Need help connecting 2 LAN's

[RobertEnglund]

OK, here's my situation. I have my own LAN with earthlink DSL and my neighbor has his own LAN with sbc DSL. What i'm trying to do is bridge our networks together so we can share files between computers. I want to keep from sharing my internet connection with his network and vise versa; just want to transfer files back and forth to each other.

The distance between my router (wrt54g v5 running dd-wrt micro) and his (wrt54gs V6 with stock firmware) is roughly 210ft. I've provided a few pictures below with approximate distances between specific areas so everyone can have an idea about what i'm talking about and the distances involved. He also owns the building next door to him so I can have access to setting up something, if anything, if it comes to that.







any help is appreciated in pointing me in the right direction of how to go about setting this up. thanks in advance.

 

[brw02005]

Personally I would just set up a VPN and connect through internet to each other's computers hamachi works pretty good. If you want to do this by wireless your going to need directional antennas probably then some creative way to keep the networks separate. Usually if you can samba share you can use the other's network connection if you configure the ip right. You could try virtual lan but that increases cost. I really think hamachi vpn is your best bet unless you get a expensive directional antenna that would give you enough speed to be worth it as well a vlan capable switch that enables you to switch or join vlans.

 

[RobertEnglund]

thanks for the response. i've never heard of hamachi so I did a quick google and it looks pretty damn cool. however, here's the problem. to my understanding, it looks like instead of using the wireless g's bandwidth it will be using our ISP's bandwidth. The thing is that i'm pretty much capped at around 10k/s and his isn't that much better either so if we want to be sharing small files or even an mp3 or two, it's okay. But you start talking about hundreds of mb's or gb's and this doesn't seem like a practical solution for me. But that's only the case if it's using our ISP's bandwidth.

I guess my initial question is how can I get it so that I can just detect my friend's rotuer from my place? Then I can worry about how I can connect them together, right? If I got rid of the stock antenna on both routers and got a pair of 7dbi antenna for each router you think that might do the trick?

 

[brw02005]

To tell you the truth I have no idea depends how much the walls interfere. You need a signal to make it before you can calc the signal loss. I've seen people use two 27 dbi directional antennas to do a half mile with almost full signal although they were mounted on the roof and had perfect line of sight. They were kind of ridiculous though looked like direct tv satelite dishes. Small net builder had an article on calculating path loss. You can then use that to calculate out what antenna you would need for better signal. Personally I would just stick with my set up if I made it. Your router is good to 109 db with stock firmware and antenna and DD-wrt should give you an extra boost for transmitting although on the recieving end wont matter since they still have stock. Hopefully your antenna will make the difference.

 

[don ali]

there is a way that home users don't use or need, only (business buildings, hospitals etc..) but i'll right it to know new informaions.

all u and ur friend need to do is acquiring 2 static IP 1 for each of u from ur ISP. then connect ur lan to ur friend lan using a router (cisco). i don't know if u can do it by using ur current router.

 

[brw02005]

Don All what your referring to is a vpn. That's the magic the cisco router does. Hamachi does the same thing without the static IP from your ISP and is easier to set up. The problem still remains that he doesn't want to use his internet connection because it is slow as dirt. Connecting the lans would be easy if the signal reaches.