Point to Point Ad-Hoc "bridge"

[Steven Juras]

We have a soft opportunity to troubleshoot / redesign an existing wireless setup that from the start sounds a bit odd.

The customer has two desktop PCs with Cisco PCI Wireless NICs in them that are each connected to a 13.5 dBi Yagi antenna externally mounted (via a 50-foot Low Loss antenna cable). The two locations are approx. 1000' apart with we're hoping a good Line of Sight (LOS).

The customer states that the wireless link fails frequently enough to be a problem - meaning a few times a week. Both PCs have to be rebooted for the link to re-establish. We'll evaluate clear LOS and RF LOS.

My question is if anyone else has seen a deployment like this between two "long distance" PCs with wireless client adapters. Our initial reaction is to make this a true bridge link with two bridges, and network the 2 PCs that way.

Thoughts / Suggestions?

[carenas123]

It's not common to have set up like the one you are asking about. I would suggest you to have a relook at the device pool for conference resources

[scottmac]

Do you know what OS and / or software they're running on the PCs?

If they're doing something (stupid) like Windows XP and bridging the Wired/Wireless NICs, I'd tend to look more at the OS (patches, updates ...)

If they're running something like a Linux box and Zebra .... or some software bridge I think I'd still start with the OS ...

It could be something like a bird nesting on their Yagis, someone walking in front of their antennas (how high are they? On the roof or aimed out a window?)

Is this just the two PCs, or are they acting as bridges for two LAN segments?

If it's been working for a while, and just recently started getting flakey, and the antennas are outdoors, I believe the connections / connectors on the antenna would be a good place to start.

Checking for local interference would probably be a god idea too ... something like NetStumbler and see what channels are in-use.

It could just be a lot of things .... once you get a good look at it let us know what you find and maybe we can figure it out.

Good Luck

Scott