I've yet to test this one, but the homehub 1 I had here til I replaceed it wouldn't work much outside the house. Big stone walls, mind. The one in question is just inside a window which more or less faces the caravan, so it might work. Caravan may be a Faraday cage thobut, if it's an ally bodied one. Sometime I'll take the phone (wot does wifi) and prowl around and see what it can pick up. If I can get connection from behind the 'van, I shall assume it jbexf :-)
If Cat 5 will work reliably with a 50-yard cable, I'd be tempted to do it that way, without wireless at all.
Some routers and wireless cards will accept external antennas, which can be mounted outside to provide a more reliable link, but they'd probably cost more than a length of cable and a couple of RJ45 sockets.
If there's a window in the house, and one in the caravan, which can 'see' each other, and the wireless devices in the caravan and the house can be arranged to be visible to each other through them, that might just be enough; it'd be worth trying. If someone starts using a microwave oven, a video sender, or some other 2.4GHz device, at either end, though, that might affect or even block the weak wireless data signal.
Both Cat5 and wireless should be fine at 50 yards. As you say, it helps if the two wireless antennae can "see" each other - more essential at the caravan end probably to be aligned to a window facing the right direction or there will probably be a fair bit of attenuation from the metal in the caravan wall.
...there will probably be a fair bit of attenuation from the metal in the caravan wall.
There will indeed; at 2.4GHz, the signal will only get into the caravan through its windows, and, of those, probably only the ones that can 'see' the house. Even with my 433MHz and 1297MHz handheld amateur radio kit, the effect is very marked, even in a car, with much more glass area. At 2.4GHz it'll be even more fierce, so a line-of-sight wireless signal path will be pretty well essential.
thassa point. There are windows facing eachother, so if 2 yagis can be pointed at eachother to effectively make a link with a repeater-stylee thing in the 'van, that'd do it.
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Some routers and wireless cards will accept external antennas, which can be mounted outside to provide a more reliable link, but they'd probably cost more than a length of cable and a couple of RJ45 sockets.
If there's a window in the house, and one in the caravan, which can 'see' each other, and the wireless devices in the caravan and the house can be arranged to be visible to each other through them, that might just be enough; it'd be worth trying. If someone starts using a microwave oven, a video sender, or some other 2.4GHz device, at either end, though, that might affect or even block the weak wireless data signal.
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There will indeed; at 2.4GHz, the signal will only get into the caravan through its windows, and, of those, probably only the ones that can 'see' the house. Even with my 433MHz and 1297MHz handheld amateur radio kit, the effect is very marked, even in a car, with much more glass area. At 2.4GHz it'll be even more fierce, so a line-of-sight wireless signal path will be pretty well essential.
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Google for "yagi antenna for wifi" and hook them to the wireless repeaters pointing straight at each other.
Andy
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