Wireless Access Point Advice

[crs4]

Hello all,

I'm currently preparing to connect two buildings via wireless for cost reasons that I was planning on running fiber for. The distance between the buildings is about 25-50' clear LOS. I have been looking at the Cisco 1200 series 802.11a access point to put in each building to connect. However, to make it more cost effective to implement wireless over the fiber run, I have to be at least half or less of the price, and the Cisco boxes get about 20% less that the fiber cost. Proxim however has an 802.11a/b/g(ORiNOCO AP2000b) for about half the fiber cost, and an 801.11b/g(ORiNOCO AP600b) for about 1/3 of the cost. Any ideas would be appreciated, as I'm leaning towards the AP600b Proxim device. Mainly I'm concerned about the quality of the Proxim over the Cisco. I have heard good things about ORiNOCO products but still would like that magic second opinion.

Thanks.

 

[bcastner]

Why not run Cat5? It is 5% of the cost, and offers 3 times the bandwidth of your planned wireless bridge.

 

[crs4]

That sounds great, especially cost-wise, but when I considered that as an option, the biggest question is whats the best way to run it? Through the air, along the ground...Just seems to me at that distance, I would be more concerned about the cable getting damaged. But perhaps there's a way to run it through some sort of conduit, or maybe shielded cable would be better for the job?

 

[tharder]

I'm with bcastner. I've done several wireless bridge installs and this sounds like a case for multiple Cat5 or fiber in a conduit. Trench the conduit if you can. that way you'll reduce the chance someone will run it over.
I think if you put in wireless you'll be kickin' yourself wishing you had more bandwidth later on. Also AIR-1200 access points are not going to bridge. You'll need the 1100 series(IOS). Or the older model 350 series bridge(VWORKS).
We have an Orinoco AP2000 but it's a not a bridge. I'm not sure what a AP2000b is so I'll reserve comment on that till I do some research..
Also consider what the costs are for a maint contract or spare if you do wireless. That could offset the "savings" quite a bit.

Our rule of thumb is to use wireless bridging where we're outside the 100m distance or we run into issues having to get "right of ways" to go under rails or roadways...

 

[crs4]

Great- Thanks for the info guys, I think I'll try to move towards the wired route, but I'll actually have to see the site in question, which I have not visited yet. Again, thanks for the input.

 

[mjinks61]

Might I add, when/if you go with the wired solution, then run a couple redundant lines through the conduit when you lay it. This will help aleviate some of the "what if the cable gets damaged" concerns.

Isn't it 5:00PM yet?