Long Range WiFi (long range internet)
by Mike Freeman on Feb.01, 2010, under Projects
Long range Wi-Fi is another one of my hobbies. I have successfully installed over 20 projects that range from 600ft to 5 miles. I thought I would post a little bit about how I do this. The 5+ mile links are by far the most fun and they are really quite amazing when they work correctly. I do this for fun and do not really have a business or anything (so far). The main purpose of this is to share a single internet connection between multiple houses however it is a full network that supports file & printer sharing or anything else you would like to do.
Here is a typical 12 dB omni directional antenna on one of my installations. The white box houses the access point. I will use these for the base station if multiple clients are used. This particular antenna links 9 houses that range from 2000ft to 1 mile in range. The antenna is mounted on a roof.
The diagram above shows how the system works. Its just like setting up a wireless router in your house except all the antennas go outside. One house will have the router and internet connection and the “other” houses will connect as clients just like a laptop connects to your home wireless router.
Line of sight is very important. I live out in the country and can see for miles in every direction. A few trees will not interfere much but a forest or huge buildings will severely cripple the signal. The farm in the distance is 1 mile away and has WiFi. I have a perfect signal from where I am standing. Roof top height is more than ample for this technology as long as you have line of sight.
Houses that are clients get a panel antenna. It’s about 12dBi gain and is directional. I just aim it at the base station antenna and it works perfect. The AP mounts inside this particular panel antenna.
Inside the panel antenna is the Access Point (AP). Signal loss is huge in the antenna wire so you want to keep your antenna wire as short as possible. Mounting the AP inside the antenna is a great way to minimize signal loss. All I do now is run cheap Cat5e cable from the inside computer to the antenna on the roof. This antenna is a “Rootenna” and cost about $30. I have bought about 15 of these and they are excellent.
Here is another panel type antenna on a house. This one does not have an inside spot for the AP so I had to mount the AP in a separate box under the antenna. It still works perfect.
Getting power to the AP is easy. What you need to buy is a Power Over Ethernet (POE) injector. The one on the right is $5 and works excellent. What this does is injects 12 volts from a power adaptor and sends it over the unused CAT5e pairs. The Access Point is “smart” and can be powered right from the CAT5e cable. This injector will sit under your desk by the PC and plug into a wall outlet.
The access point is made by En Genius and is the most expensive part of the setup. They are roughly $130 but there are other options available today that are cheaper. I have bought about 20 of these and will gladly vouch for their quality. I have some that have been in service for 4 years outside without a single reset.
There is more to this than just the hardware setup. The networking, TCP/IP setup, and DHCP control is another subject on its own which will not get explained here. You will have to do some reading on that subject on your own.
UPDATE:
I no longer buy the $130 access points. I have bought 3 of the Bullet2 Access points made by Ubiquiti for about $38 each. They are 200mw power which is plenty for 5 mile links. These are excellent and are small. I simply connect them direct to the back of a panel antenna (shown above). No need for the rootenna or external box.
Bullet2 Access point
I’ll post some pictures of the actual Bullet2 in a few days. They really are great and cheap.
Homemade stuff:
There was a time when I had no money but still liked to play with wireless stuff. You can make your own equipment fairly easy if you want to. I made many antennas and they all worked well.
Here is a very simple 1/4 wave omni antenna called a “spider” and is made from a female N type connector. It has one vertical radial and 4 ground radials. This antenna works very well for what it is and is very small. It works very well for war driving.
This antenna has no gain.
This is my favorite homemade antenna. It is called a bi quad and is directional. I use this exclusively for war driving to identify where the signal is coming from. You can also use these to feed an old dish network dish for increased range.
I have connected up to a mile with this antenna and the PCMCIA card below.
It has 11dBi gain and can have 24dB if used to feed a old dish network or direct TV dish.
Here is my old laptop PCMCIA card and homemade pigtail. I use this for war driving and site surveys for new clients. It’s a 200mW card and I have connected miles away with this card.
More to come……page under construction.
September 21st, 2010 on 2:50 pm
how is latency at 5 mile range?
September 25th, 2010 on 4:52 am
It’s pretty good. less than 5ms or so ping. 5 miles does not seem to make any difference.
