Extending WiFi between 2 buildings

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Boris Becker

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Hi Guys

I need help. I currently have Telkom 2Mbps ADSL at my house (office at home) with a 16GB Afrihost account, but I will be cancelling this as I am moving my office to another building diagonally across the street (about 3 houses down). At the office, I will have 2Mbps ADSL installed, but I'd like to extend my WiFi network and than get 10Mbps ADSL instead which I hope will sync at 6/7/8Mbps (based on current line quality). So my home internet spend will be used to subsidise the 10Mbps office ADSL.

Note, unless I can extend the WiFi network from my new office to my house, I will have to switch to peasant internet :p i.e. Mobile Internet for under R200 per month.

I had the idea to place 2 external antennas on the wall or roof of each building. The 2 buildings are about 60 metres apart (access point to access point) - see diagram. The current WiFi signal (with extra strength dbi antenna) dies about 15 metres before desired destination.

diagram_extend_wifi_outdoor.gif


If this is going to work, I need the following:
1. The external antennas (2 of them) and any cables must not cost more than about R1500 (I'll install the antenna myself)
2. After extending the network, I must get a speed of at least 5 or 6Mbps at my house

At my house, I want good speeds 4Mbps+ to stream YouTube Videos, etc. I don't download much. I use about 15GB usage per month but I'm sure this will increase if I get better speeds. I have 2 x TP-Link 4 Port ADSL Modem Wireless Routers (TD-W8960N and TD-W8961ND)


What do you guy think? Is this workable? What haven't I considered? What products do guys suggest? Please provide some links to products to use from Uniterm Direct or Scoop, etc I am a noob with regards to outdoor networking products but I'm sorted in terms of extending the network indoors.


Thanks in advance
 

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imranpanji said:
This : http://www.scoopdistribution.co.za/product_info.php?cPath=101_75&products_id=1029

Or this :http://www.scoopdistribution.co.za/product_info.php?cPath=101_110&products_id=1018

1 at each end, includes the radio and antenna

Must have line of site and use poe (power over Ethernet) and cat 5 cable to power them up and connect to your network device on either side.

Dbg might have same stuff.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. Yes I saw someone mention that in this thread (http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/511302-Extending-Wifi-to-bro-s-house-(2-doors-down)). Do you have any experience with this product? Does it work well? Would I be able to get pretty much the full speed of my ADSL connection? I read something somewhere for a split second that the max speed on this product is 2Mbps. Doesn't sound right, is it correct?

Eish never heard of Power over Ethernet :o, you mean this type of product? http://www.dbg.co.za/product_info.php?products_id=639


Yes I do have line of sight - forgot to mention that in OP.
 
Boris Becker said:
Thanks for the reply. Yes I saw someone mention that in this thread (http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/511302-Extending-Wifi-to-bro-s-house-(2-doors-down)). Do you have any experience with this product? Does it work well? Would I be able to get pretty much the full speed of my ADSL connection? I read something somewhere for a split second that the max speed on this product is 2Mbps. Doesn't sound right, is it correct?

Eish never heard of Power over Ethernet :o, you mean this type of product? http://www.dbg.co.za/product_info.php?products_id=639


Yes I do have line of sight - forgot to mention that in OP.
Click to expand...

Good product, easy to config. have used it for very long distances. It goes up to 54mbps. Should be able to do your required 10mbps or higher without a problem.

POE Allows you to send the power and network signal over the same cable, so you only have to run 1 Ethernet cable at each site, instead of 2 (power and Ethernet)
For the nano station, you probably need the injector only, one for each site the device will split the power and network signal by itself : http://www.scoopdistribution.co.za/product_info.php?cPath=32&products_id=1270
Or http://www.scoopdistribution.co.za/product_info.php?cPath=32&products_id=1340

You will also need masts / bracket : http://www.scoopdistribution.co.za/index.php?cPath=39_71 and your cabling (minimum cat5e and connectors)

Best to check with scoop or dbg , and buy all the kit from 1 place. I think dbg do a discount for mybb members. They both have reps on this forum. If you ask nicely and give them details they will even make the cables for you
 
Oh, and 5ghz tends to have less noise than 2.4ghz . but is more line of sight fussy
 
imranpanji said:
Oh, and 5ghz tends to have less noise than 2.4ghz . but is more line of sight fussy
Click to expand...

Thanks, I was about to ask you about that. Which frequency carries further, better speeds, etc? Which would you suggest based on the info I have provided?
 
imranpanji said:
Good product, easy to config. have used it for very long distances. It goes up to 54mbps. Should be able to do your required 10mbps or higher without a problem.

POE Allows you to send the power and network signal over the same cable, so you only have to run 1 Ethernet cable at each site, instead of 2 (power and Ethernet)
For the nano station, you probably need the injector only, one for each site the device will split the power and network signal by itself : http://www.scoopdistribution.co.za/product_info.php?cPath=32&products_id=1270
Or http://www.scoopdistribution.co.za/product_info.php?cPath=32&products_id=1340

You will also need masts / bracket : http://www.scoopdistribution.co.za/index.php?cPath=39_71 and your cabling (minimum cat5e and connectors)

Best to check with scoop or dbg , and buy all the kit from 1 place. I think dbg do a discount for mybb members. They both have reps on this forum. If you ask nicely and give them details they will even make the cables for you
Click to expand...

Very useful info. Thank you for taking the time to reply.
 
