Using a simple 3db omnidirectional antenna under UK rf emissions guidelines (100mW) I have achieved 5.5Mb rates using Symbol and Cisco Aironet 802.11b kit at 8 kilometres.
With a standard Huber Suhner (can't remember spelling) antenna I have pushed this up to 14 kilometres.

I was hoping to set up direct link to a friend who has a 2Mb pipe, but ended up moving house instead

In the USA you can up the output power to 1W in most areas, so you get even better range. Lucky [censored]

Our recommendation to our clients is to treat all WLAN's as if they were the internet (as they are freely accessible to anyone - just have a quick play with Airsnort in any city) and take the same precautions, ie Firewall, VPN etc

I am dying to imitate the Airsnort trips I see written up around the net. The idea of cruising Docklands one afternoon in a car with a wireless antenna and a laptop with airsnort is just so tempting! Turn up the empeg and see what you see

For a typical large company, you will probably get an association to an Access Point within seconds, and as most companies don't even use WEP or MAC address filtering, you're in. Wheeee!
If WEP is used, you might have to sit around for a while until Airsnort is finished (time varies depending on network traffic) and then you might need to spoof your MAC address if the network admin has a slight clue.
Companies using VPN's for this - few and far between at the moment, so lots of consultancy for me

You don't even need to go to Docklands. Just wandering around the financial portions of central London used to turn up loads of open networks with only WEP as protection. I tried this awhile ago now so they may have actually put some decent protection in by now

Best results are with Lucent/Orinocco cards. I've got a couple SiteCom ones as well but they're really flakey when far away from the AP.

- Trevor

Got any URLs of information regarding these antennas? Pricing, and so on? I'd be *very* interested in this, as I might be moving a few miles from my current place which has 2MB SDSL, and it is out of range of the CO... would be great to drop a WAP and an antenna here and setup a IPSEC VPN from house A to house B over the wireless network...

Nice. Cushy consultancy job

- Trevor

Got any positions going? I need a new job

IIRC, the Huber Suhner antennas were about £50 and a high gain Yagi (very directional, but great for range) at around £100, but you may have seen the article about the Pringle tube directional antenna for a couple of bucks. It works okay, so if money is an issue it only takes about an hour to make.

Try hubersuhner.com

Got to be worth trying your local branch of Ernst & Young. You may think it's just an accountancy firm, but on the IT side we do everything from systems audit to ethical hacking, security hardening and other such fun stuff.

You'll need to demonstrate a fairly wide set of skills, and as importantly, the right mindset for the team role. There have been many well qualified and highly skilled interviewees we have had to turn down as they would not have integrated well into the environment.

During my years in the IT industry, and the security side of things I have never worked for an employer as good as EY:- they are very focused on personal development (in reality, not just in statements) and really good fun. And I'm writing this on a Monday morning, still happy

Go and visit your local EY office and see what you think. Best of luck if you decide to go for it.

Not so cushy - occasionally the odd 100 hour week, and you have to keep on top of emerging technologies - but damn good fun.

And of course the pay and perks are great

OK, please explain this to me. You mentioned 14km. That's awesome! I thought this wireless stuff required line of sight. Is this not true?

I would love to get a wireless connection between my place and my friend's. He is approximately 2.5 miles as the crow files in an apartment building. I live in a residential neighborhood with big trees, etc. I had heard that trees are an issue.

What conditions are required to get a decent speed wireless connection over this kind of range? Where do I go to learn more about this?

Thanks in advance.

Jim

At 14 km, it is line of sight. If not, I could easily build a nice isp in my neighborhood. I could be wrong, but the signal itself does not go through buildings or trees very well.

Sean