Possible solutions for this scenario ...

I have someone who has asked me to help him setup a solution for his home and small business.

Here is what he has and interested in:

1. The house and the building the business is located in is about 200 feet apart from one another. A gravel parking lot seperate the two facilities.

2. We will be putting in a new Dell workstation in the business.

3. The home computers are two newer laptops.

He wants to be able to use the laptop in his home to access a business application that will be running on his business workstation in the other facilty ... a couple hundred feet away.

What are our options?

Here are some assumptions and more info to help:

1. I'll be sure that all PCs are running WinXP.

2. I'm going to recommend putting in High-speed cable ISP and sharing via wireless super g router. And, possibly, use an external antenna to push the signal to the house to it's own gateway for the two laptops.

3. The business app I have no info on yet. But, I assume it is a low-end app running locally only. So, what's the best option to run this app from the house/laptop? Using RDC over the wireless bridge?

What about running shielded Cat5e cable from the house to the business to have consistent throughput between the two areas ... and use the wireless (or wired for that matter) router share the bandwidth?

Let me know your thougths.... thanks.

 

I would run XP Pro.

Wireless depends on the surrounding enviro. Before I put any wireless in, I would have a site survey done. Unless, this is like a rural area, and you are sure you don't have to worry about other wireless networks and interference. If the enviro is pretty clean, then you could do it with a wireless access point and a yagi antenna pointed to the house. If it were me, I would recommend a Cisco 1200, with a yagi. You will still need a router.

As far as running the app, how about terminal services or even Tight VNC?


Scott
http://www.AAApcMechanic.com

 

BTW, I use AirMagnet on a Pocket PC to do surveys. You can do the same with some other tools and a lap top with a wireless card. Main thing you want to look out for are other access points, channels they are using, and excess noise.
I've been to some sites where they want to run wireless, and it's so saturated that getting a reliable connection is just about impossible.

Scott
http://www.AAApcMechanic.com

 

Thanks 44039!

This is a rural primarily residentail area where the houses are not close together. So, there shouldn't be any other signals being picked up, etc. So, I'm not too worried about that part of it.

Yeah, I thought about Terminal Services (RDC or MSTSC) also as well as VNC or one of the other remote apps. But, I think TS is the best option overall.

Just sold my old ipaq on eBay! Doh! But, I can use my laptop and one of the freeware apps to check for signals,etc. But, I still don't think it will be a problem.

Thanks again!

 

Residentials can be noisy too! I stood in my living room with a sniffer, and I picked up 14 access points, and about 25 different computers! I live is a rural community in Ohio!
Also, cordless phones can give you grief! Ask the client if he/she has any 2.4GHz cordless phones. Other phones such as 900MHz are ok. Building material and content can be a factor too. While metal and earth can bounce the signal around, concrete, cardboard and plywood act like sponges, and actually soak up RF (cardboard is the worst, IMO).

Cheers!

Scott
http://www.AAApcMechanic.com