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Need recomendation to connect 2 Homes with a Wireless LAN conection

Tags:
  • Wireless
  • Routers
  • Wireless Network
  • solution
  • extender
Last response: in Wireless Networking
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October 2, 2014 10:16:20 AM

Hi All,

I would really appreciate if you can tell which which is the best method to create wireless connection between two homes separated with 20 meters long, so, let us start from the fact that I don't have any network device(just one old cisco linksys wrt54g2 v1),
I don't know what to do since my situation is the following:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
home #1 (will be the main site)
- cable modem (20 megabits connection speed)
- has the cisco router mentioned above(I don't know if I should replace it)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Home #2
-this place is as 8 meters below from home#1and 20 meters long
-Need to know which is the best way to wirelessly connect to the main router at home#1(there is no way to use cables from one place to another)
-I saw some cheap wireless extenders but I don't know if they work, or maybe a big Athena?

Any ideas??
Any idea is really appreciated, I just need something cheaper as possible and stable,

With kind regards,
Eduardo

More about : recomendation connect homes wireless lan conection

October 2, 2014 10:21:23 AM

Dudu28 said:
Hi All,

I would really appreciate if you can tell which which is the best method to create wireless connection between two homes separated with 20 meters long, so, let us start from the fact that I don't have any network device(just one old cisco linksys wrt54g2 v1),
I don't know what to do since my situation is the following:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
home #1 (will be the main site)
- cable modem (20 megabits connection speed)
- has the cisco router mentioned above(I don't know if I should replace it)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Home #2
-this place is as 8 meters below from home#1and 20 meters long
-Need to know which is the best way to wirelessly connect to the main router at home#1(there is no way to use cables from one place to another)
-I saw some cheap wireless extenders but I don't know if they work, or maybe a big Athena?

Any ideas??
Any idea is really appreciated, I just need something cheaper as possible and stable,

With kind regards,
Eduardo


I would recommend a pair of these on the outside of each building. Bring the main house unit inside and connect to the main router (what ever it is) and the second one bring it inside the second house to a switch of WIFI access point.
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October 2, 2014 10:25:54 AM

Start here: http://www.dd-wrt.com

That's Linux-based firmware that lets you change a whole lot of other options that weren't available before. One of them is transmission power of the wireless radio. You can often boost that to 2-3 times the stock setting, just by changing the value in the menu, giving you a corresponding boost in signal strength/range.

Anyway, the procedure is simple: Flash the router's firmware to DD-WRT, then go change the transmission power in the menu. Voila, your router now reaches places where you never thought it could before.
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October 2, 2014 10:31:53 AM

capt_taco said:
Start here: http://www.dd-wrt.com

That's Linux-based firmware that lets you change a whole lot of other options that weren't available before. One of them is transmission power of the wireless radio. You can often boost that to 2-3 times the stock setting, just by changing the value in the menu, giving you a corresponding boost in signal strength/range.

Anyway, the procedure is simple: Flash the router's firmware to DD-WRT, then go change the transmission power in the menu. Voila, your router now reaches places where you never thought it could before.


Increasing the transmit power of a router doesn't really change much. You get "more bars" on your device, but since WIFI is a two way street, it doesn't change anything about how your device transmits back to the router. Higher gain antennas, will help both transmit and receive, but just "turn it to 11" doesn't fix the problem.
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October 2, 2014 10:41:34 AM

kanewolf said:
Increasing the transmit power of a router doesn't really change much. You get "more bars" on your device, but since WIFI is a two way street, it doesn't change anything about how your device transmits back to the router. Higher gain antennas, will help both transmit and receive, but just "turn it to 11" doesn't fix the problem.



Sure it does. If the device can transmit back reasonably well, then you've solved the problem for free. If not, but you're getting "bars," then set up a second router as a repeater in the other house, and tweak it the same if necessary.

If that fails, that's when a wireless bridge like the above is a better answer. In some respects, my answer is just the bargain-basement way of doing the same thing. But always start with the cheapest solution first and work upwards, that's my motto.

edit: over a distance of 100 meters, I probably wouldn't trust the idea I described above either. Over a distance of 20 meters, it's worth a try, and who knows, it might be short enough for the other devices to transmit back without changing anything.
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October 2, 2014 11:32:03 AM

capt_taco said:
kanewolf said:
Increasing the transmit power of a router doesn't really change much. You get "more bars" on your device, but since WIFI is a two way street, it doesn't change anything about how your device transmits back to the router. Higher gain antennas, will help both transmit and receive, but just "turn it to 11" doesn't fix the problem.



Sure it does. If the device can transmit back reasonably well, then you've solved the problem for free. If not, but you're getting "bars," then set up a second router as a repeater in the other house, and tweak it the same if necessary.

