Is Wi-Fi from one house to another feasible?

[deadken]

Simply put: I bought a house across the street and 3 houses up from my mothers house. I haven't moved in yet and won't be moving in for another few months. I don't want to pay for internet when I only visit there a few hours a week. My brother lives upstairs at my mothers house and has internet. Here's my idea: get a range extender and connect it at my mothers house and put it near an upstairs window or even in the garage attic (no plaster walls / insulation to go through and would be about 20' closer). Use the Wi-Fi at my house for Chromecast / Netflix until I move in. Is that a pipe dream? In reality my house is about 120' North and 80' West of my mothers house. Using a 3,4,5 triangle with 90' and 120', the total distance would be about 150' away.

1) Would the signal be good enough to get enough data to use netflix or chromecast?
2) Would the cost of the extender (or whatever hardware I'd need) be more than just paying for internet for the next 6-8 months?
2a) I have to call Verizon, but does anyone know if I could I buy just internet now and then still be eligible for the triple play / bundle when I move in? (or is that promo just for 'new' customers?)
3) Is there a better way?

I don't want to be cheap, but I don't want to waste money either. I'm guessing that I could still use the range extender when I do move into the house, so it wouldn't be a total waste of money. I have a chromecast but haven't set it up yet. I never used it at my old house and I think I need a network to put it on so I haven't set it up at my new house. My daughter has a netflix account and said she can set it up at the new house when needed (I've never used netflix).

 

[Fardringle]

If you can get direct line of sight between the two houses, you could put directional antennas on the roof of each house (or in windows that face each other) and aim them directly at each other. But normal omnidirectional antennas will probably have a fairly weak signal (if any) at that distance.

 

[avos]

I personally have used Ubiquiti Nanostation Loco M5's to create a bridge between 3 houses with line of sight between each other. They work really well. It is the same thing that all of the Wireless ISPs in my area seem to use for clients. Albeit they are using a far more powerful one on their end.

With some directional antennas and home wireless routers that have a bridge mode or wireless repeating or whatever they might call it would probably work too, but the Ubiquiti solution is going to be far more stable. They are fairly cheap too.

 

[Ketchup]

Do you have decent data on a mobile plan? Maybe just use that for the time being.

Is there a neighbor to that house with wifi that would let you use it for the short period?

The only problem I see with your original plan is that if the wifi does indeed stretch that far, the speed on the other end could be pretty abysmal. And if you can buy the equipment to make it better, wouldn't that be a bit of a waste?

 

[smitbret]

I set up an LOS connection between my parents' house and their calving barn over a distance of about 1/3 mile:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2390309&highlight=parents

Got it up and running over the Christmas holiday and the signal is good enough that we can stream a 720p feed from the camera to his house without any problem. I haven't tested the actual speed over the distance, though so I don't know how well an HD NetFlix feed might work. I still need to set up an AP so he can get WiFi down there.

 

[JackMDS]

Two APs acting as a Bridge installed in Line of site in facing Windows.

If you decide that you are taking the "Risk". You can start with One AP (connected with a wire to the main router) in the Mom house and test the signal with a Laptop in the other house and take it from there.

Extenders/Repeaters are a Joke for a good streaming signal even in the same house.

 

[Mushkins]

Keep in mind that decent directional antennas are going to run about the same as a month of internet access *per antenna*.

To set all this up and maybe get it to work, you might not be saving nearly as much money as you think.

 

[azazel1024]

Keep in mind that decent directional antennas are going to run about the same as a month of internet access *per antenna*.

To set all this up and maybe get it to work, you might not be saving nearly as much money as you think.

Along those lines, frankly I'd get a couple of these and call it a day.

http://www.amazon.com/EnGenius-Tech...2743&sr=8-1&keywords=engenius+wireless+bridge

Not terribly expensive and they'll deffinitely get the job done. You can mount in a window in each house or outside if you want (they are outdoor rated). They deffinitely have the radio power and antenna gain.

With the distance you are talking about, with line of sight it isn't bad. I have a router with a couple of 5dBi omnis run outside from my garage. I can connect to the router at around 40Mbps of actual throughput at around 150ft from my laptop on 2.4GHz 20MHz.

