My line-of-sight distance to my grandad's house is 450 ft. There are some trees between us that would offer some obstruction. How difficult would it be, and how expensive would it be, to setup a wireless connection from my house to his, so that we could use my internet connection while at his house? Anyone ever done something like this? Thanks!

 

There is a thread here somewhere about creating a parabolic antenna to extend the range of a garage door opener, I believe it was... same concept would apply to a router antenna.

I'll see if I can find the thread and post a link. FWIW, Pilot Dane had the solution so he may chime in before I find it anyway.

 

The fastest and easiest way to do it is to set up a separate router in your dads house and bridge the connection to your current router. I have my shop set up the exact same way, and it works great, although it is only about 200 feet away.

Reuse an old router to bridge devices to your wireless network - CNET

 

The phrase "some trees" could be an issue. Anything in the path between the two houses will degrade the signal. Wifi frequencies don't have much ability to penetrate objects. Simply passing through a wall in a home takes it's toll on range. You don't need to cut down a forest but a clear, direct line of sight between the routers at both ends will help. It only has to be a small "tunnel" of totally clear space directly between the two routers.

How much do you want to spend? I assume you don't have a safe dry location between the two houses that has power to set up a repeater. A high quality router mounted at the close ends of each house might work. More reliable and expensive are directional antennas and gear specifically designed for longer ranges but the cost quickly escalates to where paying for an extra service location is more attractive.

If you want a "project"... I have rental properties and tenants are always moving and leaving small satellite dishes behind. Two of them at either end and properly aimed can greatly extend the range. It was easier back when most routers had external antennas as you could more easily relocate the antennas to get it at the dishes foci. Getting everything setup close helps somewhat but if you get the antennas positioned correctly and the dishes aligned the range was only limited by the line of sight.

 

450' is too far, for a wireless connection. The max is about 200'. That's why Keith's works well. The only way that it might work is if you were able to put an Amped 2400 half way in between. Of course, that would require a place with electricity to house it.

 

try some specialized antennas. do a web search for "wifi router antenna outdoor long range". several options.

- Peter

 

Those antennas may help receive a signal but they don't help when you send return packets.

 

I have a WiFi "Repeater" at the opposite end of the house from where my Router is in my Office. It just plugs into a normal AC Outlet, and takes what might be a weak signal, enhances it, and puts it back out as a separate signal.

Sometimes, the Office Computer detects a stronger signal coming from the Repeater than it senses being emitted from the originating Router, even though it's only a few feet away.

But I doubt a Repeater could handle 450 feet.

 

Thanks, everyone! I was hoping there might be a simple way to set up a couple old routers on each end with a directional antenna pointed at each other, but that may be cost prohibitive. I'll do a little more research i guess!

 

You may find this interesting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZKc3PBs67c

As well as this.

Unleash the Power of Your Router!

I know for a fact you can setup two routers to cover a distance of 450 feet, it just requires some playing around with them and some ingenuity. When the weather is right, my laptop wifi can pick up my neighbors networks more than 500 feet away, albeit its not usable, but imagine is I had the power of an external router antenna and not a internal laptop card.

 

Take a look at this. Probably about the least expensive way to do what you want to do.

Tirade Outdoor 5.8GHz MIMO Wireless Access Point w/ Optimal Beam Focus

Or Google Tirade wireless access points.

 

another option to consider:

If your current router is compatible with alternate firmware such as DD-WRT or Tomato, settings within these firmware allows you to alter the transmitting power.

Google "DD-WRT" or "tomato firmware" to get more details.

 

Bollocks, I used to work for a WISP, and we had 5GHz shooting 20 miles, and 2.4GHz shooting up to 10 miles. If you have line of sight, enough height, and good enough antennas it isn't out of the question.

That being said, I'd recommend these from professional experience.
MikroTik RBSXT Lite5 (RBSXT5nDr2) 5GHz 802.11a/n Bridge/CPE-Newegg.com

We used them for point-to-points all the time. You may need to put them on a TV tower to get the height and get through the trees, but they will work, and can be powered via Ethernet.

Hope this helps.

~Spike

 

i WOULD TRENCH CONDUIT UNDERGROUND.

Then run cat 5 to his house from your router. easiest and cheapest solution IMO...

 

Normally I would agree as wired is far better than wireless, but anything over 300' of Ethernet starts to have signal degradation and causes packet loss. So unfortunately that would not work for a 450' scenario. You could technically try it as I have seen runs over 300' but usually they end up causing issues.

~Spike

 

[QUOTE]Bollocks, I used to work for a WISP, and we had 5GHz shooting 20 miles, and 2.4GHz shooting up to 10 miles. If you have line of sight, enough height, and good enough antennas it isn't out of the question.[/QUOTE.

Pulpo isn't here anymore but in his defense, nothing was ever said about "enough height". The responses were based on ground level not on a NYC high rise building.

 

True, and the height of the towers was actually only 300', but it's also Ohio and its pretty flat here too. I was more responding to the statement that wireless cannot work that far. However, to shoot even a couple miles may only need 20-30' if the land is flat enough and there is line of sight. Several hundred feet can even be done at 6' height if there are no obstructions between antennas.

That being said, it looks like he was trying to accomplish this with just residential routers which likely won't work due to the antennas not being directional which is really needed distance. Plus trees kill signal so unless he could get the antennas on a TV tower or on a roof, it would likely still be an issue.

~Spike

 

You can run cat 5 and put a switch mid point to amp the single.

Or run an optic line and get two convertors for each end...

 

My first thought was also this. But knowing me, my second thought would kick in and wouldn't do it because I am concern of the security between the 450 feet distance (in the trees).

But then again, that is the benefit of living in the city where if someone taps into your line, you are more than likely to see the trace.

This reminds me of the story where an electrician tapped into the city's electrical grid for free electricity.:NO NO NO:

Milford man accused of stealing electricity - WFSB 3 Connecticut