Wireless Dilemma at Newton's House? 287
"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?"
DSL? (Score:3, Insightful)
Also
Re:DSL? (Score:3, Interesting)
I can think of a few reasons off the top of my head:
Re:DSL? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:DSL? (Score:2)
Re:DSL? (Score:2)
It's a historic building. Static pictures of the interior should suffice. What's a live camera going to show? A live updated picture of a stuffed owl?
Why should static pictures suffice? And a live camera can show the entire interior of the room. Mount it on gymbals that are controlled by the web server, then set up an applet so that the web page user can rotate the camera. Show some imagination. One of the things I have loved about the Internet for a long time is that I can see, read, and hear things that I wouldn't get a chance to otherwise. The Internet has the ability to break down barriers to information and communication. I would invite you to take a look at UC Davis' Veterinary Medicine cams so you could see what I mean, but you obviously didn't the first time I posted that link.
In what way should they interact with online visitors? Should they sit in a chat room?
Why not? Is the only way you can take a tour of a historic building by going there in person? Why not have Internet tours, with tour guides. Why not have the tour guides able to easily send and receive email. Why not make such things more easily accessible to people? Again, it's all about imagination. Chat rooms are not just for geeks to gather or people to have cybersex.
The best part is, if they have a DSL line for Internet access, and then connect the grounds together by wireless, none of this is all that expensive. For a relatively cheap price the opportunity to visit something historic could be extended to folks all over the world who may have no other opportunity.
DSL depends on exchange in blighty (Score:3, Interesting)
yes and you could do it with any modern OS (Microsoft Windows XP, Mac OS X.2 and yes linux )
the cost to a charity would be the decideing factor
I would use Debian [debian.org] debian or Redhat [redhat.com] also look for a local Linux User Group (LUG) these people would donate their time and expertise I am sure (-:
find UK LUG's here [linux.org.uk]
useing a linux based solution would mean that you may not have to buy any new machines as you could use any that you already have
in terms of presenting information (I presumne thats why you want them networked )
THE best solution is to make a website that as well as you can publish to the world through a website you can also setup Linux box as a kiosk so that you can view nothing else except what you want (just think of the web broser area in full screen ) have a look around www. [mozilla.org] I am sure they have a solution I just cant remember the link (anyone help out ?)
also remember that DSL or ISDN is a bill every month so you might want a private link to cut costs
also if you have a grant that you can only spend on network I would recomend getting a IR link between the buildings (I have a backup link for the fiber that is between two Uni buildings and no these are not like your IR link on your PC but about 1-2Mbps which is pretty good) I cant remember the people that make it anyone got any good recomendations for IR links ?
hope this helps please contact people in your LUG and when you have a solution up and running let slashdot know !
regards
John Jones
Net2Net (Score:2)
http://www.nettonettech.com/solutions/point-to-po
I live in Lincolnshire and have this to say... (Score:4, Informative)
MWAHAWHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWHWWA HWA WHAHWA WAHWHWAH WAHAWHWAHWAHAW HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
*wipes the tears from his eye*
DSL in Lincolnshire? You MUST be kidding right. Anyone who wants broadband in this farming hellhole has to pay $1500 to get satellite installed, and then a nice $120 per month to BT for 512kbps downstream and 256kbps upstream!
That said, Boston, Louth and Sleaford have DSL in the town centers, but that'd be like only Dallas and Austin having DSL in Texas.
To put it bluntly.. BT are a bunch of cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life,snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless,hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sacks of monkey shit who couldn't organize a piss-up in a brewery.
Re:I live in Lincolnshire and have this to say... (Score:2)
No, you could do much worse. [qwest.com] Much worse, trust me.
Re:I live in Lincolnshire and have this to say... (Score:2)
Don't laugh just yet. The 'Ask Slashdot' question was how to network multiple buildings - not how to get Internet access. DSL is still very much an option for this situation.
Take a look at this [odessaoffice.com]. What you do is call the phone company and order a "dry pair" (or "alarm circuit") between the buildings you wish to connect. This should cost about $20/month. Then you get on eBay and find two DSL modems - one for each location. Finally, make the appropriate sacrifice to the networking gods. And tada - you've got cheap point-to-point DSL.
Now I don't think this is what the original poster had in mind, as the VPN suggestion implies an untrusted network (the Internet). But just because you live in the boonies doesn't mean you can't have DSL.
Re:I live in Lincolnshire and have this to say... (Score:2)
You all missed the blatant quote. It was said by Chevy Chase in National Lampoons' Christmas Vacation.
simple (Score:1)
Re:simple (Score:2)
This would be the cheapest and would work.
