I cant figure this out..... wifi?

Question

I need an antenna that will pick up a wifi netwrok about 1km 1600 ft away in an urban area with buildings. I looked on www.radiolabs.com and they have a lot of stuff but I dont know what would work best. Can someone who knows about this go there and send me a link to what would work for me?? thanks

Answer 1

You really can't get a wifi network from 1,600 feet away. They have serious problems going past 300 feet.

If you want to give it a shot, the most popular way for reaching that kind of distance is to use a 'cantenna', usually made out of a Pringles can. I imagine you'd need to have line of sight and have another cantenna (on their end) pointing at yours.

A link is below.

Answer 2

To get this to work you will need to be able to "see" the other end. If there are buildings in the direct path you can try any antenna you like it probably wont work.

Both ends will need outdoor antennas at the very least. Commerical grade equipement would make your task easier but without knowing the radio path from the transmitter to you which antenna or which system to use is not selectable.

Answer 3

With simple Access points you won't be able to get more than few hundred metres, However you can still use other options such as :
1) Using Outdoor Wireless Bridges such as Cisco Aironet 1300 Series.
2) Another option is to use point to point Dishes.

All the way long you will need to have clear line of sight..

Hope this helps...