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I have a very special situation, please help !!

Sep 21, 2004 4:23AM PDT

I live in Egypt and I intend to make my home the first wireless Wi-Fi network to be in Egypt, my situation is ;

1)We live in buildings made of brick, and I intend to make the connection between me and a couple of my friends in the opposite building which is about 60 meters away. does the signal will pass through brick !!!!
2) In winter, we have a rainy weather, Does it will affect the signal between us!!!
3) My ISP uses Alcatel modems or router, what is the router that will support working with such modems !!! I have read on the internet that D-link XtremeG and netgear 108mbps don't function properly with Alcatel DSL modems for some new sensors in the ports of both D-link and Netgear routers !!!!......
4) My ISP will provide me with an ADSL connection, not a DSL one, so what is the DSL router that will support this!!!!

See, I have a 4 point situation, and the router I am looking for should meet these points, I guess.... So could you help me please find such router, please ???

A very important point is that the wireless routers is very new thing that isn't sold in the stores in Egypt so I have to buy from the US and the same time supporting requirments here for ADSL connections, this is my biggest confusion is buying a router from the US fitting the requirments in Egypt, but these requirments are summerized in my 4 points, specialy the last 2 points, they are the most important that we can't miss ....

By the way, I was thinking of Buffalo airstation G-54 and Microsoft MN-700, I know there are many differences between them as I read thier detailed reviews, but does anyone of them can meet my 4 points, specially the ADSL connection and the Alcatel routers support???, because these 2 things I can't avoid !!!.....

I hope to hear from you so soon, and many thanks in advance for helping me.....

Discussion is locked

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Re: I have a very special situation, please help !!
Sep 21, 2004 4:43AM PDT

Even without such, the signal barely works well at tens of meters in a drywall and wood house. Rain and concrete absorb the signal and you need to add range extenders such as http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=18 and antennas such as the CANTENNA (look it up on google.com).

What is worth writing is that the equipment is cheaper than having someone "design" and test out a possible solution...

So place the WAP or wifi-route on the DSL/CABLE modem, add extenders where needed.

Bob

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Re: I have a very special situation, please help !!
Sep 21, 2004 5:26AM PDT

Mourad, a couple of thoughts on your requirements:

1) The radio signals will pass through brick, but the density of the material will weaken the signal more than if the walls were wood. Distance also affects signal strength. 65 meters is about as far as you can expect under good circumstances, but the signal will likely be very weak at your friends place across the road. If you want to boost the reception, you'll need to work with external antennas or other hacks to the radio chips in the router. There are lots of websites about building your own parabolic reflectors or alternative antennas from tin cans, which will increase the distance to 1,000 meters or more. There are also special devices and firmware hacks that boost the radio output strength, but these are usually specific to a particular brand or model of WiFi unit.

2) I don't know how rain affects things - the concept is designed for indoor use and the effects in an outdoor environment are not as well documented. Trees and leaves interfere with the signal while wood walls (which are made from trees...) don't, because of the water in the living tree. Possibly rain does too.

3) I like the Buffalo equipment. I would stay away from the Microsoft equipment. It's not that the MS equipment is bad, but my sense is that Microsoft is not as committed to its hardware business, so I don't know what the long-term support for the product will turn out to be.

4)ADSL or full SDSL, that doesn't matter to the router. That is handled by the modem. The router only needs an ethernet connection to the modem. You've already looked at the issue of compatibility between the ethernet ports of the Alcatel vs. some D-Link and Netgear equipment.

One more consideration that I don't know the answer to: government regulation of the radio spectrum. In the USA equipment, the 2.4gHz radio band is divided into specific frequency channels that are different from the frequency channels required by the European government regulations. There are probably different frequency assignments in other countries. That is why the technical documentation always specifies that a particular WiFi product is intended for sale/use only in a certain country or region of the world. You mention that yours will be the first WiFi computer network in your area, but there may be other incompatible uses of the 2.4gHz radio band in your country that will cause interference on your link, or worse, your computer equipment will cause disruption to other radio equipment near you. Typical uses of the 2.4gHz radio band are microwave ovens, cordless telephones, and "walkie-talkie" personal radio communications. Be careful about what your government thinks about your use of the radio frequencies of the WiFi equipment you buy.

dw