Does anyone have some pointers (personal experiences, URLs, etc) on how to set up a point to point (house to house) wireless network? I and two geeky neighbours are thinking about setting up a private internal network to connect our houses, and we're not sure where to start.
Kevin McGregor wrote:
Does anyone have some pointers (personal experiences, URLs, etc) on how to set up a point to point (house to house) wireless network? I and two geeky neighbours are thinking about setting up a private internal network to connect our houses, and we're not sure where to start.
The http://openwrt.org/ site is worth a look.
-- Bill
I did this exact method (used OpenWRT). The biggest challenge was being sure to identify exactly which interface was which.
The various different Linksys routers have different interfaces and I foolishly assumed mine was the default model. Once I sorted that out it was pretty easy if you aren't afraid of the command line.
On the other hand, don't most wireless firewall/routers have this as a feature that you can activate with a few mouse clicks? If so it's probably way easier than the OpenWRT method.
John
On Tue, 2007-07-03 at 15:52 -0500, Bill Reid wrote:
Kevin McGregor wrote:
Does anyone have some pointers (personal experiences, URLs, etc) on how to set up a point to point (house to house) wireless network? I and two geeky neighbours are thinking about setting up a private internal network to connect our houses, and we're not sure where to start.
The http://openwrt.org/ site is worth a look.
-- Bill _______________________________________________ Roundtable mailing list Roundtable@muug.mb.ca http://www.muug.mb.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable
John Lange wrote:
On the other hand, don't most wireless firewall/routers have this as a feature that you can activate with a few mouse clicks? If so it's probably way easier than the OpenWRT method.
I am not sure if they allow you to put the router into client mode or Ad Hoc.
I do not have any routers running the Linksys image so I can not check.
-- Bill
We're a number of houses apart, though on the same block. Do standard wireless routers have the range, or should I make/buy an external directional antenna? I've heard that if you crank up the power of a typical (say, Linksys) router's wireless output beyond the default, it can burn out pretty quick. Can anyone confirm or dispel that rumour?
----- Original Message ----- From: Bill Reid billreid@shaw.ca Date: Tuesday, July 3, 2007 15:55 Subject: Re: [RndTbl] Point to point wireless To: Kevin McGregor kmcgregor@shaw.ca Cc: roundtable@muug.mb.ca
Kevin McGregor wrote:
Does anyone have some pointers (personal experiences, URLs,
etc) on how
to set up a point to point (house to house) wireless network?
I and two
geeky neighbours are thinking about setting up a private
internal
network to connect our houses, and we're not sure where to start.
The http://openwrt.org/%C2%A0 site is worth a look.
-- Bill _______________________________________________ Roundtable mailing list Roundtable@muug.mb.ca http://www.muug.mb.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable
Kevin McGregor wrote:
We're a number of houses apart, though on the same block. Do standard wireless routers have the range, or should I make/buy an external directional antenna? I've heard that if you crank up the power of a typical (say, Linksys) router's wireless output beyond the default, it can burn out pretty quick. Can anyone confirm or dispel that rumour?
I haven't been following the discussion in great detail. I was thinking possibly directional antennas (a la "Pringles can") might do the job... Would converting a non-directional signal into a directional one help out with power? Assuming nothing gets in the way, diffusion isn't bad, and there is enough power then you can do pretty much what you want. Without going into detail about the other messages, I presume they were talking about software.
Later Mike
----- Original Message ----- From: Bill Reid billreid@shaw.ca Date: Tuesday, July 3, 2007 15:55 Subject: Re: [RndTbl] Point to point wireless To: Kevin McGregor kmcgregor@shaw.ca Cc: roundtable@muug.mb.ca
Kevin McGregor wrote:
Does anyone have some pointers (personal experiences, URLs,
etc) on how
to set up a point to point (house to house) wireless network?
I and two
geeky neighbours are thinking about setting up a private
internal
network to connect our houses, and we're not sure where to start.
The http://openwrt.org/ site is worth a look.
-- Bill _______________________________________________ Roundtable mailing list Roundtable@muug.mb.ca http://www.muug.mb.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable
Roundtable mailing list Roundtable@muug.mb.ca http://www.muug.mb.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable
Most consumer routers don't support client/ad-hoc modes as the companies prefer to put those features in their "access point" products (which are usually the same hardware as the routers - just differentiated in software).
I've used DD-WRT (related to OpenWRT), which has an easy-to-use web interface, on some cheapy broadcom-based routers like the Linksys ones. It supports client and ad-hoc modes easily, so you can make links between units and see the stats/signal levels. It will turn a standard consumer "router" into a very powerful networking device, although you must remember that Broadcom radios aren't good RF-wise (low/bad sensitivity).
That software/radio side of things is pretty simple compared to the outdoor antenna mounting, grounding/insulation, and site survey aspects. I've been doing "professional" wireless setups in the countryside for a few years (up to 16 miles on 900mhz), so I can give you a few suggestions, or better pass by and do a site survey, if you want.
