Wireless link between Buildings? Advice?

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Nybbles

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jun 17, 2002
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Ok, so I'm the admin at a construction company. All of our users are in the main office, and are cabeled to the switches, except one. A couple years ago they put a computer in the warehouse, which is just behind the main building. I'm terrible at estimaing, but there's just a couple hundred feet between buildings. We need to get this computer onto the main wired network. The previous admin's "hack job" isnt cutting it anymore.

So has anyone here done this? If so, do u have any recommendations on hardware? (the cheaper the better, really) Any advice?

Thanks guys. :)
 
http://www.proxim.com
<edit> more specifically, this is what we got... http://www.proxim.com/products/bwa/point/quickbridge/quickbridge11/index.html</edit>
Where I work, we just setup our maintenance building up with a point to point wireless link, about 600 Feet of distance, and it runs great. We have a nice line of sight between both antennas, and configuration of the 'access points' was super easy, all done via web interface. I believe that we spent around 600$ on the whole setup, two people got all the equipment mounted, so it was not too complicated at all.
 
Just to clarify, you don't want Access Points for this job. You want bridges. You can however buy AP's that have a bridging mode however I'd recommend using dedicated bridges. Actually many bridges can act as AP's. Anyway, something that is designed to bridge as it's primary role is best.

One thing that jumped out at me in your post. You mentioned "behind" the main building. You have line of sight between these buildings correct?

I've put in hundreds of these types of links so I can answer whatever question you might have if you have any specific questions.

The recommended Proxim gear is a pretty good one. They are comparable to the Cisco bridges in performance, or other high end Microwave bridge solution but are generally affordable depending on your definition of that word. I could rattle off a slew or alternatives. What is your budget?
 
Yes, we do have a clear line of site. there's lotsa stuff stored in the concrete yard between the buildings, but from the roof, clear with no obstructions.

I really was not given a budget, right now we have 2 Linksys WAP11's which are in bridged mode, and are under 5-gal buckets to protect from the elements. I know, I know, it's a hack if i ever saw one, but I DID NOT PUT IT UP!!

Anyway, no budget but my company is cheap. i will basically present them the most cost-effective solution, and if they like it, then cool. If not, then they can continue to have the warehouse foreman be completly un-productive.
 
If you take the time to properly mount the WAP11's, they should do the job just fine.

A pair of WRT54G's is also a cheap solution. Make a pair of biquads (requires PCB backplane, one N connector, some brass tube, some copper wire, and some soldering skill - takes less than 20 minutes to build one). Take the WRT and the antenna and mount them in the same NEMA enclosure, run POE to the thing, and mount it on a pole. Aim both units, set the configuration (hacked firmwares offer all sorts of goodies) and voila! 802.11g (about 2.0 to 2.2MB/s real world bandwidth)
 
Yeah, if you have bridges in place, and they are dependable to this point you don't need to spend money on more bridges. I am not even sure why you asked about bridges. What you need to do is to finish the job properly. POE would be nice but all you really need is to get your cat5 run and power to the box someway, if POE isn't an option. I'd concur with a NEMA box. Works well, then run your transmission cable, or pigtail if you can, to the antenna. Use an anchored tripod and mount for a low gain yagi antenna. Then repeat on the other side. Actually what you really need to do is have someone with experience and let them do that. They will be the ones to quote you pricing. I could give you a rough idea but I'd really have to take a look to be accurate. Too many variables. Basically what you should be considering is how to complete the existing installation, not about the bridges, UNLESS they go down too much.
 
Well, the problem is that the current set up is NOT reliable, hence that's why I asked. The previous admin just put something together that would kinda work, but it's not reliable enough for our needs at this point.

Honestly, i think the radios are crapping out do to exposure to the weather. So I'm looking to buy some new equipment, even if it's just a pair of WRT54G's or something.

I'll google for a couple terms I'm not familiar with, like whatever a biquad is. Sounds like an antenna of sorts, but if i'm gonna even think about building it, I need directions. Also, I do have power and ethernet to the existing setup.

So I guess I just need to find out how to build a biquad, and where to get a NEMA enclosure. And get a couple WRT54G's to replace these quickly-dying WAP11's.
 
Very first hit on google:
http://martybugs.net/wireless/biquad/

I would suggest using brass tubing from a hobby shop instead of rolling your own. :) Faster and prettier.

Afterwards, just glue the thing into something plastic to protect it. These things provide roughly 6-8 dBi of gain, and are easily rotated so you can have them polarized whichever way yields the best SNR.
 
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