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What is the maximum range of a router?

24K views 17 replies 10 participants last post by  johnphall 
#1 ·
My wife and I are building a couple of guest houses on our property about 300 feet from the main house, which has the DSL connection.

I'd like to provide wireless internet access to these houses. What are my options besides running a second phone line?
 
#2 ·
You should be able to get 300 feet on wifi if there are no other buildings, trees, etc in the way.

Best way to test it if you already have wifi and a laptop is to pull up your signal strength indicator on the laptop and start walking from the main house to the guest house while watching the meter.

If the signal strength is insufficient you may need a directional outside antenna for the router.
 
#4 ·
There are a few trees, but I still have line of sight. Would you recommend one router over another? I have a feeling the phone company is more concerned about their profit than my well being when it comes to equipment.

They told me that I would need a second DSL line and a bunch of other gadgets to get what I needed.
 
#6 ·
Linksys/Cisco is a good brand and the support/acc. for them are readily available.

I would try a regular router first and see if that gets you the 300 feet reliably. Even moving the router within the hosue may improve the signal. Then a zone expander if the router doesnt work alone.

Antenna can vary... You can actually use a small surplus satellite dish type or maybe even a cell phone non directional in the 2.5 ghz range.

If your not in a rural area just need to keep in mind web encryption and firewalls should be set up and secured. Boosting your signal means other people can access your wifi from farther away if not secured.
 
#10 ·
Hey bud, I am a Network engineer and have been dealing with wireless for a while. 802.11B or G will start to fade around 100 feet... 802.11N is a better solution for 100 - 400 feet. It is alittle more expensive but does work alot better. Unless you want to get something like this http://sewelldirect.com/Level-One-FreeCon-80211-SuperG-Outdoor-WAP-108-Mbps.asp
I hope this helps, if there is any other questions let me know.

Thanks,
Klint T.
A+, Network+, Security+, MCP: XP, MCSA/MCSE:2003 :whistling2:
 
#13 ·
The problem with going with N is that it is not popular enough to where a majority of laptops have it built in. So most of your guests may not be able to use it.

I'd look at a commercial grade Cisco WAP with an external omni antenna. You'll be able to get very good coverage with it. The cost is going to be higher than a regular Linksys router.

You'll be lucky to get good reliable 300' range out of a regular router.
 
#14 ·
ok so I have a question

I have moved back in with my family for school and they are not able to get broadband service. We are in a 1/2 mile stretch of road in a dead zone. We are on satellite internet and it is horrible. My Father has a shop about 1000 ft away and it can get DSL. Don't ask me how it just can. How can I get the DSL signal to the house? I know cat 5 has a 150ft range and cat6 is something like 400 ft. If I were to do wireless N has a 350ft range or seomthing like that. In between my father's shop are a few trees, a railroad track and a street.

I know there are range extenders. My dad is an electrictian if that can help. I am computer and network savy but I am in school for nursing. So please keep things in laymans terms for me. Thx
 
#15 ·
All of my DSL equipment was supplied by my local phone company, BellSouth. The gave me a Westel router and I could use my laptop in my living room and I thought I was uptown. Then I found need to use my laptop in my shop for various reasons and on some days if I stood in the big shop door, on one foot, and turned the laptop in a certain direction it would work, on other days no signal. I bought the necessary wiring for the Ethernet and moved the router to the closest window of the house to the shop. Just moving the router approximately the 18 feet, is all it took to get the signal anywhere in the shop. I must have removed the interference of the walls within the house. Strange stuff, those signals.
 
#16 · (Edited)
I have installed many long range WiFi links - interconnecting areas separated by just a few hundred feet up to several miles...

I have a workshop on the back of my property - a couple three hundred feet from the house. I installed an additional access point with a high gain yagi antennas mounted in the house attic and pointed towards the workshop to get a banging strong signal and subsequent high data rate, and so not to worry about the intervening roof, trees, etc. Also provides for connectivity anywhere on the rear of the property, patios areas, etc. Has been installed for a couple years - works great.

If my workshop were further away - say, to thousands of feet (given LOS (line of sight)), I would install another access point and yagi antenna in the workshop - this would create a point-to-point wireless bridge. Connect a WiFi access point to the workshop end of the bridge to provide for wireless coveage in the workshop area.

Longer distances can be done - but require some work to engineer the link, use parabolic anteannas, good LOS via towers or other height above ground to deal with the curvature of the earth, etc.
 
#17 ·
ez-bridge.com

http://ez-bridge.com/

I make no claims to the functionality of this device. I haven't used one, but I'm thinking about it. This is a wireless bridge. You basically have 2 wireless access points and two directional antennas. You put one at your house, plugged into the router, and put the other at your guest house. Aim the antennas at one another and you have a wireless bridge. In the guest house you'll want to put in a network switch and another wireless access point.

The bridge will not be broadcasting a connection for the users at point B. You'll need to provide a new wireless network there, thus the new access point.

There are plenty of similar ways to do this, this is just one idea.

Brandon in Kansas
 
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