Help me buy a solid wireless repeater... trying to network across the street

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mikelz85

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So I recently moved in next door to my folks house, literally, across the street (30 yards from front door, maybe 70 from current base). I decided a great way to pay them back would be to set up a wireless network so we can share movies, music, and a gateway (looking to upgrade to a SB6121 to drop my $7 a month fee...).

I picked up two asus RTN10+'s on newegg for $10 each after rebate. However, they just don't reach one another (not a surprise). Was able to set one RTN-10+ as a repeater up at my folks, and connect to base router (other RTN10+) at my place, but the speeds were really slow connecting from the repeater at my folks, I'm assuming because the connection is iffy. Tried different channels, and the default gain setting on the asus is 100 already. The connection also seems spotty, it gets dropped pretty easily (ie repeater can't find base). I should note my folks have aluminum siding, but there are lots of windows.

I figure what I need is either

A. A waaaay better base router

OR

B. A 3rd router/repeater in between the two of them, either on the near side of my house (current base is far side), or maybe even my garage. I'm guessing it would be best to have the highest range device as the "middle" repeater, in between base router and parents house repeater.

Now I've seen wireless range extenders (fancy repeaters, yeah?) and it looks like $70-$150 is what they go for.

However, if I can make this work with a quality router/repeater in between the two, that'd be great.

Bang for my buck, what should I do? Securing an excellent signal is what I'm ultimately after, but again, would prefer to stay around $70 or under if it can be done...

BTW the asus aren't DDWRT yet, but I'm guessing I should probably flash to that...

Regardless, help a guy give back to mom and dad, and setup a wifi network!
 
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I am in a simular boat at work as going over the internet via VPN si slower than hell.

The only thing I could think of for you would be higher gain antennas. I am trying to find something with some QOS for voip but haven't been looking too hard.
 
what about adding a 2nd repeater in between the base and the one in my parents house?

I'm guessing it would be best to have the strongest repeater in the middle, but maybe not...

Again, ton of products out there, high gain router/repeaters, high gain extending repeaters
 
For the love of god, avoid the 6121 - I've been through two and had nothing but problems with it dropping connection and I'm not alone here judging by other people bitching on Newegg/Amazon about the same issue.

I have a 'shitty' Zoom brand modem now and it's been completely flawless.

Also, two options I have to present:
Two of these + antennas
http://ubnt.com/bullet

or

Two of these
http://ubnt.com/nanostationloco

On the other hand, why don't you run a cat6 cable over there? Far cheaper and easier.
 
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I would stay away from Zoom.. where I work we replace them on a weekly basis because they fail so often...we probably have 20-30 deployed...so figure 1 failure per week is a ~4% weekly failure rate...
 
well, I'm not dying to do the cable modem, was looking into it because I'm on a 2.0 now, and comcast said when they gave me a free speed upgrade I'd might want to get a 3.0 (I think 20mbps service)

Anyways, I'd thought about running a cable, but the houses are separated by a road. I'd have to get a really tall ladder, or even a cherry picker (lol at that) and route the cable across the power/phone/cable lines. Seems kind of sketchy, and maybe not legal.

Figure since the single is just on the edge right now, another repeater in between will might make it work...

in looking at those links, I'm concerned about how easy it will be to set up with a current router. I also am not sure if a powerful antenna inside the house is a very good idea. Maybe better if it is outside/in the garage broadcasting?
 
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We've had no trouble with the 6121, however there was recently a recalled firmware...

Anyway I digress, OP, you really want to look at the Ubiquiti line of products. The nanostations linked before should do the job, if not check out a nanorbridge setup. If you have line of site go 2.4ghz.
 
how hard are those to setup? are they used in a pair, and sold by the each?

So I'd have router (over cat5) -----> nano link (over air) ---------------> nano link ------------>(fed by cat5 from 2nd nano)other router (working as repeater/switch) at parents?

again, concerned about setup. Also worried that they'll hit one another, if the asus almost do, is it safe to assume these nano's will? Finally, I do live in a residential neighborhood. I see ~3-6 other networks on average. No apartments or anything though.
 
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You would do like this, starting at parents house:

Modem => Router => NanoStation (AP WDS) =>... across street... => NanoStation (Station WDS) => Access point (yours).

This is the simplest way to do it. Modem connects to WAN port on their router the Nanostation at their house configured as an AP plugs into the LAN port. In this case you can have a router set up as an access point (refered to as Access point (yours) in the above scheme) so that your parents router is still doing all the DHCP (handing out IP addresses) for your network The NanoStations act as a network bridge with one in access point mode and the other in station. The WDS refers to a mode which might not be neccessary for your needs, but I prefer for several reasons. WDS can impact throughput by up to half. I now the above set up will work because I installed one at my church for this exact purpose. However I used a pair of Nanobridges, but those were overkill for the application.