Lasers... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Lasers... (Score:1)
Re:Lasers... (Score:1)
Re:Lasers... (Score:1)
The site seems to be down at the moment, but hopefully it'll be back soon.
In any case, it's a 10 megabit optical link that can be built at home from readily available parts.
Slashdot stories here [slashdot.org] and here [slashdot.org] .
Re:Lasers... (Score:3, Funny)
(you know: rock beats scissors, scissors beats paper, fog beats robotic attack dog)
Moulding (Score:2)
Also, just putting the antenna in a window with a line-of-site to the target building might be good enough.
Meters or Yards which is it?? (Score:1, Redundant)
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.
Re:Meters or Yards which is it?? (Score:3, Informative)
Actually 1 Metre is 1.09 yards... Close enough for a rough estimate.
Britain (not just England) uses SI units for most things...
Though for beer we still use pints... And not those American 16 ounce pints, but real imperial 20 ounce pints. And speed is usually in Miles per hour... and distances in miles...
Z.
Dry Pair DSL (Score:2, Offtopic)
Re:Dry Pair DSL (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Dry Pair DSL (Score:4, Interesting)
Ask BT to install an EPS-8 or EPS-9 circuit. (Someone's already mentioned "alarm circuit", which is what these are often used for). These are just 4 or 2-wire circuits with no amplification. They are only available when the two end points are on the same local exchange. Cost is approximately £500pa. Of course, you'll need something on the end, these people sell equipment from Tut Systems [netunlim.com]. Ask to speak to Hannah & tell her Matt sent you.
Matt
Line of Site (Score:1)
Can you setup access points in the windows, disguish the antennas among the flowers?
A good directional antenna should be able to cover 100m without too much problem...
Now how thick is the bloody glass?
Re:Line of Site (Score:1)
line of sight (Score:1)
Better do some homework first. (Score:4, Informative)
Can you beg borrow or steal a 2.5 Ghz cordless phone and see how well it works?
As far as exposed antennae, 802.11 basestations get along with 6" antennae. My unit works a good 1500 feet out the back of my house (wood structure) the unit sits on top of the Fridge, and there are quite a few windows on that side of the house.
Place the basestation on somebody's desk with a good view of the other buildings. I'll bet it'll jump the gap.
A card is less than $100, a Basestation is less than $180(us), have some fun running aroung the campus with netstumbler, it's good for a few days exercize.
There's more to wireless than WiFi (Score:2)
No, they are not as fast as WiFi. Most of them are around 19200 but I've seen some that run at 1 mbps. The lower bandwidth improves sensitivity and increases the range significantly.
Re:Better do some homework first. (Score:2)
I just tested my cube wall and sure enough, it's grounded. And guess what? A metal mesh or net connected to ground = faraday cage. It blocks and dissipates radio energy. I'm betting 2.4 GHz will go through brick/stone MUCH better. Most forms of earths or composite materials are somewhat transparent to radio in any decent thickness. Especially if a non-conductive mortar was used.
Re:Better do some homework first. (Score:2)
We also discovered that all WiFi equipment is NOT created equal. The Orinico card I picked up for Netstumbling works a BUNCH better than the linksys stuff we originally purchased.
We'll be rolling out Cisco stuff inproduction due to it's additional (not quite yet standard) security features.
Carrier Pigeons (Score:4, Funny)
Use the correct solution for the problem, people!
Strap packets to the legs of carrier pigeons and get them to transmit the information between the buildings.
--
Employing incompetence: $35/h
Fixing the resulting mistakes: $1000's
Employing me: Priceless [geocities.com]
Re:Carrier Pigeons (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Carrier Pigeons (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah, but... (Score:2)
Re:Carrier Pigeons (Score:3, Interesting)
Perfect Solution (Score:5, Funny)
No need for antennas, just an open window.
Re:Perfect Solution (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Perfect Solution (Score:1)
Re:Perfect Solution (Score:3, Interesting)
64 bytes from 10.0.3.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=6165731.1 ms
See their homepage here. [linux.no]
build antenna into the roof (Score:1)
A couple of ideas (Score:1)
If not, could you set up two wireless access nodes _outside_ the building (again in some discreet location), and then run cable from each into the respective buildings?
Blend in with the Surroundings. (Score:1, Insightful)
There are many styles of antenna that do not look like radio, or satellite.
