My business has a DSL wireless router (frontier stock, so it's probably crap). My cabin is 150ish feet away from the device and thus does not get WiFi.

What do I need to get the appropriate range and strength so I can have internet in my cabin? If it needs to be outside between the buildings, it has to be able to deal with cold climates- this is in the adirondacks.

is this enough?
http://www.staples.com/Netgear-Universa ... vs_content

how about this?
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... CatId=4026

Look into how to build a Pringles can extender. Takes a little work to build, but performs better than most commercial products.

i don't think my boss wants to pay for a pringles can contraption to use as part of the business.

I would think that second link is the type of device you're looking for.

Another option would be to see what kind of external antennas are available for your current access point (if any).
I've never gone too in-depth with wireless stuff as my requirements have always been pedestrian.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

What are you doing in your job, wilderness guiding? You don't often hear about a business that uses a cabin in the mountains in the summer.

The Pringles can thing is basically just a cheap directional antenna that's usually more expensive if you were to buy one yourself. It's sounds hacky, but it's something that radio operators have been doing for years even before wi-fi.

All you're doing is turning the normal omnidirectional antenna and focusing it's beam in a single direction. You lose overall coverage, but you get a focused directional beam that will extend much larger distances than normal.

Without such a directional antenna, you'd have to find a spot that your repeater can still reach the main office, AND can also reach your cabin. I'm guessing that this would be in the woods, and probably not easy to do.

actually, it's really frustrating because the cabin is only 200 feet from the office with maybe 2-3 trees in between.

Most people can extend their basic el-cheapo wireless router signal to over a mile away with one of these cantennas. 150ft should be a cakewalk for it.

If you don't want to build your own, you can buy one pre-made for like $50.

try experimenting and just move the access point to a wall / window closest to the cabin and see if you can get a signal.

or take a laptop with something like netstumbler on it and go outside and walk from the building to the cabin to gauge signal degradation.

Information gained from doing a few things like that would help knowing what the problem is, because it's not at all unreasonable to expect wireless should work in your situation.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

and FWIW, Tom is right about the Pringles can

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Hold my beer and watch this...

yeah- this summer he has me on full time doing some office work and groundskeeping as well as river guiding too. where i am is in the mountains, but i'm only 5 miles away from town right now.

it's not that i don't believe the pringles can would work, it's just that i doubt my boss is going to go with the idea.

Been through Pulaski and Watertown before, Watertown more times than I can count on the way to Montreal or Ottawa). You at one of those two?

old forge

Well if the pringles can is too dodgy, bolt onof these suckers on the outside wall of the office facing the cabin
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... &CatId=374

Of course, you'll need to proper set of adapters/connections to wire it to your access point (if your access point supports external antennas that is). YMMV.

Still, I'd recommend doing that test with a laptop to try to figure out why it's not working in its present configuration.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

A question that's absolutely pertinent and hasn't been asked - what are the exact make/model of what you have now? Then we can gauge what you really need

Also - I'm assuming you're using a laptop...something that may benefit you better than upgrading your work is to upgrade your laptop by using a directional antenna.

http://www.amazon.com/USB-Yagi-directio ... B003LLS5JI

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Why not run an ethernet cable? 150 feet of direct burial cat5 is cheap and can be laid pretty easily.

That's a really good point. I'm kind of working on the assumption that it's not an option. What's the budget for this, Pat?

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it's not an option. under 200 bucks is probably what we're shooting for. my boss wants a booster- something he can put in the office, outside on the shop wall, or in the shed between so the house can get internet for the renters in winter and me in summer.