[dman8568]

Does anyone know how I could get a wireless network to reach 1/2 mile?

I am 1 of 3 "IT guys" for a non-profit group. This spring we will be having a huge gathering of approx. 500 members, and we are wanting to do a computer-based check-in process with a central server running a master database. Because of the camp's layout, the check-in booth is separated by approx. 1/2 mile of woods from the main office where we will house the server. Also, the only buildings between the office and chick-in booth are cabins which we will be housing youth and we are concerned that the equipment will be tampered with.

Any ideas would be more than appreciated, as we have been scratching our heads for the past 3 months on this.

One idea we had was to physically move the server to the check-in booth, but we are considering this as a last-resort, as we will be needing to run reports on the same data at the same time from the office.

This post has been edited by dman8568: 17 February 2007 - 02:05 PM

[MarkoDaGeek]

A Co-worker of mine has a wireless network that spans over a mile to his house.

He did it by putting a standard Linksys router on top of a grain tower with dual external 8dbi antennas, and he used an old satellite dish with a directional antenna on top of a large pole attached to his house to get the wireless signal.

When trying to do wireless like that, the key is Line of Sight. In your case, there are trees in the way, so you would have to look into a solution like that to get above those trees.

[Nova Dragoon]

Based just on the freqency Wifi runs at (2.4 Ghz) you really gotta have line of sight

[NeoGreen]

Yeah, very important to have line of site. Also you may want to see if you can invest in a couple of range extenders also. I had a project at work in which i had to network two building together using a wireless network. The buildings where about 3/4 miles appart. The good thing about this project was that all 2 miles belong to the company so I was able to to use range extenders to extend the range of the signal to another building.

[dman8568]

Thank you for all your help.

Bellow is an edited camp map with a distance scale so that you can see the situation.
If anyone else has any addiction ideas, please post them

Key:
Green = Camp Office (Server Location)
Red = Check-In Booth
Yellow = Youth Housing



Again,
Thank you very much

[enj316]

Have you considered just giving Cisco a call or email them about a possible solution? They have a wide variety of antennas that go all the way up to a couple of miles of extended range on their access points.
Here is a link to the Cisco antennas. I would contact them and let them know your situation. You never know what they might do a good cause.
http://www.cisco.com...008022b11b.html

[Israel]

Look into WiMax one tower can reach a 30 mile radius. They're not cheap though. When they first came out they were about 7 grand per tower. But after Sprint announced they were going to spend 3 Billion to upgrade their cell phone towers to this I would guess demand/the price would have gone up?

I know you said this was a non-profit thing, but you could probably set up a small fee just to pay for the cost of a tower.

By the way, since your in the woods. This technology was partly developed for such places. One of the first places to get it was in the mountains of West Virginia. Reception worked well there, where no ISP wanted to set up shop because of the ruff land.

This post has been edited by Israel: 27 February 2007 - 10:04 PM

[Jayman]

Do you currently have Internet access at both of those points (Satellite, Cable, DSL)?

You could create a Virtual Private Network across the internet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VPN

If you currently do not have internet access, you could look into setting it up with a Satellite Broadband Carrier and also create the VPN that way.

Hughes Satellite Provider.

[Thorian]

The Problem with a Sat internet provider is that Hughes requires a 15 month commitment and wild blue requires a 12 month commitment.


My experience with Sat installation is going to be my topic for this weeks blog post.

[Thorian]

This weeks Blog entry might help you out with the suggestions about Sat internet it includes the good and the bad about each service I have looked into

http://www.dreaminco...p;showentry=342