Is the solution staring me in the face?

Foggster

On behalf of a friend.

Friend is looking at getting internet set up in an office. The office is no more than 100 yds from their house. Very poor mobile signal so the dongle solution is out of the question.

They have a wireless system in the house but when they try and get a laptop to pick it up in the office, it doesnt find it.

There is a telephone extension in the office which they "switchover" at night to ring in the house and vice versa. (Dial "9" to ring out from the office).

Is there a solution here without the need for the expense of having a new line into the office?

globalds

Something like this

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/zyxel-200mbps-powerline-homeplug-adapter-twin-pack-29-17-delivered-quidco-cashba/985169

I even found you a cheap one

Foggster

They dont share the same power point i.e. a farm building is housing the office and therefore has a separate power supply.

Or am I being a bit dim here?

globalds

Could you make a hard connection with CAT 5 ?

santer_2

Have you checked if another operator has a better signal?

http://www.bestmobilebroadband.co.uk/uk-mobile-broadband-coverage.aspx

http://www.mobilebroadband123.co.uk/improve_your_mobile_broadband_signal.php

Mista_C

Have a look for a WDS router/repeater. I can't think of a partcular model off the top of my head but there are a number of people who make these such as 3com, Linksys, etc.

Configure the repeater to the same settings as the wifi in the house using WDS and it should provide a decent relay in the office.

esuhl

A couple of offices I've worked in have used microwave transceivers to connect nearby buildings. I imagine that would be quite expensive (otherwise you'd see them more often) but I don't know for sure - maybe something to look into just in case it suits...?

S0litaire

if you've feeling technical google "Pringle can antenna" ^__~
But best way might be to get some Armoured CAT5 cable and bury it between buildings


Since effective range of Wi-Fi is only 60m (the 100m description is in best case scenarios!) you'll need at least 1 transceiver in the open, which when you factor in everything, can cost upwards of £500 to get it in a waterproofed housing and trail a power supply to it (Though a solar panel might work depending on the area!)

Armoured Cat5 cable is roughly £2 per meter and will survive the outdoors for many years if properly buried

RobTang

Foggster wrote: »

They dont share the same power point i.e. a farm building is housing the office and therefore has a separate power supply.

Or am I being a bit dim here?

Powerline connectors are still a broadcast type system, they can leak your lan signal outside your house, they dont magically stop at your power meter. Like wifi the signal is normally encrypted, but in theory your neighbours could try to hack your network.

kwikbreaks

If it isn't over 100 yards then ethernet might work. I doubt powerline adaptors would and nor will wifi without setting up a decent antenna link.

If they don't need internet in the house and office at the same time the simplest option would be to run the ADSL router on the office extension in the day (the extension switch wire would need isolating/removing). Not sure what the dial 9 bit is too - could be a bit complicated if this is a PABX.