Help me with this setup?

[Rockandroll]

My father wants to setup an additional computer in his garage with internet access that is 300 feet away from his house which has the cable modem and his current computer.

What router and wireless card combination would be best to use for this situation? We are also open to considering antennas on top of the house and garage. The lot where my father resides is in a rural area with a few large tree's between the garage and the house. I have always had luck easily setting up wireless routers for use in homes but I have never had any experience making them work 300 feet between buildings.

Thanks guys!

[rapture]

How do you get power to the garage? Can you not put ethernet down the same cable runs?

[kryyst]

If you get a wireless N router and card it should reach 300 feet as their range is 150yards. Walls and structures though would diminish this. If it reaches but the signal strength isn't very good adding a signal booster and some larger dB antenna's at both ends should do the trick.

If that doesn't work. You would need to get a WAP router combination that supports WDS. I'd have to do some research into common home use routers that natively support it. But I currently have WDS working between a hacked Linksys WRT54G running Tomato Firmware and an Apple Airport Express station.

[Rockandroll]

Thanks for the replies. I asked my father to run an ethernet cable and he though it would be a pain in the ass. Hes a master carpenter for a remodeling outfit so I trust his decision. When it comes to antennas and the wireless N router what would something like that cost?

I will Wiki WDS I have never heard of that.

[kryyst]

Ummm Wireless N router's are aroung $150 the cards are about $60 a pair of antenna's should be about $20.

[Zuntar]

So is not running that pain in the ass cable worth $230.00?

[Your Amish Daddy]

Just get two Wireless access points, plug'em into the ethernet ports of the computers, make a cantenna, set up MAC authority, And done. As long as you use a nonstandard channel, the FCC can only tell you to take it down if you are interfering with anything, and that's if someone reports it.

[Rockandroll]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833127077

Will this router do the trick? I keep seeing 150 feet but I need to 300.

[Your Amish Daddy]

Depends on your deployment, but that might work.

[Rockandroll]

Well I don't want to buy something and have it be a waste. I follow your access point idea up until the cantennas and mac addressing. Do you have a link or something that acts as a guide for how to set something like that up?

Also I agree with running the cable. My dad just refuses to do it. It would make life a lot easier.

[Your Amish Daddy]

I learned Mac Authority from my switch, I really haven't found much of a reference. And google will teach you alot about cantennas. I'm not exactly gonna teach you how to break FCC regulations.

[kryyst]

The mac addressing is easy each access point has a setting where you can specify to either deny or only allow access from a specific wireless device. So you just plug in the mac's of the wireless device on your network and your good to go.

[Rockandroll]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833124012

Would two of these do the trick? I didn't know access points would be able to connect to each other.

[Your Amish Daddy]

Perfectly, but you're gonna need a directional antenna if it's more than 30 feet to keep good signals through walls and that.

[Rockandroll]

Turns out my father's DSL router that was given to him from Qwest has a wireless feature on it. Would one of these be able to interface and connect to the access point?

[Your Amish Daddy]

I don't know much, but if you use the wireless feature, and the connection, you might have to buy another IP, which can be expensive. You're better off building a proper network.

[kryyst]

Turns out my father's DSL router that was given to him from Qwest has a wireless feature on it. Would one of these be able to interface and connect to the access point?

If the access point can see the router then you'll be fine. It's all a question about the ranges you are trying to cover. You don't have to buy another IP or anything not sure what YAD's thinking of there.

The whole goal is to use a wireless router in your house to broadcast out the signal. Then have the wireless access point on the other side pick up that signal and deliver it to the device plugged into it.

[Rockandroll]

The whole goal is to use a wireless router in your house to broadcast out the signal. Then have the wireless access point on the other side pick up that signal and deliver it to the device plugged into it.

Ok gotcha that makes sense!

[Rockandroll]

Ok this is quite possibly my last question. Heres an antenna that should work, what connector is standard on most routers? Are there really that much of a variety?

http://www.hyperlinktech.com/web/hg2414p-nf.php

[Your Amish Daddy]

There's two major adapters. Routers and AP's commonly use the N adapter, and Wireless adapters commonly use the RP-SMA, or SM-variant.

http://www.hyperlinktech.com/web/hg2424g.php

That's what I'd prefer, but I just butchered a double-sized aluminum can.