Stretching a Wi-Fi Signal over a Long Range

Reader Mark Humphrey writes: I live in rural Ohio. Verizon won't run cable from the main road to my house, which is 1,000 feet away from the road. Is there any thing I can do here? I have a guest house next to the road with cable. Can I hook up a wireless Internet connection between the main house and the guest house, 1,000 feet away?

Using Wi-Fi to span long distances is one of the most popular pet projects among hackers, precisely for the reasons you're outlining here: It isn't always easy to get wired broadband where you need it, and the generally good speed, stability, and ubiquity of Wi-Fi make it a great candidate to fill in the gaps.

It sounds like you have a perfect setup for using Wi-Fi here, but it'll take a little bit of tweaking. Even at its best, you can only stretch a Wi-Fi signal to about 400 feet under the best conditions (based on my experience), so you'll need to find a way to boost the signal. There are numerous ways to do this, but the easiest and cheapest is probably as follows:

First, set up a wireless router in the guest house, connected to the cable modem. Position it in a window, if possible, where you have a line-of-sight view of it from your main house. You don't need to do anything special to this router at all aside from configuring it normally and applying appropriate security.

Now, place a wireless repeater (preferably from the same company; make sure it's compatible) near a window in the main house, facing the guest house. (Make sure your router supports external antennas: Buffalo, D-Link, and Linksys are your best bets.) It is in this window (or outside of it) that you'll want to place a bigger antenna that will pick up the signal 1,000 feet away. What you want is a directional antenna (pictured), which runs about $50. Make sure you get an appropriate cable to connect it in lieu of the standard antenna on the repeater. These cables are not one-size-fits-all. (RadioLabs sells all the gear you will need.) If you really want to do it on the cheap, the famous "Pringles cantenna" hack offers a virtually free way to make a directional antenna yourself. (Just don't try using it outside.)

Next, just configure the repeater with the same security settings as the router, and you should be in business. You'll want to experiment with the antenna's alignment to ensure you get the best signal, but once you find the sweet spot, you really needn't futz with it anymore. The wireless experience in the main house should be just as good as the one in the guest house.

Some things to consider: If you have trouble getting a connection, you can also put a high-gain antenna on the router in your guest house, though for a mere 1,000 feet, I doubt this will be required. Good luck, and let me know how the project goes!