There is also the possibility of using a smaller directional antenna that can be placed within an office within line-of-site through a window.
a Newtonian Answer (Score:4, Funny)
concealed aerials? (Score:2)
Yes, I realize the example link is for an accent light, not an 802.11 antenna. Use some creativity.
silly question (Score:3, Insightful)
The restriction against high-gain antennae is prohibiting typical aesthetic eyesores from being attached to the building. Wireless networking antennaes are nothing like digital sattelite dishes, or big tv aerials. Wireless networking antennaes are essentially invisible and wouldn't violate the restrictions mentioned. The could even be obscured from sight within faux lamposts, etc.
seth
Even moreso... (Score:2)
Re:silly question (Score:2)
Window, Flower Bed, FlowerPot, Facade (Score:3, Interesting)
EDITORS: Can you post a picture of the buildings, diagram? A VRML or other CAD file? Notes and diagrams on existing wiring would be enormously helpful.
Can you run fibre through the plumbing system?
I'm sure we (as a community) can come up with something inexpensive and innovative.
Re:Window, Flower Bed, FlowerPot, Facade (Score:2)
In the rooves! (Score:3, Informative)
I seriously doubt the roof is made of brick, too
There are also 802.11 amplifiers available. In the US, you're allowed to pump them up to 1W before the FCC come knocking. That should be plenty, even with an omnidirectional rather than directional amtenna.
Re:In the rooves! (Score:2)
I'd reckon you have a better chance trying to get through the brick.
Out of site, out of mind? (Score:1)
802.11 or existing power lines? (Score:2, Interesting)
Think of it this way. If these houses share a wall, and one access point can "see" an access point on the other side of the wall, then you could theoretically have two access points talking to each other, and then a third talking to the second, and so on. Within each of the houses, computers could access the network enabled by that point through whatever means (cable or wireless within the house) were deemed appropriate.
Read this writer's [nwfusion.com] own experience with multiple walls over 100 meters for some insight.
You could also try using existing power lines to build a network. I don't know which of these tools are approved for use in the UK, but I imagine there are at least some solutions that can make use of existing cabling.
Why? (Score:2, Interesting)
and they need to be networked together, somehow.
Why on earth would these buildings need networking? I assume they are tourist attractions, what could be needed that can't be done stand alone? I assume they don't even have phones ATM (or you could use those lines).
Re:Why? (Score:2)
I imagine that while these might be historical buildings, they are housing some form of office environment. Even if they are tourist attractions, they would still almost certainly have administration, advertising, tour management, etc etc, so having a need for networking isn't all that absurd.
The logical answer (Score:2, Funny)
You have house A and house B. They are 100 feet apart from each other. Now we know that the average width of a midget is about 2 feet give or take. I don't know about UK labor laws but in the US 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week is your typical.
Soooo... we're gonna need 50 midgets to go between the buildings providing they stand shoulder to shoulder. If you want to cut down on costs have them extend their arms and hire the ones with the widest armspan. But we'll stick with 50 midgets for one shift.
Well we need them there 24 hours a day so we'll need three shifts so 150 midgets. Then you have weekends and vacation, sick time, and other stuff so maybe hire two more shifts worth. Then you can just run straight cable through the sleeves of their shirts.
If class A buildings aren't allowed to have midgets you can dress them up as lawn gnomes and get them taxidermied. It's cheaper that way too. You only need one shift and maybe need to replace them once a year or so.
The best part is, people will come to see Newtons house and to see the midgets too!
Re:The logical answer (Score:1)
Oh those clever cell phone towers! (Score:4, Funny)
Go get the local high school drama club to make up some mock bricks out of styrofoam that carrier waves can easily pass through. All they really require is a weekly paint job to keep them looking authentic since they would need to stand up to the elements...
...ok, ok I give up! stop hitting me!...
Re:Oh those clever cell phone towers! (Score:2)
I am not sure why the above is modded as "funny", it is a *common* practice. There are palm-tree antenna's all over S. Calif.
Satellite TV companies sometimes put antenna's in phony rocks for apartment dwellers so that landlords won't complain about ugliness.
In the case of Newton home, disquise it as an apple, perhaps (the fruit, not iMacs). That way if it ever falls down, you could claim that you were only helping them discover new theories. Well, scratch that idea.
No distance problem... (Score:2)
You could put it in the window as is and test 2 of them quite easily.
what? (Score:1)
also try cat5. its cheep and plentifull.. why is everyone so bonerfied over 802.11b? lazy peeple who don't wanna run cable or krimp rj-45 ends...thats who likes the wirelesss
Re:what? (Score:2)
Moron.
Aw C'mon (Score:1)
Can't a Pringle's can be made to look like a drainpipe?