-C
I'm in the same boat as Bill; I don't have any devices with the default Linksys firmware. I just assumed that they would have that feature since the device obviously supports it.
I haven't tried DD-WRT. Looks pretty good.
John
On Tue, 2007-07-03 at 18:38 -0600, Colin Stanners wrote:
Most consumer routers don't support client/ad-hoc modes as the companies prefer to put those features in their "access point" products (which are usually the same hardware as the routers - just differentiated in software).
I've used DD-WRT (related to OpenWRT), which has an easy-to-use web interface, on some cheapy broadcom-based routers like the Linksys ones. It supports client and ad-hoc modes easily, so you can make links between units and see the stats/signal levels. It will turn a standard consumer "router" into a very powerful networking device, although you must remember that Broadcom radios aren't good RF-wise (low/bad sensitivity).
That software/radio side of things is pretty simple compared to the outdoor antenna mounting, grounding/insulation, and site survey aspects. I've been doing "professional" wireless setups in the countryside for a few years (up to 16 miles on 900mhz), so I can give you a few suggestions, or better pass by and do a site survey, if you want.
-C
Roundtable mailing list Roundtable@muug.mb.ca http://www.muug.mb.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable
Kevin McGregor wrote:
Does anyone have some pointers (personal experiences, URLs, etc) on how to set up a point to point (house to house) wireless network? I and two geeky neighbours are thinking about setting up a private internal network to connect our houses, and we're not sure where to start.
The standard Linksys router (WRT54G-style) won't be a great choice, for the main reason that someone else here has mentioned: crappy radios. However, Buffalo seems to have mitigated most of the problems with the broadcom radio - we replaced all the WRT54Gs at work with Buffalo WHR-54s (or something like that - check out the chart at http://www.dd-wrt.com/) and instantly got easily double to triple the range of the Linksys units, despite being based on the same reference design.
I would suggest buying three Buffalos (cheaper than the Linksys, by mail-order only - no-one in the city seems to carry them), loading either OpenWRT or DD-WRT on them [I prefer DD-WRT, it seems more integrated], using the factory-default antennas, and EITHER putting them all in ad-hoc mode, or putting one of them (the geographically central one) in AP mode and the other two in client mode.
I would also strongly recommend you NOT put them in bridge mode, rather use them as proper routers - no need for NAT, specifically, but you really really really don't want all your broadcast and/or multicast traffic flooding the wireless side of things.
-Adam
The new openwrt kamikaze port is quite nice -- http://downloads.openwrt.org/kamikaze/release.txt nice new build system etc, makes for a LOT of extra packages available. It's worth a look. And don't worry too much about the web interface ... look at a good command-line to get you through -- it'll be much easier.
As others have eluded, the most important aspect is RF .. good sensitive receivers with good antennas ... don't just turn up the power and expect to get results
btw: if anyone else may have noticed -- if you're part of FON (http://www.fon.com) they came out recently with a push of external antennas on sale .. if you have a fon router, you can get a directional (7db?) antenna for $2 with $5 shipping ... as oppossed to their $20 price tag .. still, $20 is a good price for a 7db 2.4GHz antenna :-) Got mine yesterday and have yet to try it out ...
Dan.
Adam Thompson wrote:
loading either OpenWRT or DD-WRT on them [I prefer DD-WRT, it seems more integrated],
Where is a good place to order Buffalo wireless equipment? How important is line-of-sight? Would it be reasonable to get a good connection across 270 feet (~82m) from inside one house to inside another, with trees and fences in the way? Two of the homes are 5.5 lots apart (across the backyard - no lane - and down five houses). I'd rather get a better connection and not blanket the neighbourhood with our signal if possible, which is why I'm wondering about a directional antenna.
----- Original Message ----- From: Adam Thompson athompso@athompso.net Date: Tuesday, July 3, 2007 22:59 Subject: Re: [RndTbl] Point to point wireless To: Kevin McGregor kmcgregor@shaw.ca Cc: roundtable@muug.mb.ca
Kevin McGregor wrote:
Does anyone have some pointers (personal experiences, URLs, etc) on how to set up a point to point (house to house) wireless network? I and two geeky neighbours are thinking about setting up a private internal network to connect our houses, and we're not sure where to start.
The standard Linksys router (WRT54G-style) won't be a great choice, for the main reason that someone else here has mentioned: crappy radios. However, Buffalo seems to have mitigated most of the problems with the broadcom radio - we replaced all the WRT54Gs at work with Buffalo WHR-54s (or something like that - check out the chart at http://www.dd-wrt.com/) and instantly got easily double to triple the range of the Linksys units, despite being based on the same reference design.
I would suggest buying three Buffalos (cheaper than the Linksys, by mail-order only - no-one in the city seems to carry them), loading either OpenWRT or DD-WRT on them [I prefer DD-WRT, it seems more integrated], using the factory-default antennas, and EITHER putting them all in ad-hoc mode, or putting one of them (the geographically central one) in AP mode and the other two in client mode.
