long rage wireless (outside)

[HLDoom32768]

Alright, I am one of those who are stuck using dialup at home, because the cable company won't extend their service by the 1/4 needed to get to my house. I looked into DSL, and it isn't available. I looked into satellite, and it costs to much, so my plan is to make a biquad satellite mod, and get wireless of one of my friends down the street. They live about 1000-1500 feet from our house, and the path is obstructed slightly by trees, but as it will be fall soon, I hope it will work well at least during the fall...

I already made the satellite, and ordered the cords last night. I plan on borrowing a wireless card from a different friend to test this out. I assume it will work, so my question is... any advice on a good wireless card? I want one as powerful as you can get, while not spending more then $50. I would like to keep it like 30-40, but I am willing to spend 50 if needed.

I looked into mimo cards a bit, but as I only have one satellite moded right now, and it would cost a good $60 to mod a second one, I'm thinking that a mimo card wouldn’t' do much good, as they are based on dual antennas.

So does anyone know of a wireless card that has high wattage output, to get a better signal, and maybe getting the prism core, or the atheros core, as I hear they have "Special" things that other cards can't do. like.... shhhhh hack a network's encryption. I'd only want to do this if I lose my connection with my friend, and then I'd just have to get a connection of some random person who I can link to...

If you have any questions as to what a biquad mod really is, this is the main site I used:

http://meta.engadget.com/2005/11/15/how-to...-dish-antenna/2

[RogueSpear]

I have a building to building connection over 802.11b that goes a distance of over two miles using a couple of yagi antennae. The connection speed is a solid 2mb, but drops down a bit during heavy snow. Going 1500 feet, even with some foilage obstruction shouldn't be a problem.

[LLXX]

If you want a higher wattage, get an amplifier and insert it in-line with the antenna. Almost all wireless cards can't go above 0.03W due to their design.

You can mod some amplifiers to greatly increase the power, but be careful with this as the FCC won't be very happy if you exceed the regulated maximum transmit power (4W for 802.11b and g in USA) even though many amplifiers can go above 10W easily.

[RogueSpear]

Just for the record, I'm using 2W to go 2 miles. Also I was not the person who installed the hardware, a communications specialist who didn't mind climbing up a 200 foot Sprint tower did that

A lot of it really just has to do with properly focusing and aiming the signal.

[HLDoom32768]

I have a building to building connection over 802.11b that goes a distance of over two miles using a couple of yagi antennae. The connection speed is a solid 2mb, but drops down a bit during heavy snow. Going 1500 feet, even with some foilage obstruction shouldn't be a problem.

I plan on using 802.11g connection, and from what I understand the distance is better with g, as apposed to b. So do you have an antenna at both ends then, or only at your end? because I plan on only having the antenna at my place, as my friend doesn't want to spend the money on getting an antenna himself...

If you want a higher wattage, get an amplifier and insert it in-line with the antenna. Almost all wireless cards can't go above 0.03W due to their design.

You can mod some amplifiers to greatly increase the power, but be careful with this as the FCC won't be very happy if you exceed the regulated maximum transmit power (4W for 802.11b and g in USA) even though many amplifiers can go above 10W easily.

Ummm, I thought about getting a amplifier, but my plan is to see how this works first, so my real question is... do you know of a good card then? I found one that had the atheros core by dlink, but it was like $110, and well... I don't really want to spend a good 100 dollars on a wireless card. I suppose if that is the only way it will work, I might, but that is a good chunk of cash...

[iCrash]

I have a similar question (sorry to hijack ). I work in an older building in the center of my town's business district. Since it is a retail store there is no need for mainstream internet access so we don't have it. I like to bring my laptop to work with me because it helps alot with my profession (photo lab technician). I was looking for wifi hotspots so I walked outside into our parking lot, got nothing, continued on into a neighboring lot across the street behind a large three story building and picked up on someone's unsecured wifi (there are house across the street from that lot) and got almost perfect signal, about 90%. Suppose I bought something like a Hawking Hi-gain pcmia wifi card (6dbi) would I pick up on that signal being towards the outer wall of an old concrete building and then being partially blocked by a three story concrete building? Or would the Hawking hi-gain directional dish (8dbi) suit me better?

[tain]

I plan on using 802.11g connection, and from what I understand the distance is better with g, as apposed to b.

They use the same power and frequencies so the range in most cases is the same. You will probably have better distance luck with B.

do you know of a good card then?

Orinoco/Proxim.

Or would the Hawking hi-gain directional dish (8dbi) suit me better?

The dish will probably work better for you.