Off topic - personal problem in VT
Jim Mayor <[email protected]>
| Newsgroups | gmane.network.wireless.seattle.general |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
I hope that you won't think too unkindly of me for interrupting this mailing list We live in the boonies of Vermont's Northeast Kingdom and are trying to stay in touch with the world without going under financially. Recently we invested in satellite internet access, mainly because of our lousy rural phone lines, but also we believed that we could save money. The latter included eliminating out second phone line AND networking with our neighbor. These friends live in our cabin which is about 500' as the crow flies from our house. Unfortunately, the crows would have to fly over many trees. Our initial concept was just to provide them with a wireless PCI card and that would be it. We have since discovered that trees hinder the signal while wood floors apparently do not. We have talked to several vendors who claim great distances for their wireless communications, but none will encourage us when we mention trees, even with "high" gain external antennas. We next considered simple hard-wiring until we were told that 300' is the practical limitation for hardwiring without repeaters. We have not totally discounted fiber-optics, but no one seems to be able to help us and we suspect the cost will be high. We have seem the many clever antennas that are floating around the internet, but when mentioned, the words "line of sight" always pop up. One guy put it, "Leaves really attenuate the signal." Actually we don't have so many "leaves" as needles, but I trust the attenuation difference is negligible. So, my question is this: Is there any hope for us to set up a inexpensive (wireless or any kind of) network between our two houses? If any have a positive answer to that, could you please advise us what approach to take..., short of cutting down the intervening trees, that is Incidentally, if there is a potential for wireless to work with some high-gain directional antenna, is there any (free?) software available that will help us to fine tune the alignment of the antennae once we have constructed them? Thank you very much. Peace. Jim Mayor and family and friends <[email protected]> 952 Hartwell Pond Road Barton, VT 05822-9553 (802) 755-6307 _______________________________________________ Talk mailing list [email protected] http://seattlewireless.net/mailman/listinfo/talk