Just keep in mind that windows, ESPECIALLY if they are low E, are going to attenuate the signal as well. They may be transparent to visible light, but they are not fully transparent to RF.

From my experience a plain dual pane window will attenuate about 3dB on 2.4GHz, but a low E window is likely to attenuate about 5-8dB. That is less than most exterior walls will attenuate a signal, but still going to hurt.

A couple of routers with decent sized omni antennas in the window of both houses is possibly enough, but you'll also pickup interference from neighbors. Wireless bridges with directional antennas (or routers with directional antennas swapped on) are going to have both higher signal gain, but also reduced interference from neighbors.

 

[smitbret]

Along those lines, frankly I'd get a couple of these and call it a day.

http://www.amazon.com/EnGenius-Tech...2743&sr=8-1&keywords=engenius+wireless+bridge

Not terribly expensive and they'll deffinitely get the job done. You can mount in a window in each house or outside if you want (they are outdoor rated). They deffinitely have the radio power and antenna gain.

With the distance you are talking about, with line of sight it isn't bad. I have a router with a couple of 5dBi omnis run outside from my garage. I can connect to the router at around 40Mbps of actual throughput at around 150ft from my laptop on 2.4GHz 20MHz.

Just keep in mind that windows, ESPECIALLY if they are low E, are going to attenuate the signal as well. They may be transparent to visible light, but they are not fully transparent to RF.

From my experience a plain dual pane window will attenuate about 3dB on 2.4GHz, but a low E window is likely to attenuate about 5-8dB. That is less than most exterior walls will attenuate a signal, but still going to hurt.

A couple of routers with decent sized omni antennas in the window of both houses is possibly enough, but you'll also pickup interference from neighbors. Wireless bridges with directional antennas (or routers with directional antennas swapped on) are going to have both higher signal gain, but also reduced interference from neighbors.

I can echo the low E window situation. When we stuck the antennae behind the window we got No Signal. Open the window and we got 4 bars, even through the screen. Close the window again and we got "No Signal". Had to mount the house's antenna from the eaves and drill a hole through the wall to run the cable.

 

[ArisVer]

Someone was talking to me today about this

http://pc-professional.info/whats-new/745-access-point-outdoor-150-mbps-power-on-rpd-450.html

There is not much information on their page to understand exactly what it is. There is also a RPD-400 model. The guy was telling me that they were using that to get info from their photovoltaic park which is far away (I think he mentioned 8 km) from any kind of lines. The page claims up to 50km distance (datasheet). I found prices in Greece for a little less than 50 euros.

 

[azazel1024]

It is a panel antenna wireless bridge. With 14dBi of gain, if you had one on each side of the link and clear line of sight, you absolutely could establish a working link at 4km of range as the product description states. It would be a pretty slow link, but you could do it.

50km would take high gain parabolic antennas of probably at least 24dBi of gain and some extreme prep and consideration for your setup. It would also be at extremely low data speeds.

Once you start getting beyond a few hundred feet on a wireless link (for wifi), you need to start worrying about things like fresnel zone, vegetative reflection, ground water, etc. At least if you want to make sure it'll work and not simply slap up a couple of antennas and cross your fingers. Long link is defined as anything beyond 1km (or maybe it is 1 mile?) at which point you have to change parameters for packet resends as the light speed delay round trip becomes longer than the built in delay in the 802.11 specifications and it'll cause all packets to be considered lost, triggering resends on every single packet.

Most long distance wireless bridges are designed to change this delay and most alternate firmware is as well.

However for a couple of hundred feet, you just have to be congnizant of where you locate the router/access point/bridge (or it's antennas). A couple of dedicated bridges is nice, but certainly not required. Since the Engenious bridges are very robust and easy to work with and cost about as much as a couple of decent N600 routers, I figure why not get them to solve most "I want wireless that isn't within my own house" issues.

 

[deadken]

Thanks for all of the information! I'm thinking I really should contact Verizon and see if I sign up for just internet how much it will cost and if signing up for just internet excludes me from the triple play bundle discount (only for new customers?).

