[manchesterwireless] Wifi contractors in the north-west

[G.W. Haywood]

Hi there,

On Wed, 4 Jan 2006, Gavin Hamill wrote:

> Is there anyone who does wifi consultancy in the north-west?

Depends on your definition of north-west. :)

> trying to link two sites together with fibre, but having some probs

Digging the trench is usually the biggest problem.  Then keeping the
water out (of the fibre).

> so I want to look into wifi as a backup.

OK if you don't mind slumming it at 54Mbit/s. :)

> There is line-of-sight, across a car park (maybe 300m?) and we've been
> using two domestic 3Com 54G Access Points, with the hope of making one
> talk to the other.

With the little whips that come with most kit you'll be struggling at
that distance if there's any interference, or any attenuation by the
building materials etc. but it's just about possible.  For one of my
links of about 350m I use a cantenna (strictly it's a "whiskytenna"
see http://www.jubileegroup.co.uk/radio/whisky_in_use.jpg for a shot
of the actual device in use:) at one end and the whip at the other.
My estimate of the cantenna gain is about 8dBi.  You'll probably
manage with a bit less, but I'd look for about that (if it's just at
one end) or about four or five dBi at both ends.

> I guess we need someone who can specify antennae and wall-mount
> them and run cabling in a kosher way - any takers? :)

A small 'patch' antenna will probably do - they're very cheap, why
not just get one and try it?

73,
Ged.