Wireless between 2 buildings?

S

Safety

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 17, 2009
Messages
406
Hey [H],

I have a work shed on my property that is about 100ft away from the house. I'd like get my laptop in the shed to connect wirelessly to a yet to be purchased Dual N Router located by the back window of the house. Would it be unrealistic to expect a decent connection at that distance? What would be my other options?

- Powerline adapters aren't an option as the work shed runs on a separate line from the house.
- WDS is limited to WEP and divides bandwidth by the number of APs.
- Client Mode via DD-WRT and Tomato seems to be in a state of flux as examples of older 'reliable' hardware have either been updated and not supported (wndr3700v3) or new hardware is in alpha testing (wndr3800, wndr4500)
- Wireless repeaters are for the most part terribly reviewed and need a hardwire via ethernet or powerline
Click to expand...
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
-S
 
The client ( your notebook ) being able to reach back to the wireless router is going to be the weakest link.

If you had cash and the desire and skill I would suggest not using the wireless portion of your N router, or using it for 5Ghz connectivity only and purchasing (2) Ubiquiti Unifi's.

Using (2) Unifi'S with one in uplink mode (something similar to a repeater) would work. You should expect a 60mbps data link connection with about 30mbps of throughput in this configuration using WPA-AES. Expect it to be bullet-proof reliable, compared to other solutions.
This is a semi-professional product, far superior to anything else wireless you mentioned.
 
I thought that each Ubiquiti APs needed to be hardwired with an ethernet cable? Can multiple Ubiquiti APs piggyback off just one hardwired AP to form a mesh similar to Ruckus?
 
As of software version 2.0 yes.

A single Unifi can act as a relay for up to 4 floating Unifi AP's but each will take away a little of the bandwidth of the host AP.

Its not mesh, its more like seem-less centralized management for Unifi AP's acting as repeaters.
 
Nice! Just 2 questions:

- You mentioned WPA-AES, is WPA2 an option?
- Do you need to dedicate a single computer to manage the APs or can any computer that has already joined the network and running Ubiquiti's software change the settings?

Thanks Mackintire! (and marley1).

/edit: I guess what I'm really trying to ask is: Are there any limitations or 'gotchas' to going with Ubiquiti.
 
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I believe WPA2-PSK is a available option.

You do need to install a java application on a machine to manage the Unifi's the APs will associated with that console.

Once the APs are up and running.... you do not need the console. You only need the console to manage the APs. You can not run the console on (2) different machines. If you load the management application on another machine you must take over the APs from the old console, I do not know how from personal experience much of a hassle this is, but it obviously is annoying enough that most people do not choose to go that route.

The current Unifi's are not dual radio, They are 2.4Ghz wireless N Only. The Unifi Pro which has dual radios has been pushed back till 2nd quarter of 2012 for its scheduled release.
 
do a site to site bridge with UBNT gear, then add a cheap access point in the shed.
 
If the cheap AP has wireless N it will be faster than what I suggested previously.

Here's a silly alternative.

Unfi's are $80 each

But a three pack is $180. So you can have three Unifi's for the same price as (2) unifi's and a cheap access point.

Why not use the third Unifi as the cheap access point?

AP 1 = Normal Access for the house. Works normal for everyone within range.
AP 2= placed into dedicated "Bridge mode" connected to AP1
AP 3= Normal Access for the shed (different channel)

The result should be 144mbps wireless N for $180 + a couple of patch cables.
 
Couldn't the client in the shed connect to access point two or would AP3 have a stronger antenna to connect to AP2??
 
Thanks again for the advice guys :)

It's really interesting to see how flexible Ubiquity gear is through the constant addition of new features.

I was reading up on Bridge Mode and had a question: Both devices for the Bridge are set to either AP WDS or Station-WDS. Doesn't WDS default to either WEP or no encryption at all?

/edit: Could you recommend a UBNT dealer online?
 
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adam30k said:
Couldn't the client in the shed connect to access point two or would AP3 have a stronger antenna to connect to AP2??
Click to expand...

yes...... but then you are running AP2 in repeater mode....which cuts your available wireless bandwidth in half.

And by doing that AP 3 is not really needed at that point....unless you plan on adding another bridge for something like a XBOX 360 that needs wired access.

The point I was making was that the 3 pack of Unifi's cost only $20 more than buying 2.
 
Safety said:
Thanks again for the advice guys :)

It's really interesting to see how flexible Ubiquity gear is through the constant addition of new features.

I was reading up on Bridge Mode and had a question: Both devices for the Bridge are set to either AP WDS or Station-WDS. Doesn't WDS default to either WEP or no encryption at all?

/edit: Could you recommend a UBNT dealer online?
Click to expand...

http://www.microcom.us/ns2.html
 
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