I need to bring internet access the street and am currently using a router running openwrt connected to my network access the street. I am thinking about getting a second router or outside ap to create a dedicated network for bringing internet across.
Is there a “best practice” to do this? Currently there is a high latency and it is unstable to to the limited range of my main network. I want to have a dedicated network to bridge the connections that only has one device connected. Is there a setup that works best for that?
Edit: I did it and it works OK. It really depends on how much interference there is. My connection is high latency but decent most of the time. The problem is that around dinner time it gets very slow and cuts out a bit which I assume is due to interference. It worked the way I needed it to but I think I’ll just get a dedicated line for 30 USD a month (200mb/s bring your own hardware)
Check out https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/08/point-to-point-wi-fi-bridging-between-buildings-the-cheap-and-easy-way/ which is a good article on how to do this
Mikrotik wireless wire will get that done without needing two routers.
Ugh I forgot the product name, but Ubiquity has devices specifically for this kind of networking. You can get two nano things outside to bridge the network directly to a single machine or a switch. They also have bigger dishes for even longer distances, but the cheapest ones would be perfect for shooting across the street.
It would be more expensive than a router; but it would work way better than just doing a wifi bridge between two routers that weren’t meant for that range or through both sets of walls
I did this years ago with directional cantennas. The distance was about 350 feet or 106 meters. It worked OK but seemed easy to break.
I remember once being confused why the printer wasn’t working only to realize I had selected a printer a block away at someone else’s house…
What you’ve described isn’t a bad idea, but honestly if you’re going across the street, just aligning some cantennas or using a proper point-to-point wireless ethernet setup will do the job perfectly fine - no need for additional routing unless you have a specific use case.
That would depend on your goals.
If you want to play games with your neighbour, you could probably get away with two APs sitting in your windows. Heck, you might be lucky and a power line Ethernet could work.
If you’re a business and want both properties to be one network, with the speed and reliability that you would expect, then you would want a point-to-point system with directional antennas.
And if you wanted minimal interference, you would probably want to look at 60Ghz. E.g: https://mikrotik.com/product/wireless_wire
Is slinging an ethernet cable across the road from power/phone poles an option?
Typically utility owners frown upon unlicensed workers attaching things to their infrastructure. The best case is that it gets taken down.
