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Ok I posted this some time ago:
http://www.antionline.com/showthread...079#post646079
I need to expand my wireless network, I have been looking around and have found that antennas are the solution for repeating the wireless signal. I am using a linksys router and have looked around for antennas, but only found d-link and 3com antennas that can only be used with their own products. Anyone know of generic antennas that comply with 802.11b and don't depend on any propietary hardware???
thanks
J
http://www.lxe.com/pdf/SpireDatasheet.pdf
nasty antennae for a serious range.
Are you still trying to accompilsh what you asked for in the other post? That is connect 2 houses?
RoadClosed: yeah, I'm still trying to connect the 2 houses, the area I need to cover lies about 100 ft (or less) from where my router and dsl modem is located, but with the walls and stuff the signal is atenuated a lot.
I think you would need away to connect an antenna to your wireless router. I could be mistaken but I don't think the Linksys routers have that capability.
I need to know the nomeclature of all your equipment. I need to know what kind of antenna connectors they have.
http://www.hdcom.com/2.4ghzantennas.html
they seem to have the equipment and possible antennae indexed.
To be frank i don't think an antenna is the best solution for your problem. Firstly because unless you opt for a directional antenna your network will be braodcasting over a fairly large area so will be a security risk.
Secondly the cost's involved will be quite high.
I think a more suitable solution to your problem would be to use a wireless access point. It should be a simple task to position it so that you can get a reliable signal from both houses.
You may nead to spend some time finding a good position for it.
Omni-directional antennae do broadcast everywhere. If you are sending a signal in a tight stream, it is called directional. You would not have all that much broadcast information externally to the beam you are trying to communicate over, if you use a tight beam antenna.
That being said, still you will be susceptable to people grabbing onto your network, and if you are not using some sort of encryption other than the WAP SSID, etc, then they may have access, just as if they conected to you over the internet.
In other words, don't enable silly services, or unneeded protocols, and keep your machine updated, just like everyone else does.
Turing_Machine is correct, you will want a high gain, low focus directional antenna, which is optimal for bridging wireless APs between buildings or houses, whichever. This will concentrate your signal while at the same time not throw all kinds of traffic in every direction (omni-directional as referenced above).
--TH13
Ya that's what I was getting at, high gain and directional. I am asusming You already have a wireless router at your house and I am assuming and you need to access the other house. You can just try and add a USB high gain antenna to your friends house and let him connect to your wireless gateway. Several people have posted great links. I have found this one useful when pointed directly at a gateway.
The stand alone USB adapter is here:
http://www.hawkingtech.com/prodSpec.php?ProdID=158
And the antenna only is here:
http://www.hawkingtech.com/prodSpec.php?ProdID=143
These are all indoor antennas
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959...09KTX1K0100440
its a "management" level article that more or less talks about "security" via wireless and via wired connections. Each has its limitations, and being aware of the problems and acting accordingly should be enough to keep things under control.
Again, limit your services (in other words, don't run netbeui or netbios protocols with share level security). Shut down unnecessary ports (run some firewalling software), and be aware that some people may want to get your information. Much more likely, however, for the home user, is that people may want to steal your bandwidth for downloading, etc.
If you are more or a "corporate" level wireless person, then using an IPSEC VPN tunnel to a singluar WAP access machine may be preferable. That way, all wireless traffic is encrypted using a very tried and true method, and it is cross-platform, including Mac and *ux support.
Also, if all the traffic is encrypted with REAL encryption, then people can't steal bandwidth, information, or anything else. Use a revolving key/random generation setup, and the likelyhood of being cracked lessens.
There are many examples of secure wireless implementations, not the least of which would be limiting the area that can "hear" the WAP. They offer handheld WAP detectors inexpensively, and doing a quick sweep of your premises can determine that the WAP may need to be moved, or a different type of antenna may be more optimal.
Unless you are running large network software, or large inter-network file transfers, remember that your internet connection does NOT utilize the bandwidth limitations of even 11mbps.
Be smart, read up, and be aware. Heck... if you're so inclined, remember that to hack a Wierless Network, the cracker is ALSO broadcasting packets, and there are a few key packet types that may indicate a crack attempt. Having a SNORT installation to sniff out others sniffing around may give you an indication if you NEED the additional security of an IPSEC VPN or other solution.
If you are looking for a hand in designing that system using inexpensive equipment, grab an old p2 machine, install the latest Linux Kernel (use the "beta" 2.6 for included support) and run a simple VPN with the linux box acting as a IPSEC router. I'm using this at the office, and I'm feeling much more secure.
I'd be happy to provide some pointers/instructions in setting up this environment.
RoadClosed, i believe what you suggest would only work in one direction so the network would not be that good would it. For a wireless network to be effective all pc's that want to be part of it must be able to communicate to each other in both directions. Adding an antenna to one pc may make it possible to transmit the signal from that pc but will not mean that the other pc will be able to communicate back to it.
For a network to work effectivly,(assuming that the wireless network cards can not communicate with each other or other wireless equipment) all rx and tx equipment must be in communications with each other. If one or more pieces of equipment are out off range because of antennuation etc, the onlyway to solve the problem is to resight the antenna of each peace of equipment so that they can both communicate with each other or add a relay that works in both directions.
It therefor stands that Johnymeir would nead to install two antenna's one on each house. They would nead to be directional, ie Parabolic or yagi. Add in the cost of coax cable and tuning units. It would be uncost efective.
He only neads to work over a distance of 100ft .Wifi is supossed to work upto these sorts of distance. Just put an access point in the network and sight it well. That will save you money.
Directional antennas are not one way.. it just means that there performance (recieve and transmitt) is best in one direction..
cheers