MjM
Pictures of the house, a solution... (Score:4, Insightful)
-- Greg
Right on (Score:2)
Re:Pictures of the house, a solution... (Score:2, Informative)
mod parent up - someone who's actually done it! (Score:2)
Quite Timely, actually. (Score:1)
It's a nice little technology called HomePlug [homeplug.org] and it might just be what you're looking for. In a nutshell, it's several tens of megabits over electrical copper and works on one side of the transformer. If the buildings are anything like a modern set of tract homes, they probably share a transformer. Simply use these babies and you get a nice little network via the already installed electrical lines.
Good luck!
Walls n stuff (Score:1)
Although it limits the range, in general there should be a sufficient signal strength (even a full 11MBps) to transmit directly through a wall, with a receiver/transmitter on either side (or thereabouts).
I suggest you try borrow a Wireless PCMCIA card (and laptop, if need be) and a Wireless access point from someone, and try them on either side of a wall. If the buildings are all within line of sighs, repeaters on each building's roof should enable decent signal strength between buildings (once again a quick test with a wireless card a a base station should prove sufficient).
It obviously depends on the size of the building, the distance from the nearest point on the building to adjacent buildings and the position of where you need the PCs to have access, as well as the distances between buildings but you might be fine with simply a repeater on each building (a ring network of sorts, positionally anyway), and access points inside. If they're strong enough through the walls, and have line of sight to each other on adjacent buildings, I don't see that you'd have any problems.
Well, as long as nobody nearby has chalk, anyway...
Jon/Manta
ISDN (Score:1)
What do you need this for (Score:1, Redundant)
alvarion (Score:1)
--derek
gambitwireless.com [gambitwireless.com]
Phone line networking (Score:1)
I'm not sure if it'll manage 100m, and you may have to play about with the wiring at both ends so there's as little as possible in the way, but it might do the trick. Besides, it's pretty inexpensive to try out. I've played about with PNA on relatively complex networks and the obstacle is usually the number of splitters/connections and not the distance travelled. I've never tried it as far as 100m, though :)
It sounds odd to me that you can't just pull some CAT5 through where the existing phone lines are. Or, replace a phone line with a CAT5 and use an unused pair for the phone line it replaced. I think 100m is around the maximum that ethernet will go down CAT5.
If cost is no object, you could peg up a GPRS link using a mobile phone :)
Me, I'd try PNA, seeing as that needs no extra messing about with cables. If that fails you seriously need to think about dragging CAT5 through where you've already got your phone lines installed. You might even be able to get ethernet down the phone cabling - I believe (UK) phone cable is still twisted pair, just not screened (or is it the other way around?). But I don't know enough about the issues there to comment more.
It's easy (Score:2)
as for example by replacing a facade stone with
a simulacrum with an embedded antenna, or
2) put the antenna inside. A pair of matched directional yagis (or pringle's can, for pete's
sake) can treat a glass window as effectively
invisible.
Easy! (Score:2, Informative)
Photos of the manor (Score:2, Interesting)
I fail to see why you can't cable it with fibre. For health and safety reasons they'll be bright red fire alarm boxes wired with tasteful orange cable, or covered with plastic trunking, all over the buildings already.
All national trust buildings are required to have modern electric cabling for normal lighting, power sockets (for the cleaners) as well as emergency exit lighting (to light the fire escape routes), which will be encased in trunking skirting the walls. Fibre optic or even Cat5 can be added to that trunking easily, and has been done on other historical sites.
Cameoflage (Score:2)
The SOLUTION!!! (so long as they had Chimney Sweep (Score:2, Interesting)
Works great,...unless of course they still in fact use the chimneys... *LOL*
Similar problem a little over 10 years ago... (Score:2)
It was also only a single floor building.
Short-story: It worked and was damn expensive -- but would be considered too slow by todays standards. I wouldn't doubt that stragically placed 802.11 repeaters/bridges and 802.11 nics would work nicely. Might even be about the same cost (once inflation is figured in)
-jhon
Brick walls are transparent (Score:2)
The whole "night not work" thing is silly -- one only needs two laptops, or laptop and AP to check if the link can be established, first with builtin antenna, then with small patch antennas, remaining indoor in those buildings.
Digging... (Score:2)
We recently had some wires run throughout our yard. It took a large circular saw (an edger would do the exact same thing), and you couldn't even tell that a hole was dug unless you were right next to it. The stuff done through the grass is barely noticable now (and I'd guess that, given a few more weeks, you'll never be able to tell).
I'd say run some Cat5 (or fiber if the runs are too long) through a hose (I'd be really hesitant to bury plain Cat5, though it might work out just fine.) I can't comment on the legality, though, but I don't see why it'd be prohibited if it's not really "digging" a big hole, but rather making a small incision...
