Directional WiFi beaming?

[JHZR2]

I am interested in getting my wife signal from one building to another, which are about 275 feet apart in a straight path. Speed isn’t terribly important, distance and efficiency is. Is there some way to do directional beaming of a WiFi signal? Notionally I could place something on two two story roofs.

 

[ctechbob]

There are all kinds of options for an antenna to get that job done, depending on the equipment you have or want to buy.

What kind of speed and reliability will she be needing in that building? I'd looked at doing a bridge over a distance with a couple of old-time trusty WRT54G's ages ago and it wasn't going to be that hard. One acting as a base station and the other distant one acting as the receiver/repeater both with directional antenna's. I'd venture a guess that there are tons of options out there for doing it. Just have to find the one that meets your cost/performance goals.

 

[wkcars]

No experience with these but if you have or willing to set up ubiquiti unifi these are available. https://store.ui.com/products/unifi-building-to-building-bridge or https://www.ui.com/airmax/nanobeam-ac-gen2/

You'll also need additional equipment on each end depending on what you want to do, there's videos on youtube crosstalk solutions has some good ones and

p.s. if you can hear your wife from 275 ft you'll probably need hearing protection or hearing aids

 

[CDX825]

Ubiquiti nanostation loco would do what you want to do. So long as you have clear line of sight between the two you could use 5.8ghz. If not use 2.4ghz. Get two of them and configure one as an access point and the other as a station.

 

[ripcord]

I'm using Powerline ethernet to distribute internet to a remote shop. It's not supposed to work over different circuits (different breaker switches) but it's working fine for me in spite of that.

Amazon.com : Powerline Network Adapters

 

[PandaBear]

If you cannot run a wire in between then I think some sort of Ubiquiti gear would be the best, on a tripod so you can aim on both sides.

 

[JHZR2]

I'm using Powerline ethernet to distribute internet to a remote shop. It's not supposed to work over different circuits (different breaker switches) but it's working fine for me in spite of that.

Amazon.com : Powerline Network Adapters

I don’t have a power line between the two buildings. Each has their own dedicated power.

 

[OVERKILL]

A couple AP's setup as a bridge with directional antennas should be quite easy to setup here. Lots of different options. You might even be able to find Aruba ones on E-bay, which would be a good choice, just make sure they are the "instant" variety and thus don't require a controller.

 

[mk378]

Nanobeam AC Gen 2 is way overkill for that distance, a pair of Nanostation AC loco will work fine for less than half the price.

The Ubiquiti AC hardware can be flashed to OpenWrt if you prefer not to use their ecosystem.

Mikrotik has some inexpensive 60 GHz hardware but I can't vouch for it having not actually used them yet.

I really suggest CPE type devices as a pre-engineered outdoor ready solution rather than trying to cobble up separate antennas.

 

[Rand]

whats the budget, unifi 60ghz bridge is a nice product with aiming leds.

 

[Andrew1972]

I used to share internet with neighbor in early 2000's, a garden hose with ethernet wire in it buried about 4" using a spade shovel across lawn.

 

[PandaBear]

I used to share internet with neighbor in early 2000's, a garden hose with ethernet wire in it buried about 4" using a spade shovel across lawn.

I used to do that through the window screen between 2 apartments. These days it is much easier to use wifi and directional antenna.

 

[JHZR2]

I have my eye on the Ubiquiti solutions, but I’m also looking at just trying one or two TP link n300 high gain antennas, since that’s the lowest cost, and I can always return them and move to better and better solutions as I find what doesn’t work.

I am curious on thoughts regarding how I should set up the far end once I get a good enough signal.

I don’t have any major uses, just web/security cams and web based alarm system.

Do I want to mirror my existing home WiFi, or set up another router with a different ssid and everything? I’d like to be able to administrate it from my home.

Though I am talking about beaming WiFi longish distance, once there, I don’t want to spread the signal far and wide, just within the building. What’s a good access point or router to use in close proximity?

