[BarkingPup]

Mkay, a rundown of the situation:

My parents built 'The Chalet' as a temporary living space until the big house was fully built. It had internet, landline, one modem and a wireless router. Once the big house was finished, my parents and brothers moved into it and I got The Chalet. Telus (our internet and... I think phone provider) came over and rerouted the internet to the big house, setting up the wireless router for my laptop in The Chalet.

The problem:

The internet has to travel sooooo far that it's pretty much Dial-Up at it's worse and constantly fading at best (or not even connected). The area that I get the best signal in is constantly changing so I can't set up my Laptop somewhere and leave it.

1. I run Vista on my main laptop and it doesn't like my wireless signal. However, I have fiddled with it enough that I'm positive what I am getting now is the best I can get. Even when I plug in my XP netbook the signal isn't that good (despite being better than Vista).

2. The wireless router is oooooold. But, at this point I don't think upgrading would make much of a difference.

For temporary fixes I'm going to get my parents to try and get a directional antennae for it and maaaybe try my hand at a cantennae (which will probably fail knowing my utter lack of building skillz)

So, in short, I've began looking for a naked DSL service and I was hoping people here could help out. I have no desire for VoIP, by the way. Oh, right, and I live in British Columbia, Canada. And I also need a service that is on all the time as I work until midnight and am usually online until 4am or so.

My internet usage is... I suppose over average. I browse sites like Fanfiction.net, forums, e-mail, and Google (I use google a LOT) often. My current internet is unsuited to video/streaming but when I did have reliable internet I watched a lot of videos online. My p2p torrenting is occasional and usually not anything overly large (mostly fandubs of Japanese Anime). Direct downloading (rapidshare etc.) is usually more. Sorry I don't know the exact amount but with three computers on our network I can't tell. Uploading is pretty nonexistent with the occasional exception...

The one I've been interested in the most is lightspeed as they seem to have good rates and a 200GB cap seems like a lot. Most of the jargon is lost on me, however... Like 'dry DSL' or what 6000/1000 speed means.

Ah, long and probably boring post. Well, can anyone help me? I'm kinda confused...

 

[hugh]

I honestly did not read all of your post but my guess is to investigate a new wireless N router that covers a larger area than your existing router. My favourite D-Link DIR-655

 

[BarkingPup]

Are their any routers that can go over a hundred metres and through windows? The current router has a tiny space (the window) where it transmits through, the rest of the signal is -probably- blocked by the wall. If there was a router that could do that I'd get my parents to replace the old one in a heartbeat.

 

[hugh]

100 metres! I'm impressed that you get anything at all.

The only thing I can say is that you could try a high gain antenna to extend Wifi reach.

 

[17671]

is it not possible to run a RJ45 wire from the small house to the big house?
wired will def give you better connection than wireless.

 

[Pinza]

If you are that far away, why not get your own Internet connection from the ISP.

 

[Mozza]

100M? Buy some cable and run it from the house to the "chalet" underground. Probably looking at about $60 cost when all is said and done, and you will get decent speeds and connectivity. I did this for a friend of mine a couple of years back in a similar situation in Manitoba - took 8 hours to do, and he couldn't be happier with it.

We ran a cable through a wall in his parents' house, down to the basement, and out a hole that was drilled for TV cable. Then underground, 50m or so to his guest house, up through a hole drilled for that same TV cable, and in. On either end we attached a wall-plate outlet for the cable, and before planting the cable (about a foot down), we wrapped it in plastic and fed it through PVC pipe (we didn't pay for that because we had some left over... maybe adds some cost).

 

[stampeder]

Where in BC are you (town, area)?

You might get some ideas on building a pair of antennas here: DIY yagi style antenna for 800MHz to 1900MHz (non-TV)? ...although I absolutely agree that stringing a LAN cable is the very best way to go.

 

[Mango]

Thirded on running a cable. It will take some work, yes, but I much prefer a cable to wireless.

 

[DdDave]

... and fed it through PVC pipe ...

If you run a conduit, save yourself some future aggravation and run at least 1 pull string in there for future expansion.

 

[hugh]

I think we all agree that hardwire is the way to go but that is NOT what the OP is asking so please stick to answering the question

 

[DdDave]

Most of the jargon is lost on me, however... Like 'dry DSL' or what 6000/1000 speed means.

Dry DSL (or dry-loop DSL) means that you have a phone line coming into your home that you can use for the internet, but you are not paying for an active telephone number on it. You wouldn't be able to make or receive calls over a dry DSL line. The opposite is a "wet" line, which would have a phone number associated with it and would work like a normal phone.

The 6000/1000 means 6Mbit download, 1Mbit upload.

Do you have your own phone line, or just an extension from the main house? If you have a completely separate phone line then dry DSL is definitely an option, but if you just have a wire run over to the main house then it's going to be lot more difficult, depending on how it's wired.

 

[recneps77]

100m wireless is doable if you use an external antenna.
Get a wifi (2.4ghz) antenna and mount it outside.
You then run a cable to your wireless card on the computer (the shorter, the better).

Or if you get an access point with one antenna in and one antenna out that are interchangeable, put the AP on an external wall, connected to an external antenna on the receive end.
Then the second antenna would be used for your local wifi use (you're not tied down by a cable to use the internet)

 

[BarkingPup]

Although I would love to get my parents 'free' internet from a cable I don't think they would want to poke holes in their new house walls. Ditto on doing some more digging, heck the satellite (on The Chalet) and my phone cord are suspended in the air across the yard. They put the modem in the basement because all they need to do is plug it in and it supplies the ethernet ports with internet. The wireless was just so I could have internet (but it doesn't work).

