Wireless Dilemma at Newton's House?

netean asks: "Woolsthorpe Manor, Lincolnshire, Uk (Birth place and Family Home of Sir Isaac Newton) has an interesting problem that may also be facing many historic buildings around the world. 4 Buildings less than 100 metres/yards apart. All are built from stone or brick and they need to be networked together, somehow. Ideally wireless looks the least disruptive and best option, but it is a Grade 1 listed building and that means no external antennae or high gain aerials are allowed anywhere visible. So will any wireless solution ever work in such situations?"

"The alternative approach just seems silly:

Proposed: Add another 128k ISDN line and 2 ordinary phone lines in one building (for office use) install 2 phone lines in another building (for other use) and continue using the existing 128k line in another building (used for free public internet access) - the network option would come from using the Internet and a VPN (the 4th building wouldn't be connected in this scenario). Hard line (cabled) ethernet cannot be used as it will be both be too expensive and involve digging underground which is not allowed.

Being a charity, The National Trust (the owners) aren't going to invest in some experimental wireless kit that might not work. But surely someone out there in the Slashdot community can help to ensure that it will. It must be possible, surely?"

Comments

Meters or Yards which is it??

[tweakt]

Ahh... its England... must be Yards...

either way.. just toss a few linksys boxes in there tucked out of the way and you should be all set, depending on line of site between buildings. The spec is good to 300ft on standard gear. THough with stone walls, you may need to place the AP near a window to get enough signal through.

What do you need this for

[FattMattP]

Pardon my ignorance, but what reason do these historic buildings need to be networked together for? Are they historic office buildings?

Simple, and Poetic.

[Spencerian]

Newton discovered gravity through an apple. Now Apple Computer can perhaps discover a solution.

Apple's AirPort base station is unobtrusive, is 802.11b and works with any other PC wireless card. The base station can be hidden under a thin, balsa wood box and painted to look like an artifact. You don't need a Mac to use it--Apple offers a Windows version of the Admin software for the base station.

Likewise, any other base station should be able to take some camouflage. The info didn't say if the computers themselves had to have their lines hidden.

Why do they need an internet connection again?

[Mustang Matt]

I'm curious why they need internet access.