House to House WiFi - whats best for speed?

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smbunn

107 posts

Master Geek

#177328 30-Jul-2015 08:54

I have two houses 40m apart and am sharing one ADSL link. So house one has the telephone line and router supplied by the provider. I then have a powerline carrier that takes Ethernet to the top floor where I have a second router in AP mode (DD-WRT installed). This has its own SSID but gets addresses via DHCP from the provider router. It is an ASUS RT-N12 with two aerial connections. On one I have a 5db gain omni antenna and on the second I have a square directional outdoor WiFi aerial with 20dB gain pointed at house two. (by the way the antenna is guaranteed to push 20Mbs over 10 km)

In house two I have the same RT-N12 router and the same set up, one antenna is an indoor 5dB gain omni and the second is the square directional pointed at house 1. It gets its addresses via DHCP from the ADSL router in house 1.

When looking at the link speed between the two houses it varies form 6.5 Mbs to 65 Mbs and constantly changes between these values.

My questions are:

I understood that the two aerials actually work together, so me putting the directional on one and an omni on the other on the same router may actually not be a good idea, i.e. maybe I should use high gain omnis on both antenna connectors?
Should I consider a different pair of WiFi routers? Something like ASUS RT-AC68U Wireless-AC1900 Dual Band Gigabit Router IEEE 802.11ac, IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n?
It has been handy to share the same subnet, for example I have a DLNA media server in house 2 and like to play music and movies across in house 1 from it.
99% of the time the only traffic across the link is internet access, and since i only get 8 Mbs from ADSL the WiFi link is not the bottleneck. However now I am occasionally trying to stream HD movies which are 25GB in size and need about 2.4MBs (or about 26 Mbs) which are stuttering so much it is unwatchable.

Any ideas gratefully received

thanks

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2780 posts

Uber Geek

#1355050 30-Jul-2015 09:09

I would look at something like an Ubiquiti Picostation at either end, personally.

smbunn

107 posts

Master Geek

#1355061 30-Jul-2015 09:16

So just plug the pico station into one of the Ethernet ports at each RT-N12 and they will talk to each other using AirMax? Sounds great!

Do they need any set-up, or do they auto detect each other? Do they get assigned a IP address,?

Can you query them on performance?

thanks for the quick answer, looks ideal and something I hadn't even thought of!

michaelmurfy

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#1355064 30-Jul-2015 09:20

A pair of these will be overkill but will work fine: http://www.gowifi.co.nz/backhaul-point-to-point/ubiquiti-nanostation-m5-802.11n/a-500mw-outdoor-ap/bridge.html
Otherwise a pair of these: http://www.gowifi.co.nz/backhaul-point-to-point/ubiquiti-nanostation-locom2-802.11n/g-200mw-outdoor-ap/bridge.html

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wellygary

8312 posts

Uber Geek

#1355070 30-Jul-2015 09:34

What channels are the Omnis and Directional on?

Are there any other networks nearby, ? ( if so what channels)

deadlyllama

1260 posts

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#1355075 30-Jul-2015 09:46

I have a pair of Mikrotik SXT Lite5 units used in a similar application. They can saturate 100Mbps ethernet over my link (80m) - the internal speedtest claims 200Mbps. The link is extremely reliable, too.

(edit: added link)

deadlyllama

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#1355077 30-Jul-2015 09:46

michaelmurfy: A pair of these will be overkill but will work fine: http://www.gowifi.co.nz/backhaul-point-to-point/ubiquiti-nanostation-m5-802.11n/a-500mw-outdoor-ap/bridge.html
Otherwise a pair of these: http://www.gowifi.co.nz/backhaul-point-to-point/ubiquiti-nanostation-locom2-802.11n/g-200mw-outdoor-ap/bridge.html

No matter which manufacturer you go with, get 5GHz units. 2.4GHz is crowded and noisy.

smbunn

107 posts

Master Geek

#1355101 30-Jul-2015 10:08

The area the houses are in is totally free from other WiFi signals. Its in the countryside so just me!

Just to make it interesting it is in the South of France, so I need to check French regulations on radio power, but over 40m I don't need a lot.