October 27th, 2010 on 1:03 am
what wattage is your access point for the different distances you set up???? i wana do this! i just need a good starting point!
October 28th, 2010 on 6:55 pm
200mW on most of them. I have bought some 400mW units but have not really tested them out much yet.
November 5th, 2010 on 1:04 am
so 200 mW got you 1 mile thats crazy
November 7th, 2010 on 12:34 pm
My 5 mile link is only 200mw. 1 mile is pretty easy even with 50mw. It all about the antenna used and line of sight.
November 9th, 2010 on 1:12 am
how far do you think you could get in a city environemnt without line of sight???
November 23rd, 2010 on 11:47 pm
Hey what do you think the distance is on those long range “USB” adapters? I’m planning on getting an alpha 2000mw one that plugs right into my laptop. Also, what is the best kind of antenna to use to receive the farthest wi-fi signals? Thanks for all the info and awesome website!
May 11th, 2011 on 11:48 am
How use 15dbi omni directional ant… How connect wifi internet .
September 3rd, 2011 on 10:16 am
I’ve got a 25.1 mile shot I use to provide Internet connectivity between my house and a mountaintop repeater site. It’s used for DSTAR and hopefully soon Echolink. I have 24dBi directional antenna/dish. Radios are putting out 13dBm which converts to just about 20mW. I have 20dB overhead on the signal. This thing is rock solid! I hope to get another one going soon that will be 40 miles. My goal is to remain in the Part 15 legal limits, but set it up so I can move to part 97 if I have to. I’m using the Ubiquiti Bullet 2HPs. They work great! My best advice? Be legal, and don’t get greedy. By greedy, I mean, the higher the bandwidth you want the less forgiving the path can be allowed to be. Long shots seem to work better on 802.11b. 802.11g works, but in my case, there was no point. WooHoo!!!
October 2nd, 2011 on 3:42 pm
How long have you been using Rootenna? This maybe what I’m looking for but I just bought like 20ft of lmr 400 in order to have the access point inside. What about heat build up or condensation? I’ve been reading alot of negative things about putting an access point outdoors. I also read that it would be quite costly to truly protect it from all of the elements such as extreme heat, cold humidity and such.
November 2nd, 2011 on 6:25 am
I have been using Rootennas for about 6 yrs. They work great and are still working fine. I don’t use them anymore since I moved to the Bullet access points.
November 14th, 2011 on 8:03 pm
In your installation that links 9 houses, does that one antenna/AP feed all the houses? I am trying to link 5 houses together. I can hop from a house with cable internet to one up on a hill. From that vantage point I can see 3 other houses that all need internet. The advice I have gotten so far is to use a separate pair of “bridges” between each location, so I would end up with 4 antennas on the house on the hill. Thanks for the great info!
December 3rd, 2011 on 5:23 pm
email dablack26@gmail.com phone number 956-221-1987 I have about 15 farm fields I need to watch from my computer or my iPhone one field is 22 miles away rest are with 7 miles need wireless and battlies powered with a way to keep them powered I have had a lot of stolen crops this year can you help me I will pay for your time and products
March 3rd, 2012 on 9:39 pm
I like the idea, This article has helped me quiet a bit. I also Have a question. Do you need a computer on the main line internet end or can you connect the cat 5 cable directly to the access point.
Thanks
March 5th, 2012 on 4:52 am
No computer needed. You can connect direct to an access point.
May 15th, 2012 on 9:38 am
I want to create a network in my town capable of around 5km in every direction capable of handling at least 20 clients. What approach should I take?
February 24th, 2013 on 5:24 pm
Hi:
I would like to get more information on how to make and install the router.
Are there any assembly instructions or illustrations as well as to where the parts are available.
Thanks.
April 22nd, 2013 on 5:23 pm
Do you have problems with lightening hitting your APs?
May 13th, 2013 on 4:47 am
Hi Mike,
I enjoyed reading your post. I wanted to ask whether devices such as iphones and laptops can connect to your setup and if so, have you tested at what ranges you can connect?
May 16th, 2013 on 9:40 pm
iphones connect just fine as do laptops. I have not had lightning hit any AP’s for the past 5 or 6 years I have had this up. No failures yet.