You'll find that 802.11 equipment is very power hungry, and after you
purchase solar panels, batteries, and expend many hours in making them
work you'll have put more time and money into it than if you simply
purchased equipment made to do what you need.  Of course, if you plan
on setting up other nearby neighbors on the mesh and all go in on a
faster connection for the source, etc, then it might be worthwhile.

If not, you might consider the following two products:

http://www.maxstream.net/products/xpress/rf-modem-indoor-ethernet-bridge.php
$700 for a pair of 1.5Mbps ethernet bridges, line of sight 15 miles.
900MHz so it travels through obstacles a little better than 2.4GHz.
Depending on how many nodes you have in the mesh, if one drops to the
slowest data rate it won't be faster than this solution anyway.

http://www.maxstream.net/products/xtend/dev-kit.php
$500 for a dev kit (two radios).  115Kbps, line of sight 40 miles.
900MHz, 1W transmitter.  Faster than what you have, but not broadband.

There are a ton of other companies that offer such solutions as well.
Personally I'd like to see you do the mesh thing, though, since next
year I'll be in a similar situation.  My current best option is
Verizon's EV-DO service, which I suspect will be throttled if I use it
as my primary connection.  I'm seriously considering a T1 to share
with my neighbors, but the costs would be higher than the return
unless I can figure out a mesh solution that works for about a mile
radius area around my property...

I am indirectly related to maxstream (my employer is a subsidiary of
the company that just purchased maxstream) so take what I say with a
grain of salt.  I have no experience with their stuff, though I'm
hoping to get some for evaluation soon... :-D

Also, a high, passive antenna repeater midway between you and your
neighbor would probably be the ultimate solution for a maintenance
free, cheap solution.  Use high gain (parabolic or yagi) antennas at
each end, and then put a tower in the middle with two high gain
antennas connected by a short length of coax.  Point the various
antennas correctly, use good high power 802.11b or g devices on either
end, and you'll be all set.  If it isn't as good as you'd like (maybe
it drops to 2Mbps or loses sync occasionaly) then just use a solar
cell and battery setup with an active 802.11 repeater, the tower will
already be in place.  You really don't need "mesh" unless you need
redundancy, or peer-to-peer connections with more than 2 parties.

-Adam

On 10/4/06, Blair J. Weiss <blair@ifd.mv.com> wrote:
> Hello -
> I want to draw on some experience of others.
>
> A little background... I live in the woods of New Hampshire I dial up to my
> ISP at 28.8K. I have a 56K modem, but the lines don't even support that
> speed and it negotiates down to 28.8.
>
> There isn't cable out this far from town, however most of the town enjoys
> cable access. I live 27,000 feet from the CO, so DSL isn't an option.
>
> I have a friend "as the crow flies" about 1.5 miles through the deep, hilly
> woods (no line of site). What I think I am looking for a some sort of solar
> or very low powered device(s) (and cheap) I can place out in the woods
> between the two houses to network them and bug into his high speed
> connection.
>
> Has anyone any experience or know of such a device?
>
> Thanks,
> Blair
>
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