airport distance and PC compatabilty

is it possible for me and my friend (PC user) to have a wireless lan? We live one house apart. I'm terrible with distance, but for a rough estimate/example I would say we're about 70-100ft apart. And if that is too far away, isn't there little pringle cans you can use for an antenna?

And he's PC, so he would just have to get a 802.11b compatable Wireless NIC card right? And would we have to get a wireless HUB or anything?

I might be forgetting some important stuff, so if anyone could just explain what I would need to make a wireless connection possible between us.

Thanks,

sKaD

70-100 feet is really pushing the limits for 802.11b especially between two houses. if possible i would try to do 802.11g which has more range and faster speeds. what you would need is an 802.11g basestation and a 802.11g card for both computers.

Yes, a wireless LAN card would work fine for PC, however I doubt it would work between two houses because of the distance and interference.

I also don't believe that trpnmonkey41 is correct. 802.11g's range is the same at the slower "b" speeds and the range is even less (like 50 ft I think) for the faster "g" speeds. One option may be to get an antenna for your base station or to string basestations together to increase range. You can find out more information on that in Apple's support site for Airport.

Schweb is right about the distance. 802.11b has a much greater distance then 802.11g. In fact, last I read about it, it was double the distance. I would stick with 802.11b for something like this. There are antennas out there that will let you stretch 802.11b. The last place I worked, we were using 802.11b across 2 miles. Of course we had amplifiers, and $5000 antennas , but you can accomplish 100 feet easily. I found some antennas at CompUSA, which are HERE. If you provide some more specs about your access point, I could probably point you to a specific set of antennas that should work for you.

Emrys said:

If you provide some more specs about your access point, I could probably point you to a specific set of antennas that should work for you.

Click to expand...

What do you mean by "Access Point"?

Thanks for the replies and thanks for the link, I'll look into the antenna's.

sKaD

You need an access point to have a wireless network. It is what the wireless cards in the computers connect to. The Access Point is either connected to your network via switch/hub or intgerated router. You don't have an access point right now? How are you connecting to the internet? DSL? Cable? Dial-up?

schweb said:

I also don't believe that trpnmonkey41 is correct. 802.11g's range is the same at the slower "b" speeds and the range is even less (like 50 ft I think) for the faster "g" speeds.

Click to expand...

i should have put that i could be incredibly off on my numbers there i had just thought g had longer range then which would make it "extreme". i have never really looked into g since my powerbook only supports b which is what i use

The extreme part of it is the bandwidth. 802.11g has a bandwidth of about 54MB. 802.11b has 11MB. The sacrifice is distance which that spectrum can keep a clean signal. I'm not positive of the distances but I believe 802.11g is about half that of 802.11b.

"What happens as I move farther from my base station?
In any wireless network, a computer that is connected to a wireless base station — like the AirPort Extreme Base Station — achieves data rates (or speeds) relative to its distance from the base station. In the case of an AirPort Extreme-enabled computer, you can achieve data rates of up to 54 Mbps when you are up to 50 feet from an AirPort Extreme Base Station. As you move beyond 50 feet, data rates begin to decrease. When the AirPort Extreme-enabled computer is up to 150 feet away from the AirPort Extreme Base Station, you can achieve data rates of up to 11 Mbps. AirPort-enabled computers and other 802.11b Wi-Fi certified products achieve data rates of up to 11 Mbps (the maximum data rate they support) whether they are right next to the base station or up to 150 feet away. (Actual speed varies depending on range, connection rate, site conditions, size of network, and other factors.) "


but you can also get the extender antenna

So the 802.11g will degrade to 802.11b speeds the further away you get. But both will have the same "limit" of 150 ft. So obviously 802.11g is good if you plan on being close to the base station, other wise it is more money for the same performance as 802.11b, which is dirt cheap these days.

would it not be cheaper to buy a PC wireless router as opposed to the extreme base station if they all use the same 802.11x technology?

Yes. They are the same standard, so you should be able to use any 802.11b base station/access point.

Hey, Thanks for all the replys everyone, i'll deffinatly look into it, at this point I can't afford it by myself and my friend is now going to be supporting a child so I guess it'll have to wait until I can save some cash.

but you're help is appreciated, i'm sure it will work if we get the antenna's because our windows face eachother's houses (where the computers are) if not, oh well.

sKaD