I'm not sure on the exact metres from the big house but it's reeeally far. On good days I get a 'fair' signal (that still fades in and out) on bad days none. I'll have to ask my dad exactly how far away the wireless is... to me it looks more than a hundred metres or so.

I'll see what kind of wireless router I have and find out if I can upgrade it at all. My parents said they'd cover the cost if we needed a new one.

@Pinza: I would have to pay for a separate phone line to be installed then pay telus. Telus is expensive internet-wise and a second phone line would be crazy expensive.

@Stampeder: I live near Prince George, out in the boonies (half an hour from town). It was only a couple years ago that Telus extended their high speed reach to us. Before that we had Dial-Up.

Wow, that's quite the thread. I'll peruse it further later (when I look up some words and such) but for now that would be really interesting to try.

@DdDave: No, I don't have a separate phone line. I share with my parents although I don't have a phone in The Chalet.

@Recneps77: That's kinda confusing. Do you mean get a wifi antennae for The Chalet and mount it on top? I only have two laptop's so is the wireless card one of the ports on the outside or something else?

One of the reasons I was looking for Naked DSL from another 'company' was the fact that I am getting an Xbox360 and hopefully building my own computer in the next few years. I can move my laptops around to get the best signal but a PC and console can't move. Either the wireless signal has to be uber strong equally in The Chalet or I need my own provider so I can get a modem...

 

[recneps77]

Putting a wifi antenna on the roof of the chalet gives you the best possible reception. (several magnitudes better than your laptops)
Since you're using laptops, probably internal wireless cards, there's no way to attach an external antenna.

The easiest route is this:

outdoorwifi antenna -[direct wire]-> wireless access point that accepts external antennae -[wireless]->any wireless networked device in the chalet.

Basically, the access point acts as a wireless bridge. It uses the 'high power' external antenna to get the best signal from the home router and then rebroadcast it locally using a standard wifi antenna inside.

I'm not 100% sure if they make dual radio access points (i.e. one to receive and one to transmit)
Though, it may not even be necessary (just use the single antenna to receive from your devices and then transmit to the home router).
If that scenario doesn't work, you could have your bridge be a router that you then plug an access point into.
So the router receives the home signal, routes it over a lan cable to your local access point, giving you standard wifi coverage throughout the chalet.

I've probably just made things worse in my explanation. :s

 

[ScaryBob]

Most of the jargon is lost on me, however... Like 'dry DSL' or what 6000/1000 speed means.

Dry Loop: DSL connection where no analog voice line is present. There is often an extra charge for the line. If there is a dry loop charge, you might want to compare the cost. Here, a dry loop charge can be ~$15 or more and a POTS line is ~$22. It might be worth the extra to have a voice line.

6000/1000 is the speed of the line in megabits down/up. About 6000/1000 is pretty typical for a standard DSL line. High end DSL or cable packages can go faster but they typically cost more and are not usually necessary. A 6000/1000 DSL line with 200GB cap should cost in the $30-$40 range.

The wireless router is oooooold.

Upgrading could definitely make a difference. You will need to upgrade both ends (for dual band N) and possibly all wireless network cards on the system (if dual band is not used.) You could also try experimenting with antennas. It's not necessary to purchase an expensive antenna upgrade. Building your own from a coffee can or old satellite dish is a well traveled path.

 

[stampeder]

@Stampeder: I live near Prince George, out in the boonies (half an hour from town).

I was kind of hoping you'd tell me more specifically where you are because there are Wireless Internet providers in certain areas if you want to sign on with them. I'll have to check what's available for you. BTW I have a buddy in PG, my mom used to live in Tumbler Ridge, my son worked in Dawson Creek, and we go up to Wells Grey every year so I've been all around PG and through the Pine Pass many, many times.

 

[ScaryBob]

out in the boonies (half an hour from town).

That explains why the range with that router is so good. It's because there is no interference.

 

[classicsat]

Maybe a repeater. My experiments let me run my netbook computer around 250M from the house, and solidly stream a radio station.

My setup is a Belkin F5D8236-4 as my main router, and a Linksys WRT54G-V5, running the latest DD-WRT it can run. With the Belkin in the house (first floor room with modem), the Linksys set for repeater mode, sitting on the fuel barrel, I got quite a ways before I couldn't hold the stream.

It wouldn't be too hard to install one midway or so (you can install it in a weather tight container), or run it in client-bridge mode, and run Ethernet the rest of the way.

If you are going to run Cat5e type cable outside, get an outside grade cable.

But if you want your own Internet, that is all mute.

You at least will have to pay the Telus setup, unless you have existing Telus wiring at your cabin.

 

[17671]

you can try a Wifi Mesh Router solution.

One router goes in your Chalet near the window, the other goes in your house near the window, you can also get an external sectorized antenna, then the wireless routers can mesh together and bridge your connection.

Laptop connects to Mesh router #1, Mesh router #1 connects to Mesh router #2 in other building, then mesh router #2 connects to your WAN internet. so you will have atleast 2 hops for traffic, but it works well.

Mesh routers are great, and have a long range when used correctly.