802.11b help desperately needed!

[airspirit]

I am currently feeding 10 machines via a combination of ethernet network and dual 802.11b access points (one Netgear ME102, one DLink piece-of-sh!t 614+). I'm trying to get another person access to the system, and I'm having a problem. She is located about 600 ft away, and there are two trees and a large apartment building (45-50ft of obstruction ... lead paint was used in construction for extra "nuke your neighbor" shielding, joy of joys) between us. She has an 8dB antenna on her end, and I'm wondering if it was possible to set up a 24dB antenna on my end and "pound a signal" through the intervening building. Is this possible with a directional setup? I'm tempted to give up on getting her on, but I'm also VERY stubborn. Does anybody have a recommendation?

[bigben2k]

You might be able to use a directional antennae. Did you see the can of Pringles mod?

Alternatively, there are laser networking devices available, for building to building comms.

[airspirit]

I've heard that due to the home-made aspect of the pringles antennas (they aren't perfectly tuned), they are near impossible to use on anything except direct line of sight (no obstacles). That is why I'm looking at a 24dB commecial antenna. I am so leery about spending any more money on this project, though, without knowing if it is even possible to punch through that building. The antenna only costs about $80, so it's not a huge amount of money (a pringles would run me $30 before I'm done, so it makes sense to go with a professional unit), but I want to know if anyone has had success with this kind of thing before.

[Buster]

I have shot a signal quite far using a modified Primstar dish ( http://trevormarshall.com/biquad.htm ). The pringles can will not do the job, its very directional and only really gets about 8 - 10 db. What antenna are you thinking of using? Your going to loose about 4db off the top of whatever they say that antenna will put out. Even more depending on your cable and connections. Not having a line of sight, you need to blast as much signal as possible. I pretty confident I could connect with the conditions you have.
Post a link of the antenna and cables your going to use.

Scott

[Kevin]

Hey dude try this out... www.hyperlinktech.com . Their stuff is kinda pricey, but the guys @ Linksys "unoficially" told me it was very high quality stuff.
-Kev

[airspirit]

Funny you mention hyperlinktech ... I was looking at their 24dB parabolic antenna. This is all moot now: she has decided to give up and actually pay for an internet connection from a "real" ISP. I've bought her equipment and resold it within an hour to some gals within range that are going to set up a subnetwork via her bridge and access my connection. I guess it all worked out in the end. Thanks for all the help, though. Oh, and by the way, the smoke detector looking antennas on HLT are absolute crap. The stock rubber duck ants work better. If you want to see the nightmare setup I have going in my neighborhood, look under the "bragging rights" topic. It's not too spectacular ... just BIG.

[Buster]

Hyperlink sells good stuff, I buy most of my cables from them. But also remember when they say 24db, thats the designed db gain of the antenna before anything is connected. Every connector, every foot of cable etc. caused db loss. All this must be calculated to come up with the actual gain you will get. 24db is alot, my primstar antenna is sending a signal apx 7 miles, but it cost me alot of $$ for high quality cables. The shorter the cable from the AP to the antenna the better. My AP is mounted outside on the mast in a water proof box. Only 3 feet of cable from AP to antenna.

scott