 

[PandaBear]

I would use a separate ssid instead of the same one. If you are using it for security and alarm, how do you make sure you are aware of non working scenario? Is there any automatic notification?

 

[Donald]

You can run outdoor CAT6 cable with a messenger wire between the two buildings as it's less than 100m.

I need to go about 400 feet between and bought 425 feet of multimode preterminated fiber. Attached it to 3/16" wire rope for support with nylon wire ties and strung it between the two buildings. No issues with lightning strikes either.

 

[Wrenchturner44]

P300 | RUCKUS P300 Outdoor Access Point

Outdoor 2x2:2 5GHz 802.11ac point-to-point/multipoint bridge for long range backhaul

www.commscope.com

 

[Skippy722]

I have my eye on the Ubiquiti solutions, but I’m also looking at just trying one or two TP link n300 high gain antennas, since that’s the lowest cost, and I can always return them and move to better and better solutions as I find what doesn’t work.

I am curious on thoughts regarding how I should set up the far end once I get a good enough signal.

I don’t have any major uses, just web/security cams and web based alarm system.

Do I want to mirror my existing home WiFi, or set up another router with a different ssid and everything? I’d like to be able to administrate it from my home.

Though I am talking about beaming WiFi longish distance, once there, I don’t want to spread the signal far and wide, just within the building. What’s a good access point or router to use in close proximity?

The paranoid part of my brain says use a different SSID and password, but the lazy part of my brain says make them match so I don’t have to re-enter any passwords.

You can always turn down the power on the router, but you’ll have to make sure the devices on that network that are the furthest away from the router/AP still have decent signal.

 

[JHZR2]

I would use a separate ssid instead of the same one. If you are using it for security and alarm, how do you make sure you are aware of non working scenario? Is there any automatic notification?

No. It’s important but not that important. Not my house.

I’m not paying the thieving telecon companies another $30+/mo for another line, so it is what it is…

 

[JHZR2]

You can run outdoor CAT6 cable with a messenger wire between the two buildings as it's less than 100m.

I need to go about 400 feet between and bought 425 feet of multimode preterminated fiber. Attached it to 3/16" wire rope for support with nylon wire ties and strung it between the two buildings. No issues with lightning strikes either.

Because of the situation of property locations I can’t do that.

Essentially I’m buying a 2000sf standalone garage on its own deeded lot, a short distance from my house as the crow flies, but the crow flies across others’ back yards, which I don’t wish to run or dig cables through.

 

[JHZR2]

So I had a chance to get a TP-Link CPE210 antenna. It’s supposed to use Qualcomm Atheros Enterprise chipsets fwiw, and was available in 2.4GHz version because I was concerned about a very tall tree in the LOS.

I set it up, that’s a little clunky because you need to set a static Ethernet IP address then log into the unit via a browser, which is slow.

The setup I have is router-powerline Ethernet- CPE210 Antenna.

First I stuck it in my kitchen window, essentially beaming into my neighbors house. This is generally the direction I need it to go to get to my other property, which is diagonally rearward off the rear-side of my home if that makes any sense. The kitchen window is on the right side of the house to face the other building.

About 25’ away and outside of the antenna’s polarization, I still got signal. I could run a speedtest.

Much slower than my router WiFi, but that is ok if it worked.

Then I walked to the other property and stood directly in front of the building. I maintained connectivity to the antenna, though no throughput.

As you can see it claims a decent signal strength, but nothing transmits.

Then I moved it from my kitchen window to my attic dormer window, also facing in the right direction.

Signal strength looked the same, and still no web or speedtest.


So is this just because I was running this as an access point and so this antenna was on one end, my phone on the other? Is the bottleneck my phone? Is it that the phone can see/receive, but can’t transmit? It needs a stronger output to send data?

I can get another, these are cheap, and set up in client mode. Would this result Point to the fact that the WiFi user devices can’t send a strong enough signal?

Maybe I need to operate like a client vs access point?? I think that’s how the ubiquiti units do it.