As for the question: is it hard? If you can set up a router, you would be able to figure out the Ubiquiti gear.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_distribution_system

If you wish to have a seperate network from your parents you might be able to do this, but it will be slightly more complicated.
 
I'm not an expert in Wireless, but I am studying for the CWNP exam...

First thing I thought of was line-of-sight issues. Where are the two routers located?

Second was the antennas. Directional antennas with a clear LOS would probably help a lot.

Hope that helps!
 
You will want an exterior bridge and then setup a wireless router/access point in the other house. Look at ubiquiti to do this.


This will be the only wireless solution that is reliable
 
marley1 said:
You will want an exterior bridge and then setup a wireless router/access point in the other house. Look at ubiquiti to do this.


This will be the only wireless solution that is reliable
Click to expand...

with a direct point connection ? ( dishes ) instead of 360Degree antenna..
 
As djbon2112 said, the issue isn't with the devices, its with the antennas, and how they are currently set up.

There's some cheap but unsightly methods you can use to build/modify antennas to get good directional range, that would be your best bet. Otherwise I recommend getting two nanobridges, and set them up with low power(being your so close, by turning the power up you might actually get a worse signal).
http://ubnt.com/downloads/nbm2_datasheet.pdf
 
Even something like the Airwire might work if you have windows that face each other with Line of Sight. Also from Ubiquiti. Stupid easy to setup.
 
lizardking009 said:
Three reasons not to do that.

1. Ground/electrical issues.
2. Distance limits.
3. Right of way and property issues.
Click to expand...

Explain to me the "grounding" and "distance" issues you speak of. 100 Mbit ethernet can easily go 300 feet on Cat5 (not even e). There is no grounding issue; it is transformer isolated. That is one of the biggest benefits of ethernet.

Your 3rd point is valid though. :)
 
Trepidati0n said:
Explain to me the "grounding" and "distance" issues you speak of. 100 Mbit ethernet can easily go 300 feet on Cat5 (not even e). There is no grounding issue; it is transformer isolated. That is one of the biggest benefits of ethernet.

Your 3rd point is valid though. :)
Click to expand...

1. You're running copper wire exposed (thin plastic coating isn't really an outdoor coating) outside. It gets wet, it gets hit by stray voltage or lightning, everything is fried.

2. Distance isn't just about the max, which is 100m (328 ft). Being a long outdoor run, you'll get interferance and crosstalk from RF interferance, that even CAT5e balancing can't fix. Speeds could go to shit at any time for almost any reason.

3. That reason is clear to you, so I'm not going to go into it.

All in all outdoor ethernet is a bad idea. If you're going to do that, you need to go fibre, which is hella expensive. There's a reason Internet distribution isn't really done over twisted pair CAT cabling.
 
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djBon2112 said:
1. You're running copper wire exposed (thin plastic coating isn't really an outdoor coating) outside. It gets wet, it gets hit by stray voltage or lightning, everything is fried.

2. Distance isn't just about the max, which is 100m (328 ft). Being a long outdoor run, you'll get interferance and crosstalk from RF interferance, that even CAT5e balancing can't fix. Speeds could go to shit at any time for almost any reason.

3. That reason is clear to you, so I'm not going to go into it.

All in all outdoor ethernet is a bad idea. If you're going to do that, you need to go fibre, which is hella expensive. There's a reason Internet distribution isn't really done over twisted pair CAT cabling.
Click to expand...

1. My guess is you are going on a tangent that the op is going to red neck on this and just run a spool of Cat 5/5e/6 to his parents and do a shitty job. Secondarily, your point is invalid since I have run, for both home and industrial, networking cable in numerous methods. And guess what..it works just fine. The spec say it is fine. It has been tested to be fine. You just need to understand your enviroment. Next thing you will be telling me is the billions of miles of copper cabling under the ground moving the very data in this thread is at risk.

2. Please show me the documentation that shows how RF interferance outdoors is greater than indoors. Seriously? I have laid tons of cabling both indoors and out. Nearly everytime the BER drops by nearly 30-40% due to the fact there is less noise outside than in your home/building. Secondarily, I have run 1000's of hours of EMI/EMC testing...building/houes are eff'ing noisy. If we could, we would rather run outdoors since noise levels are lower in general. Hell, the fundamental notion in all EMI/EMC testing is to reduce ambient noise levels to being in the middle of a field in the middle of no where.
 
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