Hi, This will probably sound like a dumb question! How can you tell the range of a wireless router/access point? I want to get something to be able to connect my Nan’s computer to my network she lives about 20 meters parallel to my house. The reason for this is that she wants to use the internet at her house instead of always using my computers and it’s not worth her buying internet for her computer because she will hardly use it. What would the best option for me to get please? (Note I haven’t got a wireless network at the moment.) cheers.
How many walls is it going to have to go through and how many of them are external? The range of wireless can vary greatly depending on objects that block its path. If you're happy to add on some additional antenna any problems can usually be overcome pretty easily.
There's a lot of thick external wall there. No direct line of sight for directional antenna. I'm sure it can be done but there's no way on the standard antennas that come with wireless kit. It'll probably be worth having a search on google for general wireless info and long distance wireless. There are a loads of people on the boards that should be able to offer you further advice
Yellow, Best bet imo to setup a point to point wireless link would be to get an access point that has detachable antennas (I recommend the Linksys WAP54g), and an antenna (19bDI mesh will do nicely). You dont need this kit at both ends, just the transmitting. If you arent picking it up at your nans end then you'd need the kit at that end too. Wait a second... she is only 20 meters away... simpler solution, stick a USB wifi dongle on a broomstick on your roof (put it in a flora tub or something so it doesnt get wet). Run a long usb extention cable from that all the way down to your computer. Do the same at the other end, setup a peer'ed/adhoc wireless connection between the two of you. If you want her to access your LAN, setup a birdge in Winblows. The second solution will be a lot cheaper, around about £80 ish to do both ends (so £40 for your house, £40 for your nans). THe first solution costs about £80 PER end, more costly, but better signal strength over longer distances. The USB dongle thing will work fine though if you are like 20m away and the dongles have line of sight to each other.
I've run a normal wireless access point through a house across a road to share internet with some uni friends - almost exactly the same situation. It worked... put the connection would fall fairly oftern and cause soooo much hassle. I'd go for buying/building some antenna and it'd work fine - google and a few things would appear. One other thing here, how well do you know you're neighbours? If you can blag putting something in there, you'd have no problems at all.
I’m getting a LinkSys WAG54G from KiNG for £55 http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=72432 Is this a good deal? Will this do the job? What pci card would you recommend to go in my Nan’s computer (old win 98, 4.3gig HD, old CPU & mb) as cheap as possible and of course 54g compatible Cheers
