On Fri, 11 Jan 2013 16:06:53 -0800, (Dave Platt)
wrote:

Rather than trying to relay the cable signal via antennas (which would
in effect be creating an unlicensed TV transmitter, and could cause
all sorts of legal and technical grief) you'd be better off setting up
an 802.11 bridge. A 1000-foot link is definitely possible with a gain
antenna on each end, if you have a clear line of sight between the two
houses. That sort of solution would be legal, as long as you
pick 802.11 radio-and-antenna systems which have been properly
certificated. Ubiquiti is one vendor of these sorts of devices.

I just came back from a very similar install. 800ft using two Ubiquti
Nanostation Loco M5. The M5 is the 5.7Ghz version, not the 2.4GHz
version. The main application was shared internet access, but also to
stream a common media server for HD movies via wireless.

Using the internal Ubiquiti benchmark tests, I was getting about
150Mbits/sec thruput in both directions (one at a time) and splitting
it in half for full duplex simulation. When the radios were both on
the setup bench, I was getting over 200Mbits/sec. Using Jperf, I was
only able to get about 120Mbits/sec in TCP, half duplex. Some
tweaking should bring it up. Note that is two MIMO streams, one
vertically polarized, and the other horizontally. This is MUCH better
than what I typical get with 2.4Ghz links. Highly recommended.
http://www.ubnt.com/airmax#nanostationm
Hint 1: Make sure all the radios are running the same firmware or
nothing works right.
Hint 2: With bridging, make sure there's exactly one DHCP server
running on the network. You're life will be miserable if there is
more than one.
Hint 3: The mounting bracket does NOT come with the package. The 24v
PoE box is included.

Drivel: Every muscle aches, my cold/flu/crud is far worse, I left my
ladder at the site, got involved in some brush removal to improve the
LOS, and spilled much of my toolbox all over the hillside. I didn't
know that poison oak was active in January. There's a Motorola SP10
walkie talkie somewhere on the hillside. No photos because I left my
camera at home and my Droid X micro-SD card was full. The setup was
fairly easy. The physical installation, not so easy. Sometimes, I
wonder if internet connnectivity is worth the effort.

Your neighbor would have two WiFi devices in his house (one for the
bridge, with a directional antenna, and a second access point or
router indoors with an omni antenna to provide a base for the tablet
and any other device he wants.

Nope. The Ubiquti Nanostation Loco M5 supports WDS (wireless
distribution service), where the radio supports both access point
features and store-and-forward repeater features. More specifically,
WDS is bridging. I was connecting through the local bridge radio,
with my dual band wi-fi equipped laptop, to the other end of the link.
Running bridging, where everything runs at the MAC address level
(layer 2), made connectivity to everything quite easy. They were
rather pleased when I was able to print to a remote laser printer, and
not so pleased when I connected to their Roku streaming media player,
iPod, iPhone, etc via the network. The VLAN configuration is the next
step in order to isolate parts differnt parts of the network (and
reduce broadcast traffic across the wireless link).

http://wiki.ubnt.com/How_to_bridge_internet_connections

Yep. Note that section "E" shows the setup as "access point WDS"
which Ubiquiti lingo for bridging. That should be the device closest
to the main internet router. The client end(s), should be setup as
"station WDS". With this arrangement, you can also have more than one
station.

As for the cable modem antenna idea, it won't work. It will be
spewing the entire 40-1000Mhz CATV spectrum and not just the channel
that you're watching. It's like watering your lawn with a fire hose
at full pressure. Colateral damage (interference) is inevitable. The
cable also works both directions. Ingress (where the cable picks up
over the air radio stations which mix in the cable amplifiers, is a
major problem for the cable company. Ingress will show up on the
management software or fly-over survey, making discovery of your
abomination quite likely. It's futile anyway, because you'll need a
legal cable box to watch digital channels. Analog TV channels are
slowly going away. Also, the signals on the cable are such a low
level, that you'll need an RF power amplifier in order to transmit
more than a few inches. Building a suitable RF power amp with
sufficient linearity to not trash the video is not a trivial exercise.



--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558