What's The Biggest Wireless Range You Can Have?


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So a friend lives round the corner from work.

He has wireless internet.

How far is the biggest booster that you can buy fairly cheaply. His house is about 500m at the most away.

Thanks

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AMPED WIRELESS!!!!!

HARDCORE COVERAGE!!!

That isn't going to reach 500m out of the box, you are going to need some large directional antenna.

Then keep in mind everyone... just cause the router can push the data to the device 500m away, the device on the other end has to be able to push the signal all the way back 500m. So you are going to need equal power and an antenna setup on both ends or else the return signal will never make it back to the router.

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I have a couple Nanostation M2's that can shoot a wireless signal a couple miles

*dont own them, work sells them

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wireless works line of site.

Are you confusing it with infra-red? :p Pretty sure when I'm in my bedroom with the door closed, the wifi keeps working...

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A typical wireless at home has a omni directional antenna covering a wide area but doesn't have the range that a unidirectional would have. To get distance you are using a unidirectional, not omni, and for the most part it needs to be line of site.

Remixedcat, care to enlighten us how you are getting around the unidirectional limitations of wireless pathing with a point a to point b type bridge?

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That isn't going to reach 500m out of the box, you are going to need some large directional antenna.

>snip<

Not necessarily true.

Theoretically, an 802.11b/g signal can cover an approximate 500 yard / meter radius in open space with an omnidirectional, 0 dBi gain antenna, but data throughput will realistically be around 1/2 to 1/4 the maximum rate due to the radio throttling speeds to achieve a reliable data rate. An 8dBi omnidirectional antenna, properly installed of course, can almost triple the range- to nearly a mile... barring any interference. I'm not going to go into the theory of why this is possible other than to state that an "ideal" antenna radiates a signal in a spherical pattern (equal signal strength radiated in all directions) and antennae with "gain" usually have a more flattened, donut- or torus-like pattern (more signal travels horizontal and less vertical) which means they don't waste energy radiating towards outer space or the ground, but rather focus that energy more horizontally, and the way they operate increases both the transmitted as well as received signals. A directional antenna is one designed to limit vertical radiation as well as horizontal, similar to how the headlights on a vehicle work. But, don't forget other nearby access points, microwave ovens, cordless phones and some unlicensed terrestrial microwave PTP links can produce interference reducing this range.

An analogy scenario here.... a 1000W lightbulb: can light a small warehouse just by hanging from the ceiling; can light a highway interchange or parking lot when reflected to the ground; can, when proper reflectors and lenses are used, focus the light and be visible for 10's of miles (if not from the horizon) like a lighthouse or beacon at an airport.

Then keep in mind everyone... just cause the router can push the data to the device 500m away, the device on the other end has to be able to push the signal all the way back 500m. So you are going to need equal power and an antenna setup on both ends or else the return signal will never make it back to the router.

Again, everyone, this is not necessarily true.

Consider that most cell sites use directional antennae and your cell phone is omnidirectional.... While the BTS at the site may output 25-100 watts per carrier / per sector, your cell phone only outputs 2-4 watts max yet the BTS can still manage to hear the phone, primarily due to the gain the antennae provide, which is typically 14dBi or more.

Proper antenna selection and installation will maximize the performance of a system and in many instances precludes the need for external transmit and/or receive amplifiers... which happen to be illegal to use in most locales within unlicensed frequencies like 2.4GHz and 5GHz- where 802.11b/g/n/a operate.

Barring the ability to install proper antenna, "range extenders" can be used, but those have their own issues such as where you can actually place them (due to accessibility and even ownership of the area) and such.

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A typical wireless at home has a omni directional antenna covering a wide area but doesn't have the range that a unidirectional would have. To get distance you are using a unidirectional, not omni, and for the most part it needs to be line of site.

Remixedcat, care to enlighten us how you are getting around the unidirectional limitations of wireless pathing with a point a to point b type bridge?

I'll make a tutorial vid and upload it to youtube shortly... STAY TUNED FOR MORE DETAILS!!!

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awww man but they did want HARDCORE COVERAGE!!!!

seriously get that AMPED WIRELESS!!! router and let us know how it goes!!!

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So a friend lives round the corner from work.

He has wireless internet.

How far is the biggest booster that you can buy fairly cheaply. His house is about 500m at the most away.

Thanks

I'd suggest leaving the router at the home as is so you don't affect the local users. Install an AP extender connected by ethernet to the home router with a directional antenna pointed at work. Then the reverse: another AP extender connected to the first with a directional antenna, which is then connected by ethernet to the router at work.

[Home router] -> ethernet -> [Access point / extender] -> [Access point / extender] -> ethernet -> [work router]

I would suggest the "Home" router wifi use channel 1 for its local users, the link between the AP Extenders use channel 6, and the router at work (if wireless) use channel 11 to minimize interference AND have a different SSID at work than at the home router so in the odd chance a work computer picks up the home router it doesn't try to connect to it.

You may have to do some work with DHCP forwarding and routing tables and such though.

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awww man but they did want HARDCORE COVERAGE!!!!

seriously get that AMPED WIRELESS!!! router and let us know how it goes!!!

I'm sure I read on Smallnetbuilder that the Amped Wireless router they tested, the one that has up to "10,000 yards" or something have not that great range as advertised??

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-reviews/31719-amped-wireless-r10000g-retest

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Read the engadget review they had a hardcore house for the final location and got good range. Location 7in the smnb review may have had interference from other things or something.

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Cisco Aironet Access points have an average range of about 300 feet out of the box.

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they do have good range I think lowes uses them and they work from across the street !!! home depot uses motorola and they are good too! I want one of those4 but they are tooooo expenssiive... like the ones they use are like 2,000 american dollars! :-(

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A typical wireless at home has a omni directional antenna covering a wide area but doesn't have the range that a unidirectional would have. To get distance you are using a unidirectional, not omni, and for the most part it needs to be line of site.

Remixedcat, care to enlighten us how you are getting around the unidirectional limitations of wireless pathing with a point a to point b type bridge?

siGHt! line of sight!

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Read the engadget review they had a hardcore house for the final location and got good range. Location 7in the smnb review may have had interference from other things or something.

Do you work for Amped wireless or something?

Amped wireless are a joke, the marketing is good but their hardware is nothing special - you can only take up transmit power so far before you hit regulatory limits.. Besides your client needs to be able to respond to the router so they need the higher transmit power to respond... The BW was impressive although it is utilising a modern chipset with good antennas

Kudos to them for external antennas.. then again Asus do too :)

Additionally I trust SNB over Engadget, they are far more through and provide multiple tests.. if something doesn't look right they will contact the Vendor and try get it sorted..

I've read of a 50 mile wireless link using Directional antennas before so long range is possible won't happen with an omni antenna though :)

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