WiFi Bridging?

An anonymous reader asks: "I have a wireless network on one side of the street, and want to connect a computer on the other side of the street to it. Unfortunately this computer is behind a nice solid metal wall, and can't really be positioned near the signal. Currently I have a 20' USB cable going to a USB Linksys 802.11b unit, and a 20' RG58 cable going to a 14dB antenna and a PCI Linksys 802.11b card. Both of these cut out about once every 30 minutes, for about 5 seconds at a time. I also have an Airlink 802.11g PCI card and a Netgear 802.11b PCI card. What's the best way to connect to a kind of weak (-65db) signal? Can I use a wireless bridge in reverse, telling it an SSID and plugging the other end into an ethernet card? Which WiFi card has the most reliable software, that doesn't drop the connection all the time? I haven't been able to find much real info on this. Any help is appreciated, thanks!"

Replace the RG58

[Bishop]

A good place to start would be to replace the RG58 which is a terrible cable for 2.4GHz. That said -65db is not a weak signal. -90db is a weak signal. It could be that you are saturating your recievers. Try lowering the power.

I just did something like this.

[crisco]

Client wants to extend network to a shop enclosed in a metal building, primarily for internet access. Two Linksys bridges, one with its antenna sticking out a little holde in the side of the building and one inside. Set the bridges to different IP numbers and different frequencies (channels) and one wireless device, in my case a laptop computer, can connect. If more then one wireless device needed to connect in the shop I'd use an AP instead of just the bridge.

As others have noted, using a USB cable and an antenna cable might be making things more difficult than you need. Try pushing power and ethernet as close as you can to the antennas so you can put the wireless devices with the antennas.

Re:Cantenna?

[sporktoast]

If he's already got a long-ish USB cable, then the cantenna is not the best option. Cheap Asian [orcon.net.nz] cookware [slashdot.org] may do the trick. Though the Linksys USB device does not seem to be the preferred shape/size. The advantage is that USB cables don't suffer as greatly from signal loss as antenna cables do.