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Wireless help for a dummy


Sarah Kane

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Hello all.

I need a new wireless thingy adapter but i dont know the first thing about it.

Ive had a look online and see lots of kit with lots of different standards but they make no sense to me.

If i tell you what i need it for can some please cut through the guff and tell me whats what so i dont buy the wrong thing?

 

My office is about 200 meters away from the house and the house is where the router is.

I need a pretty fast connection to the router so none of that old fashioned 54 or 150 mbps ???

One of my employees said i need something with a "high gain????" and the higher the DB level the better it will be?

At that point my brain exploded so i decided to ask you knowledgeable lot.

Help meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee?

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Hi Sarah!

 

200 meters? - you can't get an adapter that would give you "pretty fast connection".. it's just not possible. Get a broadband to your office... buying a Wi-Fi adapter is not going to solve your problem.

 

Sorry. I meant 20 metere lol.

Which according to my employee is still wrong. He says its more like 25m.

 

See? Im dumb i tell you!!

lol

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Lay a wire, it's more reliable.

 

You shouldn't run CAT5 between 2 buildings because of the possible difference in ground potential. You'll get problems if there's a power surge, lightning strike or equipment failure. (see here: http://www.cablinginstall.com/index/display/article-display/62689/articles/cabling-installation-maintenance/volume-4/issue-9/contents/special-report/ground-potentials-and-damage-to-lan-equipment.html)

 

You'll also get massive packet loss over the cable. Fibre is the recommended way to go (expensive), and is probably more suited to linking large neighbouring buildings which exchange a lot of data.

 

Your employee was quite correct. Wifi is designed to spread the signal out in all directions (which makes sense right? because if it only pointed the signal in one direction you'd have to move your laptop into the line of the signal to connect). However, you can buy directional Wifi antennas (which are also known as high gain antennas), which concentrate the signal into a narrow beam. You can do this either point to point (where both ends have high gain antennas - this is overkill for 20m) or you can fit an outdoor directional antenna onto the outside of your building and point it in the general direction towards your wifi router.

 

Contrary to what MoZaLan thinks; the advantage is that you can send the signal over several miles (if so required), and it is also faster because the beam is narrow and focused (so less likely to be affected by interference). You can buy them, but they are very easy to make (and much cheaper). Search for "building a wifi yagi antenna" or "pringle can antenna" (which I imagine is the same thing as "cantenna" MoZaLan mentioned above, but cheaper).

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You shouldn't run CAT5 between 2 buildings because of the possible difference in ground potential. You'll get problems if there's a power surge, lightning strike or equipment failure. (see here: http://www.cablinginstall.com/index/display/article-display/62689/articles/cabling-installation-maintenance/volume-4/issue-9/contents/special-report/ground-potentials-and-damage-to-lan-equipment.html)

 

You'll also get massive packet loss over the cable. Fibre is the recommended way to go (expensive), and is probably more suited to linking large neighbouring buildings which exchange a lot of data.

 

Your employee was quite correct. Wifi is designed to spread the signal out in all directions (which makes sense right? because if it only pointed the signal in one direction you'd have to move your laptop into the line of the signal to connect). However, you can buy directional Wifi antennas (which are also known as high gain antennas), which concentrate the signal into a narrow beam. You can do this either point to point (where both ends have high gain antennas - this is overkill for 20m) or you can fit an outdoor directional antenna onto the outside of your building and point it in the general direction towards your wifi router.

 

Contrary to what MoZaLan thinks; the advantage is that you can send the signal over several miles (if so required), and it is also faster because the beam is narrow and focused (so less likely to be affected by interference). You can buy them, but they are very easy to make (and much cheaper). Search for "building a wifi yagi antenna" or "pringle can antenna" (which I imagine is the same thing as "cantenna" MoZaLan mentioned above, but cheaper).

 

Thanks yall but now im mega confused.

Ive seen this on ebay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/270818132425?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2648

 

Any good?

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You shouldn't run CAT5 between 2 buildings because of the possible difference in ground potential. You'll get problems if there's a power surge, lightning strike or equipment failure. (see here: http://www.cablinginstall.com/index/display/article-display/62689/articles/cabling-installation-maintenance/volume-4/issue-9/contents/special-report/ground-potentials-and-damage-to-lan-equipment.html)

 

Shouldn't make a difference if it's all coming back to the same fuseboard.

Packet loss isn't an issue over 20 meters either.

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