Wireless Network Project

[AlaDes]

I have a wireless networking project that I need help with from those of you who are more experienced than myself.
I am interested in setting up a wireless network between my home and office computers. Although my house and office are only about half a mile apart, there are obstructions between them, such as tall trees and other houses that are taller than mine.
I would like to know how feasible this would be, the best antennas to use, and the best routers to use. As far as the equipment, I would prefer quality suggestions over how cheap it is .

Thanks for your help!

Edit: The actual walking distance between my house and office is only a quarter mile at most.

[rsarceno]

You can try extending your network using Cisco Aironet with directional high-gain Yagi antenna, These is a line of site configuration which means you need to mount it as high as possible, so both antenna are aligned and that their main radiated power lobes are directed at each other. This works like a bridge.
I have implemented this setup for the government and It's very secured. It's also dependable rain or snow. At 12 miles you can get 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz for 25 miles. Don't see any issue with 1/2 miles as long as you have line of sight.

Good Luck

[YeOldeStonecat]

Ubiquity NanoBridge
http://www.ubnt.com/airmax

http://dl.ubnt.com/datasheets/nanobr...nbm_ds_web.pdf

Although you mention houses taller than yours in between...so do you have any line of site?

[AlaDes]

Originally Posted by YeOldeStonecat

Ubiquity NanoBridge
http://www.ubnt.com/airmax

http://dl.ubnt.com/datasheets/nanobr...nbm_ds_web.pdf

Although you mention houses taller than yours in between...so do you have any line of site?

The way I understand "line of site" is that it would be a clear unobstructed view between two antennas. If I am correct in my assumption then the answer is no, because of the trees and taller houses between my house and office. This is one reason I have considered omni directional antennas, but am not sure how well they would do in my situation.

[Lpusedyou]

Hm without a decent line of sight it may not work too reliably. However, it's still possible with powerful enough antennas (to penetrate trees and such).

An alternative would be to set up a site-to-site VPN between the routers at each location. This way it appears that they are on the same network. You would need pretty good download/upload speeds from your ISP at both sites though to transfer anything large back and forth.

[YeOldeStonecat]

Originally Posted by AlaDes

The way I understand "line of site" is that it would be a clear unobstructed view between two antennas. If I am correct in my assumption then the answer is no, because of the trees and taller houses between my house and office. This is one reason I have considered omni directional antennas, but am not sure how well they would do in my situation.

Yeah..you want fairly close to good line of site for a point to point wireless bridge. An omni direction won't help you with a point to point...signals going off to the left, right, behind you, up, down...do nothing for the bridge at your office...they will only help wireless clients within line of site of those other directions. You won't benefit from "bouncing" off of walls of other buildings when talking about wireless and longer distance outdoor stuff.

So the next question....and this will rely on rules/regs in your town...possibly building permits...but on the roof(s) of both structures...would a small tower that would elevate each bridge be able to get them to peek at each other above the roof lines of homes in between the two locations? ...and I've seen trees used in this case... camouflaging the units.