Recommendations for connecting offices across a street

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Phildeeze

Please note, I am a guy.
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Aug 1, 2000
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I'm looking for recommendations for connecting a small ~10-30 user office to our main office. The small office will be in a shopping area across a two-lane highway from our main building. Fiber doesn't really look like an option to me, since running it under the highway would be difficult/expensive or possibly impossible to do as quickly as I need.

Wireless would be good. I have really clear LOS between the two buildings and roof access on both, but I'd like some pointers on good hardware for an encrypted wireless link.

It might also be possible for me to lease some power pole space for a cabled connection if that turns out to be a better option.

Bandwidth wise, I need to allow SQL access, light file access, and Exchange Server access across the link as well as possibly a VOIP link.

Hardware suggestions and links to articles on the subject would be greatly appreciated.
 
Wireless G might work good for that. Get a linksys wrt54G put some 3rd party firmware and increase the signal and get 2 antennas and you should get Excellent connection if you don't have any obsicles. :)
 
KoZLop said:
Wireless G might work good for that. Get a linksys wrt54G put some 3rd party firmware and increase the signal and get 2 antennas and you should get Excellent connection if you don't have any obsicles. :)
Click to expand...

Wireless was also the first thing that popped into my head.... I was thinking 2 AP's in bridging mode, running WPA, with Directional Antennas (like some basic 9 dbi Yagi's) and possibly putting in VPN endpoints for anything going over the link if necessary.

I did something similar, but it was just to connect a couple people in our Warehouse so it was on a much smaller scale. I used a pair of WAP54G's, those antenna's I linked to above, and WPA. It worked very well, but I dont know what kind of bandwidth and latency requirements he has since he's dealing with quite a few more users than I was,... and for me, it was just for basic file access and email so I didnt have to worry about latency.

However, I would think that 802.11g would work fine providing antenna's were used to get a good strong signal over, and sufficient security was put in place.
 
Thanks for the antenna link.

Yeah, I was thinking 802.11g might be fine but I when you add the bandwidth for 10-30 SQL connections + 10-30 people on VOIP calls + file and Exchange access, it starts to feel a little tight to me.

These are primarily going to be salespeople, so telephone connectivity and sound quality is very important. The tech department will also be moving over there, so network access is important too.
 
I'd be hesitant to use a wifi link. You're going to run into bandwidth issues most likely, and most likely have a poor signal in the rain. I'd try to get a wire link going if at all possible. For that distance, fiber is your best option. There are companies that make fiber links for you, at a custom length, w/ connectors on them(protected to allow you to pull). That might be a good option to look into.

802.11g give a real world bandwidth closer to 10-15mbps, since you have overhead and even more overhead for encryption. 802.11a might be worth looking at though, it's a bit faster, and in a less crowded band.

On another note, how much longer until 802.11n is out?
 
you could get 2 clients and do load balancing maybe that will work.

i wonder if thats possible.
 
KoZLop said:
you could get 2 clients and do load balancing maybe that will work.

i wonder if thats possible.
Click to expand...

Use an 11a and a 11g connection. That way, they aren't close to each other on the spectrum and bleeding into one another's signal. It would work, but most likely more trouble than it's worth.

Also, looks like 11n won't be out until next year.
 
Phildeeze said:
Yeah, I was thinking 802.11g might be fine but I when you add the bandwidth for 10-30 SQL connections + 10-30 people on VOIP calls + file and Exchange access, it starts to feel a little tight to me.
Click to expand...

Yikes! Yeah, I didnt realize from your post that you'd have that much VOIP going!! I'm also thinking that wireless is gonna be tight. You'll definately want a cabled solution.
 
Nybbles said:
Yikes! Yeah, I didnt realize from your post that you'd have that much VOIP going!! I'm also thinking that wireless is gonna be tight. You'll definately want a cabled solution.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's quite a bit. On the fiber suggestion, you should be able to string that across the street as well. I *think* copper would have way too much interference from electrical lines to work, plus you can only run copper a max of 100 meters(~330 ft) before you need a repeater. I'd guess you would want a gigabit link for what your doing, to make sure there is plenty of bandwidth.
 
As long as I don't have to go in crazy directions because of pole placement, I don't think distance should be an issue. It is literally directly across a two-lane highway. I would put the distance from one rooftop to the other at ~175 feet.

//edit: There are poles in the two parking lots that are pretty much directly across from one another.
 
Phildeeze said:
As long as I don't have to go in crazy directions because of pole placement, I don't think distance should be an issue. It is literally directly across a two-lane highway. I would put the distance from one rooftop to the other at ~175 feet.

//edit: There are poles in the two parking lots that are pretty much directly across from one another.
Click to expand...

As long as they don't give off a monster amount of electrical hum, that should be fine. Now you just need to make sure to protect the cabling from lightning. I'm guessing it's smart to run a few lines at once as well. Have a few backups in place just incase.
 
Nybbles said:
Yikes! Yeah, I didnt realize from your post that you'd have that much VOIP going!! I'm also thinking that wireless is gonna be tight. You'll definately want a cabled solution.
Click to expand...

We met today and have decided to go a different route with the phones, so VOIP traffic is gone. I'm also thinking of putting another SQL server in that office, so the only SQL traffic will be replication. If I have to put a rack over there anyway, I'll most likely set up a fileserver over there too, so file access over the link should be minimal. With all that out of the way, I'm thinking the 10-12mbps I'd get with 802.11g should be plenty for the remaining traffic.

We did talk to our phone company about a possible fiber run, and it looks like it's doable, but for the limited amount of traffic there'll be over the link, I'm thinking wireless will be enough.
 
Wireless is a perfectly viable option, just don't use normal consumer hardware for it. I had done several point-to-point connections for people using WAP11's and a couple other various consumer grade products until I got tired of having to power cycle units and dropping signals and stuff like that. I have now done a couple with better hardware that I have been much more pleased with the results.

One is a link about .75 miles using 2 Hyperlink Technologies H-ROR's and a pair of 10dBi panel antenna's. That link has been going for 1 year and 9 months and I have never had to touch it even once since the initial config. Another setup I have done is for a guy to shoot internet out to his home in the country. Its about a 10 mile link and I used SmartBridge's hardware to do it. 1 AirPointPro and 1 AirBridgePro with 24dBi parabolics. The only time it has gone down is when 80+ MPH winds took out one of the antennas.

Both setups cost under $1,000 each. All the wireless devices were in the $400 range when I got them. I think the SmartBridges equipment has an advantage in speed over the Hyperlink Tech. stuff, but the SmartBridges stuff I have is straight 802.11b where the Hyperlink hardware uses Karlnet, which is a variation on 802.11b. I don't know if it is still the case, but when I bought them the software people use to hack WEP keys and sniff traffic wouldn't work on the Karlnet.

But back to the point. The Linksys's with hacked firmware work fine for people, but I cannot think of any business that is willing to risk downtime over $700 worth of equipment. Buy the good stuff the first time.

Brian Taylor
 
Have you even bothered to look into running fiber between the buildings? Has anyone who responded to this thread ever looked in to it? You might be surprised.
 
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