I am attempting to use wireless to connect five different buildings to the Internet. Buildings are spaced 100 to 500 meters from the main office, with five or so PCs per building. Wiring is not an option because the ground is too rocky to lay cable, and there are too many trees to hang cable.
We tried putting a Linksys wireless router in bridge mode at each building, running wired network connections to the router from the local PCs, and using the router to bridge the distance to the main office. Whatever the cause, we could never get Internet access.
Do you have any ideas how this might be done?
Requires Membership to View
To gain access to this and all member only content, please provide the following information:
By submitting your registration information to SearchNetworkingChannel.com you agree to receive email communications from the TechTarget network of sites, and/or third party content providers that have relationships with TechTarget, based on your topic interests and activity, including updates on new content, event notifications, new site launches and market research surveys. Please verify all information and selections above. You may unsubscribe at any time from one or more of the services you have selected by editing your profile, unsubscribing via email or by contacting us here
- Your use of SearchNetworkingChannel.com is governed by our Terms of Use
- We designed our Privacy Policy to provide you with important disclosures about how we collect and use your registration and other information. We encourage you to read the Privacy Policy, and to use it to help make informed decisions.
- If you reside outside of the United States, by submitting this registration information you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States.
In theory, what you describe should work. A lot depends upon which Linksys router you're using. You may need to do a firmware upgrade; the first stop is Linksys Tech Support; describe to them what you're doing, and the specific model and firmware revision.
There are other options, though. You can use client bridges, which are client devices that have Ethernet ports, in place of the APs in bridge mode. Third-party firmware that turns APs into clients is available for some Linksys models; this might work for you but should obviously be used with caution. You can buy a point-to-multipoint (P2P or PTMP) bridge (available from a number of sources), or you could use a wireless mesh system (ditto). The big question is distance -- it may be that your endpoints are too far apart, and the connection quality is weak or broken. You might be able to use add-on booster antennas if that's the problem. Linksys sells a number of these.
I personally use client bridges in cases like these -- they're cheap, simple, and designed specifically for this application. Good luck!
This was first published in February 2007