Boris Becker said:
What are your thoughts on this http://www.dbg.co.za/product_info.php?products_id=670 (2 of them, 1 as repeater)

Any chance this cheap thing might work? http://www.dbg.co.za/product_info.php?cPath=1_5_31&products_id=265


Could Antennas like these work? http://www.dbg.co.za/index.php?cPath=1_41_43 What else would I need if I chose to use that? Does that need line of sight?
Click to expand...

From experience, I would not use indoor equipment, even if it might work.

If it is outside the window, there is no concrete in the way, so the antenna might work.
The cheap antenna, would not recommend, as you will need converter cable for all the antennas, which will reduce the gain
The grid antennas are probably the best thing to use, and that is my preferred value antenna

If the nano stations are too expensive, you could also use the picostations
 
imranpanji said:
From experience, I would not use indoor equipment, even if it might work.

If it is outside the window, there is no concrete in the way, so the antenna might work.
The cheap antenna, would not recommend, as you will need converter cable for all the antennas, which will reduce the gain
The grid antennas are probably the best thing to use, and that is my preferred value antenna

If the nano stations are too expensive, you could also use the picostations
Click to expand...

Thanks for the replies. From your responses and general reading on the internet that the Ubiquiti Nanostation is the easiest and best solution. I'll email the mybb reps and see what they can offer me.

Last question: 2.4GHz or 5GHz? (based on what I've posted)
 
From what you have posted, I would say 5ghz, as there looks to be to be good line of site, and 60m is not far at all.

But noise is a funny issue, so ask the company reps, and go for what they reccommend, seed the idea of the option of changing if there is a problem early on.

Advantage of 2.4ghz, is you can probably use it for some other purpose in future,
 
+1 for the NanoStations

One thing you want to keep in mind with such a short link is to tune down the TX power. Having too high a TX on a short link can degrade the performance substantially.
 
2 Nanos (5Ghz) will do the trick working in "Bridge Mode".

If the primary connection (adsl router) is in your office, then at your house you just need an access point (an old wireless adsl router can work as an access point -remember to deactivate dhcp in this one-).

i'm currently using 2 Ubiquity (rocket M) in a 2KM link and is solid rock. No weather interference at all. So the nanos will work 100% in a 60 mts link.
 
Thanks for the replies guys :)

I haven't had time to climb on the roof yet, but I did notice there's a tree on the sidewalk maybe partially in the way. How does this affect it?


It seems this nanostation is really powerful. Is it not perhaps overkill? Is there a easier cheaper solution?


I hope I won't be breaking any laws by installing this :)
 
Last edited:
Hi There,
+1 for the nano station solution. Others on this forum have recommended it. The tree may prove a challange but sometime just siting the transmitter in a different position will get round the obstacle.

Let us know how you get on

Regards

Tim
 
So I finally got around to buying and installing the Nanostation Loco M5. 2 weeks so far and working great.

Installation of the hardware was pretty simple. Used the existing pole on the old TV aerial for the one unit.

As far as configuring the Nanostations and repeater, that was relatively painless after I found a good YouTube video. I'll post the link later. The Ubiquiti YouTube instruction video wasn't much help.

Performance is excellent. The only problemI seem to have is I have to switch power off and on every now and then (thrice in 2 weeks) but I think this is due to me configuring the repeater incorrectly. The YouTube video I referred to above said I should specify the repeater ip address as 192.167.1.1 instead of 192.168.1.1 because this is used by the main router. Everything works except I can't access the repeater's admin page if it's connected to the Nanostation.

Using TP Link WD4960 Adsl modem router as the main router (192.168.1.1)
2x Nanostation Loco M5 (192.468.1.2 & 192.168.1.20)
1x TP Link 8968 Adsl modem USB router as the repeater (192.167.1.1)
 
Boris Becker said:
So I finally got around to buying and installing the Nanostation Loco M5. 2 weeks so far and working great.

Installation of the hardware was pretty simple. Used the existing pole on the old TV aerial for the one unit.

As far as configuring the Nanostations and repeater, that was relatively painless after I found a good YouTube video. I'll post the link later. The Ubiquiti YouTube instruction video wasn't much help.

Performance is excellent. The only problemI seem to have is I have to switch power off and on every now and then (thrice in 2 weeks) but I think this is due to me configuring the repeater incorrectly. The YouTube video I referred to above said I should specify the repeater ip address as 192.167.1.1 instead of 192.168.1.1 because this is used by the main router. Everything works except I can't access the repeater's admin page if it's connected to the Nanostation.

Using TP Link WD4960 Adsl modem router as the main router (192.168.1.1)
2x Nanostation Loco M5 (192.468.1.2 & 192.168.1.20)
1x TP Link 8968 Adsl modem USB router as the repeater (192.167.1.1)
Click to expand...

Awesome...they are great devices! For short links turn the transmit power right down! Did you ground the nanostations using shielded Cat5 and connectors as per installation instructions?
 
eddief1 said:
Awesome...they are great devices! For short links turn the transmit power right down! Did you ground the nanostations using shielded Cat5 and connectors as per installation instructions?
Click to expand...
Thanks.

I purchased the nanos, router and shielded cat5 from Uniterm Direct. The TV aerial was already earthed. Have I missed anything?

Yip, i turned the output power down to 6dbm (Max is 17 and min is 4).

Edit: I've also just changed the Max TX Rate, Mbps: from MCS 12 - 78 to MCS 4 -39 on both devices. This means tx and rx is now 39/39mbps is instead of 78/78mbps? Do I need to change this? I am now confused :confused:
 
Last edited:
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