A network between two adjacent buildings

September 9, 2009 8:44 AM

I need advice on the best and least expensive way to have a network between two adjacent buildings.

I'm part of a writer's residency, and the organization owns two houses next door to each other. We want to have one network, with one internet connection, between the two houses. One house has the only desktop there will be, and at least one WiFi-capable laptop. The other house has nothing but WiFi-capable laptops. There is a mixture of people running Windows XP and Mac OSX (nothing older than Leopard).

Ideally, I would like to have a blazing fast internet connection, and one router, to which the desktop is connected, and then maybe have some kind of powerful antenna to boost the WiFi signal over to the other house. It would be awesome if I could also get printer sharing, Bonjour (or whatever they're calling it this week) for Windows and Mac set up, file sharing, etc -- basically the ideal would be to have an honest-to-god network set up. I can do all that once I know how to share the network between the two buildings. Our org doesn't have a lot of extra money so I would like to keep the cost as low as possible.

posted by eustacescrubb to computers & internet (16 comments total)

Can you or can you not run a wire?
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:15 AM on September 9

How far apart and how clear a shot between the two? The house without the connection needs a bridge and another router (wireless) or a switch (wired).
posted by raildr at 9:19 AM on September 9

It's really hard to give you a good recommendation without more information.

Seconding Chocolate Pickle and raildr:

How far apart are the buildings? Can you run a wire? What kind of budget do you have (fancy access points are pretty expensive)?
posted by gregr at 9:40 AM on September 9

The buildings are about 20 feet apart -- the width of a typical driveway. A wire could be run; we own both buildings and one of the directors of the program owns a contracting company.
posted by eustacescrubb at 9:51 AM on September 9

For such a short distance run CAT5e cable from one to the other. Just string it up between two supports, or put it inside a piece of PVC or aluminum conduit. This is the absolute cheapest way to do it, unless I'm missing something.
posted by odinsdream at 9:58 AM on September 9

So: I would connect the modem to a switch, run a CAT5e cable from the switch to house 2, and into a wireless router, yes? And then from the switch in house 1, run another CAT5e to a second wireless router. This would give both houses WiFi. But would it then mean everyone was on the same network? Are there any specific network settings I'd need to make this all work?
posted by eustacescrubb at 10:15 AM on September 9

If you really need it to be wireless you can setup ddwrt or tomato firmware on a compatilble router and put it in repeater mode for the house with one computer. Also depending on the original router and construction of the homes you could install an extra antenna or make one (cantenna) that amplifies the signal enough. Take one of the laptops over to the house and check to see if you can get a decent signal. Move the router around in the other house near a window try to get a line of sight and you should have no trouble with twenty feet and a decent router.
posted by bravowhiskey at 10:20 AM on September 9

If you use two wireless routers, you don't need a separate switch

internet->cable modem->router1->long cat5 cable->router2

Two router setup instructions

One router could serve the two houses if it is centrally located and the houses are typical vinyl, wood, drywall construction. Any substantial construction, brick, wood, plaster lathe, all bets are off.
posted by limited slip at 10:25 AM on September 9

You would connect your modem to a router, then the router to a switch. That switch would feed wires to any computers in house A. One of those wires would go outside and feed another switch in house B. From that switch you can either wire directly to other computers, or wire an access point (set in Access Point mode, versus Router mode) to it.
posted by odinsdream at 10:30 AM on September 9

Once you have the ethernet cable from one house to another, you can monkey around with the various router on one side vs. router on both sides scenarios as much as you like. But run the wire first, it's definitely better than relying on wireless from one building to the next, and it will make troubleshooting later problems so much easier.

So: I would connect the modem to a switch, run a CAT5e cable from the switch to house 2, and into a wireless router, yes? And then from the switch in house 1, run another CAT5e to a second wireless router. This would give both houses WiFi. But would it then mean everyone was on the same network?

That will work, and yes they will be on the same network because they're using the same switch and will have addresses in the same space. Without techspeak: All computers will get internet from their closest WiFi point (wireless router), but both of those points get internet from the same switch.

One of the two access points could also act as the switch, but it might be cleaner and easier to manage if you use an independent plain old wired switch. It also lets either access point fail without bringing down the other house during the time it takes to replace it. I've only had one burn out in 10 years, but access points seem to fail for people on MeFi quite often.
posted by rokusan at 10:39 AM on September 9

Thanks! This is very helpful.
posted by eustacescrubb at 10:41 AM on September 9

Make sure you set your two access points to use different channels.
posted by gregr at 11:20 AM on September 9

Since one house has only wireless laptops you may even be able to get away with putting the wireless router in the other house with the modem. I'd try that first before running cables and buying extra routers/switches. A house away isn't too far a distance, likely.
posted by 6550 at 1:20 PM on September 9

nthing using a wire to connect the houses, it is way more reliable than a wireless connection. An to clarify gregr's suggestion: Configure the wireless access points in both houses that you have connected via a switch and a cable to use the same network name encryption scheme and encryption key but with different channels. 1, 6 and 11 do not overlap.
This way anybody who uses their laptop in one house can go to the other house without having to change his network configuration in any way.
posted by mmkhd at 2:45 PM on September 9

Connect them with a wire. You could have both of your access points in each house support WDS and basically "be the same network", if you are careful to make sure they both support it. It'll be easiest if they're the same brand or even the exact same access point.
posted by floam at 8:52 PM on September 9

s/network/wifi/, maybe.
posted by floam at 8:52 PM on September 9