Wide Area Network Building

[roco]

Struggling.....I am attempting to use a long range directional antenna to connect two networks on our property and use an IP phone from packet8 on the second network (Barn) but I am constantly getting disconnected on the phone in the barn........ any suggestions?

Home
Router WRT54g2
Modem Roadrunner motorolla

Barn
Cisco Wet200 Bridge (IP address from Home network)
Router WRT54GS running DDWRT

Distance to second network 300 feet line of site

Internet Connection (Home) across 2 networks:

Download: 6294 (Kbps)
Upload: 465 (Kbps)
In kilobytes per second: 768.3 down 56.7 up
Boost: 6294
Latency: 9 ms
Tested by server: 68 flash

 

[DaveMcLain]

Probably what's happening is that there just isn't quite enough signal strength on your long link. From what I've seen with a similar setup you need about 15db to get a connection to happen and the AP's to associate they will not be reliable until you get about another 15-20db of "headroom". For instance my long distance link used to show about a 20% signal quality in DD-WRT and it would work most of the time. It's been VERY much more reliable now that I have it telling me 35-40% signal quality. Do some more checking but I'd bet you'll just need more gain at one or both ends of the link.

 

[thiggins]

Run a long ping to see what your packet loss is like. Dave is probably correct that signal level isn't stable enough.

You also might have better luck with gear designed for outdoor / long distance links. Ubitquiti and Engenius make nice combination antenna/ bridges for this. Not too much money either.