Like many of you have pointed out, the equipment needed might just end up costing more than subscribing for internet service. Thanks again.

 

[MongGrel]

Yeah you're probably trying too hard to bypass it considering the other options.

 

[Emulex]

why not just run some cat5 to your other house? seems easier!

 

[azazel1024]

why not just run some cat5 to your other house? seems easier!

Was there a missing /s tag? Across the street and 3 houses up doesn't seem easier to run cat5.

I'd probably just get service to the house, but since you mentioned Verizon and Triple Play, I assume its FiOS. In my market it is roughly $59.99 a month for their most basic 25/25 package. They don't do discounts on just internet packages in my experience.

A pair of those outdoor Engenius wireless bridges would be paid back in 2 months of internet service...

 

[NazForum]

Simply put: I bought a house across the street and 3 houses up from my mothers house. I haven't moved in yet and won't be moving in for another few months. I don't want to pay for internet when I only visit there a few hours a week. My brother lives upstairs at my mothers house and has internet. Here's my idea: get a range extender and connect it at my mothers house and put it near an upstairs window or even in the garage attic (no plaster walls / insulation to go through and would be about 20' closer). Use the Wi-Fi at my house for Chromecast / Netflix until I move in. Is that a pipe dream? In reality my house is about 120' North and 80' West of my mothers house. Using a 3,4,5 triangle with 90' and 120', the total distance would be about 150' away.

1) Would the signal be good enough to get enough data to use netflix or chromecast?
2) Would the cost of the extender (or whatever hardware I'd need) be more than just paying for internet for the next 6-8 months?
2a) I have to call Verizon, but does anyone know if I could I buy just internet now and then still be eligible for the triple play / bundle when I move in? (or is that promo just for 'new' customers?)
3) Is there a better way?

I don't want to be cheap, but I don't want to waste money either. I'm guessing that I could still use the range extender when I do move into the house, so it wouldn't be a total waste of money. I have a chromecast but haven't set it up yet. I never used it at my old house and I think I need a network to put it on so I haven't set it up at my new house. My daughter has a netflix account and said she can set it up at the new house when needed (I've never used netflix).

Until you move in to your new house and get yourself settled, you can try one of the Mobile Hotspot available like Verizon Hotspot

 

[delonm]

I can echo the low E window situation. When we stuck the antennae behind the window we got No Signal. Open the window and we got 4 bars, even through the screen. Close the window again and we got "No Signal". Had to mount the house's antenna from the eaves and drill a hole through the wall to run the cable.

One word of caution, depending on where you live, mounting a wireless bridge outside may be problematic. I had a wireless bridge between my house and my barn (approximately 200'). In the winter, it is not uncommon for the connection to drop completely. With my setup, when the temp drops below 0 or so the units are guaranteed to fail.

 

[azazel1024]

One word of caution, depending on where you live, mounting a wireless bridge outside may be problematic. I had a wireless bridge between my house and my barn (approximately 200'). In the winter, it is not uncommon for the connection to drop completely. With my setup, when the temp drops below 0 or so the units are guaranteed to fail.

Sounds like you needed one that was better rugidized. I haven't personally used the Engenius units, but IIRC they are rated from -4F to 150F of operation.

Bad weather at 200ft should absolutely not knock down a link unless it was actually raining cats and dogs. Generally you don't see weather impact a wifi link until you are measuring the link in MANY hundreds of feet to thousands of feet (or more). My not even remotely rugidized TP-Link 841nd mounted in my garage with the 5dBi antennas run outside on the end of a meter of coax cable was more than sufficient to provide >20Mbps of performance 100ft away, inside my shed, with the door closed in the snow when it was about 20F outside (only time I used it this winter. I left it off the rest of the winter otherwise, as I pretty much don't need wifi in the winter time outside, other than maybe on my back deck, which the inside AP can provide just fine, if not amazing performance). That was on my iPhone 5.

I'd imagine on my laptop or tablet the performance would have been at least 50-200% better.