If that fails, that's when a wireless bridge like the above is a better answer. In some respects, my answer is just the bargain-basement way of doing the same thing. But always start with the cheapest solution first and work upwards, that's my motto.

edit: over a distance of 100 meters, I probably wouldn't trust the idea I described above either. Over a distance of 20 meters, it's worth a try, and who knows, it might be short enough for the other devices to transmit back without changing anything.


I guess you and I will just have to disagree on this one. Violating the FCC guidelines for transmit power, although technically possible, isn't what I believe to be an appropriate implementation.
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October 2, 2014 12:57:53 PM

kanewolf said:
I guess you and I will just have to disagree on this one. Violating the FCC guidelines for transmit power, although technically possible, isn't what I believe to be an appropriate implementation.


I think he'd be hard-pressed to violate any FCC guidelines, given that we're talking about an increase to <70mW at most. Even if it were, the only time that's going to run you afoul of any rules is if you're broadcasting at the equivalent of a loud yell in a densely populated area, which the OP's situation doesn't sound like.

Reading more about that particular router, it does not seem especially capable, this would honestly just be making it what I'd consider "acceptable." Who knows, I don't really want to start a big argument over it either.
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October 2, 2014 1:03:59 PM

For the original poster: I would just get a new wireless router as your current one is rather old. Look for one that is known for a strong signal.

Put it on the side of house1 nearest you can to house2. You should be able to provide wireless to both houses this way.

Otherwise you may need to get a new router, and what is called a wireless extender (many routers can be set to be an extender).
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a c 211 F Wireless
October 2, 2014 3:37:14 PM

Agree kanewolf, most units are already set at the FCC allowed maximum. I would use a pair of Ubiquiti outdoor APs if there is line of sight. Fairly inexpensive and full bandwidth available.

An extender would not help, because the signal over 20 meters away is already too poor. To use routers, use a pair of ASUS RT-AC66U or 68U, one as a router and one in house 2 in media bridge mode, as AC units will make the distance.
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October 2, 2014 6:02:00 PM

RealBeast said:
Agree kanewolf, most units are already set at the FCC allowed maximum. I would use a pair of Ubiquiti outdoor APs if there is line of sight. Fairly inexpensive and full bandwidth available.

An extender would not help, because the signal over 20 meters away is already too poor. To use routers, use a pair of ASUS RT-AC66U or 68U, one as a router and one in house 2 in media bridge mode, as AC units will make the distance.


Ubiquiti (your recommendation), Engenius (my recommendation) ... 6 of 1 / half dozen of the other. Either one will be almost bullet proof ...
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a c 211 F Wireless
October 2, 2014 8:27:36 PM

Yup, that would be the best way to go if a wire isn't possible.
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October 8, 2014 9:04:12 AM

Thank you guys for the great answers and solutions provided, I already have my router with DD-WRT firmware, but I did not know about increasing the transmit power, I'll probably buy an AP for the second house and set it as a bridge, I'll probably make an update on this when I set the network.

Thank you & Cheers!!
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a c 146 F Wireless
October 8, 2014 11:03:56 AM

Dudu28 said:
Thank you guys for the great answers and solutions provided, I already have my router with DD-WRT firmware, but I did not know about increasing the transmit power, I'll probably buy an AP for the second house and set it as a bridge, I'll probably make an update on this when I set the network.

Thank you & Cheers!!


You can play with the transmit power but this feature is actually there to REDUCE the power when you are installing many device close to each other.

How exactly this feature works depends a lot on the radio chipsets. In most cases there is a amplifier that you can not change that the radio chip feeds the power into. There is a optimum setting that it works at and increasing above a certain level makes it actually work worse. You may get more raw power but you also get more noise that is amplified also. The increase noise tends to be exponentiation so the more you turn it up the worse it gets once you are over a certain level. You might get 5 bars but now have 5 bars of noise.

The major mistake that is made by most people is thinking that the default level in dd-wrt is in anyway related to the level that you can not see or change in a factory router. Just because the default level in dd-wrt is lower does not mean that is the same level the router was running before you loaded the software.

dd-wrt sets a low level that works on all routers. In most cases it is too low. But that does not mean the original software had it set that low.

The router manufactures know the exact point to set this to get the best coverage with their router and the least noise. Why would anyone assume that they would always set it to a sub optimum level and you could magically increase this just by loading different software.

You can play with this but I suspect you will see no difference. Radio transmission power and antenna have been around way before WiFi was even invented and the fundamentals have not changed.

I suspect you will be going back to the outdoor antenna solutions very quickly. How much is your time worth when you can get a commercial solution recommended by the previous posters for less than $100.

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