Wireless N router, long range/high power - reccomendations?

[john dough]

I am setting up wireless at a client's new office where they need access to the network in an office about 100 feet away in a different building. The offices have large windows where wireless comes through without an issue (they only had an older WRT54G to test with yesterday and I was getting a signal, albeit not a strong one) and I need something with a good amount of power/range.

I was thinking to put in a high-power Buffalo with Tomato, but the 2 users there both have 802.11N on their laptops (one MacBook Pro and one newish Dell) so would using an N router have better throughput than the Buffalo? The N routers tout more range and better data rates (they will be using Skype quite a bit and need bandwidth), so I am looking for the best range/throughput, if indeed that is the case. They have budgeted several thousand for networking, to have data cables run to that building, but I can save them most of that by getting a great router.

Any thoughts?

[mattkime]

kind of hard to make a call on that without direct experience.

http://www.buffalotech.com/products/wire...hp-g300nh/

that looks pretty good although i'd personally prefer something that runs dd-wrt

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices

thats a good chart which explains the capabilities and internal hardware of each router.

[C(-)ris]

My thought would be if they have the money budgeted to run the wires then do it. Wireless does not come close to the reliability of having physical cable. If they are using Skype and video conferencing they are going to be heavy bandwidth users. There are so many things that can knock out or slow down point to point wireless that, given their useage,I wouldn't use it unless it was not possible or not cost effective to run cable. For surfing or email it would probably be fine, but not video conferencing.

[john dough]

Well, they not "budgeted" exactly. They contacted an electrician where he said he would have to run wires underground from building to building and they said it would cost several thousand dollars. which they were contemplating. They called me and when looking at the setup yesterday, they asked if wireless could reach there and after testing, the signal was ok. When they do their calls where they are talking to clients, they do it from their conference room; the Skype video functionality is for one to one internally, not with clients. They just want as much power as possible and it looks as if the above mentioned Buffalo will do the trick (thanks matt).

[Filliam H. Muffman]

I would go with a dual band A/G/N routers/bridges and high gain antennas over high power units.

These should work well but I would make sure to get an antenna with a cable connector that matches the outlet on the router.
$100 TRENDnet 300Mbps Concurrent Dual Band Wireless N-Router
$118 3Com 8/10 dBi Dual-Band Panel Antenna

[heap1]

I would not buy that model Buffalo Router (WZR-HP-G300NH) mentioned above. I have that same router and because it has an internal antenna the range is horrible. You would probably get a weaker signal than with the Linksys you have now. Also the web interface is one of the most confusing I have seen.

I would go with the suggestion of a dual band router with a high gain antenna and/or run repeaters from one building to the other.

[clay]

go with wired. Less headaches, fast connection, and no mucking around with wireless which will be finicky. It may cost more now, but if it is used for anything crucial at all, wireless is just going to be a pain in the butt.

Run 3 data cables for some redundancy (preferably in a couple of different locations in case one is ever severed), and never look back.

[IronMac]

Yeah, I would echo the calls for a wired solution.

[sunfalcon]

The client wants wireless everyone. If they wanted wired, they would have forked out the cash and taken care of it.

Now, I have no comments on what router to use.

[John B.]

I've got two old Buffalo WBR2-G54s that have been connecting my house to my office (across the street, about 120' line of sight) for almost 5 years.

On the house side, the router sits in a window facing the office, using its internal antenna. The office router is in a concrete block building without a window facing the house, so it has an external antenna (about 5' square, bought off eBay).

Stock hardware, stock firmware. Five years without an issue. The routers only get rebooted when I occasionally have to move a power plug or replace a UPS battery (less than once a year). Wish I had the same level of reliability from my cable Internet provider.

I'd recommend a pair of routers that can do wireless bridging and external antennas as needed. I don't get the concept of wanting to buy router hardware and immediately install DD-WRT or Tomato and crank the power level up to 99, but that's just me.