Least expensive way to bridge 2 buildings (DD-WRT)

[nikbrown]

Hello,
I've been using DD-WRT for years and have a stack of old wrt54g's around.

Right now I have a Linksys e2000 and a WRT610N blanketing my house (both running DD-WRT). I have an external building (workshop) about 25 feet away I want to put an old G5 computer in. It will serve as a web browsing computer but also as a secondary backup destination for all the computers on the LAN.

Currently the Wireless signal is pretty weak in the workshop (I only get WiFi on my iPhone 4 in the front half of the shop).

I'm thinking about sticking a router in the corner of the house closest to the workshop and then sticking another router in the workshop and bridge the LAN to the G5.

CABLE MODEM/ROUTER -> HOUSE LAN -> Cat 6 -> Wireless AP <- 25ft -> Wireless AP <- Cat 6 <- G5

I can do this with the old WRT54's but the throughput won't be that great. Is there any inexpensive wireless-n routers that would work well for this? Ideally I'd prefer to spend less than $50 per router.

 

[nikbrown]

We'll I didn't hear a response in a few hours and then I went to bensbargains.net and saw a deal for referb Linksys WRT160N's @ buy.com for $20 each. After a 30seconds of reading it looks like they do dd-wrt fine so I went with them.

 

[stevech]

Not as cheap but see newegg for Engenious outdoor packaged bridges. Inter-building with indoor devices can work if conditions are just right, but normally, such bridges are on rooftops or sides of buildings.

 

[claykin]

"least expensive"? Grab a shovel and bury 25 feet of Cat5e/6a outdoor rated burial cable. This is your best option. Seriously!

 

[nikbrown]

"least expensive"? Grab a shovel and bury 25 feet of Cat5e/6a outdoor rated burial cable. This is your best option. Seriously!

I would, but the entire area between the two buildings is paved That and the ground is frozen

 

[nikbrown]

Not as cheap but see newegg for Engenious outdoor packaged bridges. Inter-building with indoor devices can work if conditions are just right, but normally, such bridges are on rooftops or sides of buildings.

Those are cool. I had no idea outdoor bridges had gotten so inexpensive. Back in the day I actually used to do some long range work with ORiNOCO systems at a regional ISP. (we put a tower on top of a mountain and beamed 2.4Ghz 802.11b to the top from the office, and then stuck highly directional antennas at customers houses).

At $20 a pop these weren't a big investment and extra routers always seem to come in handy. If I'm not happy with the performance I'll either wire an external directional antenna on them or look into the Engenious gear. Thanks.

 

[sfx2000]

Actually, you might not need to do a bridge over to the garage - Try a BearExtender N3 - It's a high power external USB dongle with external antenna and drivers that support Leopard...

replace the dipole perhaps with a high gain patch antenna, and you'll be rocking...

http://www.bearextender.com/

It's the Rokland N3, so you could also source it from Rokland directly...

http://store.rokland.com/products/the-n3-802-11n-wireless-n-long-range-wifi-usb-for-macs-pcs