These fast point to point links look great.

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michaelmurfy

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#1355103 30-Jul-2015 10:09

deadlyllama:
michaelmurfy: A pair of these will be overkill but will work fine: http://www.gowifi.co.nz/backhaul-point-to-point/ubiquiti-nanostation-m5-802.11n/a-500mw-outdoor-ap/bridge.html
Otherwise a pair of these: http://www.gowifi.co.nz/backhaul-point-to-point/ubiquiti-nanostation-locom2-802.11n/g-200mw-outdoor-ap/bridge.html

No matter which manufacturer you go with, get 5GHz units. 2.4GHz is crowded and noisy.

I thought I linked to 5GHz, fail on my behalf :)

deadlyllama

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#1355173 30-Jul-2015 11:38

smbunn: The area the houses are in is totally free from other WiFi signals. Its in the countryside so just me!

Just to make it interesting it is in the South of France, so I need to check French regulations on radio power, but over 40m I don't need a lot.

These fast point to point links look great.

You can't go wrong with a pair of Mikrotiks or Ubiquitis. Both are very easy to mount outdoors, are powered over the ethernet cable, and will give you a reliable, high performance link. They're similar in price to consumer indoor gear.

Mounting: if you've got TV aerials, or exterior pipes of the right diameter in the right place, you can use those. Otherwise, you can probably source hockey stick antenna poles from a local electrical supplies shop, or get something to screw to the side of a building like these.

You might want to check what difference it makes if you replace the network-over-powerline connection with some ethernet cable. For some people, powerline works well; for me it's always been flaky and at best given 1/10th of the speed the marketing promises.

smbunn

107 posts

Master Geek

#1355178 30-Jul-2015 11:45

Putting Ethernet cable in is of course always preferred, until you realise that house 1 is made of stone and was built in 1326. So WiFi and powerline carriers for me. I put in 500 Mbs units and am getting a consistent 55 Mbs speed. the units are three floors apart and running on electrical wiring that is both very old (but not quite 700 years old like the house) and a real mess in terms of layout.

coffeebaron

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#1355247 30-Jul-2015 13:04

Any phone line between the two houses ?

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deadlyllama

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#1355261 30-Jul-2015 13:18

smbunn: Putting Ethernet cable in is of course always preferred, until you realise that house 1 is made of stone and was built in 1326. So WiFi and powerline carriers for me. I put in 500 Mbs units and am getting a consistent 55 Mbs speed. the units are three floors apart and running on electrical wiring that is both very old (but not quite 700 years old like the house) and a real mess in terms of layout.

The other mounting option is on the inside of a window, which might work better for a 700 year old house. Ubiquiti have a nice suction cup holder for their radios: http://www.gowifi.co.nz/mounting-hardware/antenna-mounting-hardware/ubiquiti-nanostation-window/wall-mount.html. Or you could screw a mounting bracket onto furniture in front of the window (e.g. to the back of a desk).

smbunn

107 posts

Master Geek

#1355281 30-Jul-2015 13:40

The walls are about 450 mm thick stone, do you recommend having the aerial inside, which I would prefer by the way, given that I am only trying to get 40 m?

smbunn

107 posts

Master Geek

#1355284 30-Jul-2015 13:42

coffeebaron: Any phone line between the two houses ?

Did you miss the part about them being in the South of France? Orange are the only provider in my area and charge 46€ a month for the privilege. I get about 7.6MBs and am told VDSL+ at 20-50 MBs will be available by 2020.

RunningMan

8953 posts

Uber Geek

#1355303 30-Jul-2015 14:14

smbunn:
coffeebaron: Any phone line between the two houses ?

Did you miss the part about them being in the South of France? Orange are the only provider in my area and charge 46€ a month for the privilege. I get about 7.6MBs and am told VDSL+ at 20-50 MBs will be available by 2020.

And being the only two houses in the area, should there be wiring, it is reasonable that the wiring to the second house may go via the first.

Is there any cabling between the two houses, phone or otherwise? Even a spare phone pair could be used for a point to point VDSL connection between the 2.

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