Need Wifi to reach 1000'

Please help.

Construction project on 35Acres, construction trailer with high bandwidth connection. Main building two story masonry solid grouted walls, structural steel with concrete second floor deck. 9 other buildings to go up on property most will be pre-engineered steel buildings but spread out so wifi connection from site of farthest building will be about 1000'. Need to be able to connect laptop from anywhere on property including the new masonry building.

We will have a temporary power pole string with power cable from one end of the property to the other so we could piggyback comm cable and have electrical connections available along the route.

What is the best approach to have wifi on the property? Do we try to set up some kind of router with strong signal or some kind of booster or boosters along the line. Can we keep the budget to <$500?

 

Have you looked into a 3g modem to see if they have coverage in that area. I know you need the high bandwidth in the office trailer but can you get by with a modem in the laptop or laptops you are using around the property. There is month to month contracts available so you do not need to sign a two year plan for this. That being said there is equipment that will pick up wifi from quite a distance available. The problems with this is you will need line of sight and proper aiming of your unit to pickup the signal each time. If you setup repeaters you cut the bandwidth in half with each one. I do think you could get buy with one repeater with a Yagi antena repeater setup in the middle of the property and another Yagi long range reciever antenna. I do not know your budget on this so I am going to throw a few links your way. I use both high speed DSL 7mbps and a 3g evdo modem for when I am away from the house. The 3g store Has a very good selection of evdo products on the 3g end. They also sell a router that with an optional booster antenna will pickup a wifi signal from 300+ meters away. Remember this is line of sight. It is called the wifiRanger. When it pickups the signal it is not repeating it so you have full bandwidth of what it picks up. They will live chat or answer questions quite readily about the products they have and give you very good support. 3Gstore.com, 3G/4G Routers, Antennas, Amplifiers, WiFi, Verizon & Sprint Data Cards

I will also give you the link to the Yagi type long range meaning line of sight up to 4km. at danets, we enhance your wireless experience: YAGI WiFi antenna You can find there products at Amazon and on ebay. I am going to pick up one of these units just to see how far away I can pick up several of my neighbors unsecured signals.
Just remember location of your equipment and what kinds of material your signal has to travel through have allot to do with how well you can get a wifi or evdo 3g signal. I am sure others will be giving you more info.

 

Is this intended to be a permanent setup, or just a temporary setup?

 

On the laptops, use external USB connect higher-powered adapters with high-gain antennas.

At the base station, use a unit specifically designed for this kind of coverage. You should also be able to find bridge/extenders designed for full-time outside use that you can mount on utility poles.

There are plenty of commercial options for this kind of work. None of these are available at the usual storefronts. Google/bing things like high powered wifi coverage, high-gain, etc.

Don't bother trying to change out or 'upgrade' any adapters already installed in your laptops. Waste of time and you'll never get the antennas right. Just add the external USB adapters.

 

Thank you all for your comments. I appreciate it. The setup is for about 18 months and then must be removed.

 

I would suggest investigating directional antennas. An interesting article on them can be found here

 

You might also look into something like the ethernet boosters this company makes: Patton 2110 Ethernet Booster

Although the model pictured looks like an indoor model, so you'd probably have to check to see if they have outdoor models. From what the specs seem to say, it seems that it would be possible to run an effective wired ethernet connection for up to 1,000 feet.

 

Here is another company more local that has wireless solutions such as high powered routers and access points, repeaters and long range antennas. &spades; WiFi | Wireless Networking

 

How I would envision coverage in such an area is to have a high gain omni antenna mounted central to the area, with as low cabling loss as possible so radio mounted with antenna. This means the radio needs to be weatherproofed and powered using PoE. Also, amplified would be good. Note that FCC restricts the power output at the antenna, though I'm not sure they actively check unless one of your neighbors complain.

Something like this would probably work. These things are pretty specialized, so they're not too easy to find.

For the client, you can get external USB radios that use external antennas like this one. Then, you can replace the omni antenna with a directional one with higher gain.

 

you can get much better. for the client get an ALFA AWUS036NH 2Wat plus a good antenna like this one: 50db

 

If it was me...
I would buy several BUFFALO WHR-HP-GN routers, install DD-WRT/Tomato on them all and set them up as repeaters spread around the property. It would probably only require 4 (maybe 6) of them, and at $40 each, it's well within budget.

They could be re-sold after on Ebay or Craigslist or just re-used elsewhere.

 

If you can get the range you need and the lowered speed from using WDS is acceptable I would look into this. The older WHR HP54G routers are also ultra solid and reliable and if you can find a lot of 5 or 10 on ebay that's what I'd get.

 

anything on a job site is going to have to be commercial-grade for electrical and lightning protection. Your insurance company and OSHA will have a fit otherwise.

 

Yes, one $40 Alfa for each client. But if the AP can be centrally located, I doubt the need for directional antennas.

I use both the 36NH and the AWUS051NH (5ghz support), and my AP is a Dlink DAP-2553. On 5ghz @ 400 ft distance, I typically connect at 62Mbps. But for his distance he'd probably do better sticking to 2.4N. On 2.4, I can grab usable signals well over 1/4 mi LOS. I've also had good luck with the EnGenius EUB9603H

 

Have you considered buying a low-cost repeater or older router to act as one? 1000' is kind of a stretch for wireless, as it's usually rated for ~500' for Wireless-N.

 

im going to say the WRT54GL routers or compatable ASUS RT-N12 or RT-N16 routers with the DD-WRT firmware for repeater mode. if you want some routers such as the aformentioned N12 has a repaeter mode switch you can just enable. we used this solution with home made solar chargers/battery/powersupply units to cover 1 sq mile for an event a year ago. yes there are speeddrops but its sufficient for most applications.

set one unit or router with good external omni antennas on your roof and place a repeater where signal hits 40%

 

The Buffalos I mentioned have a stronger antenna.