart, across a creek and up a 60 degree rocky slope....lot's of trees on the slope.

This is the line of site shot from the shop to the log house(you can see the roof in the upper center of pic):

I can't move the HughesNet sat dish up there...too many trees. Cell phone coverage is very spotty(I'm going to need a booster for that too). So what are my best wifi options to receive the signal at the log house from the shop?

This subject is very popular with kids. Why? The steal WiFi from open WiFi networks. How? They use homeaid high gain antennas hooked up to thier WiFi receiver. There are so many different ways of doing this, it could take all day to explain. My suggest is to Google what your wanting to achieve. I've read where people pick up a usable signal nearly a mile away with homeaid antennas made from coffee cans. The higher the frequency the more "line of sight" it is. The more folage between you and the soarce the weaker the signal. At microwave bands, a single raindrop can reflect the signal. The trick is to have a focalized antenna such as an old Directv or dishnetwork dish, or even a coffee can aimed at the soarce. As fall appoaches your signal will improve due to less folage.

Using one of these old antennas is a bit tricky because of thier shape. Spoon shaped instead of a round parabolic. Read up on aiming one will help if you decide to go that route.

As for your TV dish only requires a small window to the Satellite it needs to see. One tree cut down might do just that. The satellite you need to see is about at a 50 to 60 degree angle. You can use signal booster to boost long distant feed lines from dish to house. Sometimes just raising the dish on a pole will clear treetops. You can hire an independant dish installer, and if he's any good at what he does. He can advise you the best place and what needs trimmed to get a signal in. They use a compass and a declinometer tool to find the best spot.

 

[Tig]

So what are my best wifi options to receive the signal at the log house from the shop?

A pair of yagi antennas ($15 each) will do that shot if you can get a 10' window in those trees. Aim them like you would a shotgun. Just point.
100 yds shouldn't require special power.
A pair of routers running in repeater or peer mode on those yagis would be a good idea. Performance should be better that way.
If you just want to brute force it, I've used an 800 mW USB dongle with a yagi to log on to an ordinary router inside a house a mile away. There are dongles available that boast over 2W.

 

[aczlan]

Follow the KISS principal, get 2 Nanostation M2s and set them up as a bridge: http://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-Nanostation-LOCO-Outdoor-802-11g/dp/B004EGI3CI
Can be mounted outdoors, easy to install, easy to setup and they work well.
$100ish for the pair.

Aaron Z

 

[radioman]

just how far do you need to from from bottom of hill to the house? you can setup the dish about 125 feet away. Also have you thought about setting up a tower for dish to connect to at top of hill just above the trees? you can connect a simple cell phone repeater like Wireless Extenders zBoost YX545 SOHO Dual-Band Cell Phone booster and mount the antenna on the same pole as dish.

I am assuming at this point that you can get good cell phone coverage above the trees .

 

[Tig]

Follow the KISS principal,

Those nano stations sound like the right product.

 

[aczlan]

Those nano stations sound like the right product.

They work well for me over ~1/3 mile and for a friend who is using them over ~3/4 mile.

Aaron Z

 

[Soundguy]

what about one of those wifi extenders?

 

[MotorSeven]

Ok Acz, I'm going to try the nano station set up.The only question is how much of a problem are the trees going to be?