I would also strongly recommend you NOT put them in bridge mode, rather use them as proper routers - no need for NAT, specifically, but you really really really don't want all your broadcast and/or multicast traffic flooding the wireless side of things.
-Adam
Roundtable mailing list Roundtable@muug.mb.ca http://www.muug.mb.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable
Where is a good place to order Buffalo wireless equipment? How important is line-of-sight? Would it be reasonable to get a good connection across 270 feet (~82m) from inside one house to inside another, with trees and fences in the way? Two of the homes are 5.5 lots apart (across the backyard - no lane - and down five houses). I'd rather get a better connection and not blanket the neighbourhood with our signal if possible, which is why I'm wondering about a directional antenna.
----- Original Message ----- From: Adam Thompson athompso@athompso.net Date: Tuesday, July 3, 2007 22:59 Subject: Re: [RndTbl] Point to point wireless To: Kevin McGregor kmcgregor@shaw.ca Cc: roundtable@muug.mb.ca
Kevin McGregor wrote:
Does anyone have some pointers (personal experiences, URLs, etc) on how to set up a point to point (house to house) wireless network? I and two geeky neighbours are thinking about setting up a private internal network to connect our houses, and we're not sure where to start.
The standard Linksys router (WRT54G-style) won't be a great choice, for the main reason that someone else here has mentioned: crappy radios. However, Buffalo seems to have mitigated most of the problems with the broadcom radio - we replaced all the WRT54Gs at work with Buffalo WHR-54s (or something like that - check out the chart at http://www.dd-wrt.com/) and instantly got easily double to triple the range of the Linksys units, despite being based on the same reference design.
I would suggest buying three Buffalos (cheaper than the Linksys, by mail-order only - no-one in the city seems to carry them), loading either OpenWRT or DD-WRT on them [I prefer DD-WRT, it seems more integrated], using the factory-default antennas, and EITHER putting them all in ad-hoc mode, or putting one of them (the geographically central one) in AP mode and the other two in client mode.
I would also strongly recommend you NOT put them in bridge mode, rather use them as proper routers - no need for NAT, specifically, but you really really really don't want all your broadcast and/or multicast traffic flooding the wireless side of things.
-Adam
Roundtable mailing list Roundtable@muug.mb.ca http://www.muug.mb.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable
Where is a good place to order Buffalo wireless equipment? How important is line-of-sight? Would it be reasonable to get a good connection across 270 feet (~82m) from inside one house to inside another, with trees and fences in the way? Two of the homes are 5.5 lots apart (across the backyard - no lane - and down five houses). I'd rather get a better connection and not blanket the neighbourhood with our signal if possible, which is why I'm wondering about a directional antenna.
----- Original Message -----
From: Adam Thompson athompso@athompso.net
Date: Tuesday, July 3, 2007 22:59
Subject: Re: [RndTbl] Point to point wireless
To: Kevin McGregor kmcgregor@shaw.ca
Cc: roundtable@muug.mb.ca
Kevin McGregor wrote:
Does anyone have some pointers (personal experiences, URLs, etc) on
how to set up a point to point (house to house) wireless network? I
and two geeky neighbours are thinking about setting up a private
internal network to connect our houses, and we're not sure where to start.
The standard Linksys router (WRT54G-style) won't be a great choice, for
the main reason that someone else here has mentioned: crappy radios.
However, Buffalo seems to have mitigated most of the problems with the
broadcom radio - we replaced all the WRT54Gs at work with Buffalo
WHR-54s (or something like that - check out the chart at
http://www.dd-wrt.com/) and instantly got easily double to triple the
range of the Linksys units, despite being based on the same reference
design.
I would suggest buying three Buffalos (cheaper than the Linksys, by
mail-order only - no-one in the city seems to carry them), loading
either OpenWRT or DD-WRT on them [I prefer DD-WRT, it seems more
integrated], using the factory-default antennas, and EITHER putting them
all in ad-hoc mode, or putting one of them (the geographically central
one) in AP mode and the other two in client mode.
I would also strongly recommend you NOT put them in bridge mode, rather
use them as proper routers - no need for NAT, specifically, but you
really really really don't want all your broadcast and/or multicast
traffic flooding the wireless side of things.
-Adam
Roundtable mailing list
Roundtable@muug.mb.ca
On 4 Jul, Kevin McGregor wrote:
Where is a good place to order Buffalo wireless equipment? How
My company, Tecnopolis, can bring in most of the Buffalo catalog at good prices. Email me with model # for quotes. However, a lot of the weirder wifi stuff (like many directional or higher-power transmitters) are not available in Canada, even though they are on the mfr web sites.
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Adam Thompson -
Bill Reid -
Colin Stanners -
Dan Keizer -
John Lange -
Kevin McGregor -
Mike Pfaiffer -
Trevor Cordes