Hiding antennas. (Score:2)
Dominos farms (Ann Arbor, MI) has a tower that looks more like a bent sculpture than a cell phone/radio/microwave tower.
I'm certian you can take a flat 802.11b antenna, put some durable rock looking material over it and place it inconspicuously on the exterier of the building. It need only stick out an inch or two.
I would try, though, first putting a high gain directional antenna inside the buildings pointing to the other buildings. The rock will dampen the signal, but I bet you'll get more than enough to improve vastly on 128k.
Lastly, look at using two DSL modems and the on site phone wiring. You can put most DSL modems into a peer to peer mode, and they simply go over any used or unused (phone levels) unshielded twisted pair wire. Think of it as a higher version of the venerable modem, but broadband since you aren't actually trying to transmit over the phone networks digital switched network. This might actually be better than wireless.
-Adam
Wireless won't work. (Score:2)
IR? (Score:2)
Plumbing (Score:2)
Someone taking a huge dump might disrupt the signal, so don't forget the error bits.
Best of luck ;)
Idea #34 (Score:2)
802.11b is the answer (Score:2)
I have good bandwidth, with a generic omnidrectional anttena on the AP. I can also access the network from the street 50+ meters way.
A plain-vanilla 802.11b wireless network with directional antennas will work fine here. 802.11b's wavelenth lends itself to these sort of applications (802.11a, while faster for line-of-site, degrades badly in these types of situations).
This is true even if the antennas are indoors, pointing through brick walls.
Add directional antennas pointing through windows, and the situation will improve dramatically. Add small hidden outdoor antennas, and the picture is even better.
A wireless tech told me that he hooked up a 50-mile 802.11b network in Africa between 2 mountaintops (one with local internet access, with other without). The wireless link was 2 'only' mbits (down from a theoretical 11 mbits), but otherwise worked fine.
This one's easy.
You've already got wire (Score:2)
For instance, the existing ISDN line could be changed (note that ISDN and DSL can't share a wire pair) to run "dry pair DSL" to a telephone junction box down the road, with equipment kept in a nearby barn, or even just a splice to connect two SDSL modems in different buildings. Or at least it could, if BT weren't such fine arseholes.
Probably the best idea is to use a mains LAN [pbs.org] if there are existing electrical power lines. As long as all the important outlets are on the same side of the final transformer, they should be able to communicate.
Power Line Networking (Score:2)
The equipment is inexpensive, and every outlet becomes a network connection point. See Cringely's 8/15/02 article [pbs.org] on the subject.
It's faster than 802.11b, too.
No external antenna.. (Score:2)
3Com's Access Point 8000 would likely do what you want, or they have a point-to-point modual that's made for just this. And frankly, depending on the distance involved, you might be able to push it through the stone wall and catch it on the other side in a similar manner, then your antenna could be mounted in a closet where no one would ever see them, save the janitor and the IT guy.
What about HomePlug? (Score:2)
There is a new kid in town...HomePlug (see I, Cringely). It sounds promising, if it really works - I just hope linux is quick to support it. It is the use of home wiring, something talked about for about 2 years or so but finally, and perhaps, ready for the big time. As long as the houses are on the same transformer from the power company, they should be easily networked via HomePlug.
No changes to wiring, no rewiring, no external changes. Sounds about perfect.
Outdoor antennas are a problem? (Score:2)
Stealth antennas are easy to build and are VERY effective. I don't know what the buildings you want to network look like, but I bet there are plenty of antenna hiding places.
I have built antennas for years for ham radio and it is not all that hard to disguise the things so that you would even have a hard time seeing them from a foot away. This 2.4 GHz stuff is even easier to disguise since the antennas are only going to be a few inches long.
By my caluculation, for a 1/4 wave dipole at 2.4 GHz, you are going to need a approximately 3.125 cm of wire. I think that would be next to impossible to NOT hide!
Read the posting, dumbass (Score:1, Informative)
Fiber in the drains. (Score:2)
Are there drains or sewers?
Unlike copper cables, fibers can be strung through wet and toxic paths (such as sewers) and work just fine.
Use 'em both to interconnect the buildings and to bring in the phone and data services. (You can get phone and data on a single fiber pair no problem.)
If you have to run 'em through a sewer just clean the ends with dilute bleach after the plumber gets 'em strung and sealed in.
Only downside is you have to be careful if you ever need to snake the drain to unclog it from tree roots - unless you're willing to re-string the fibers afterward. (Use a preventitive biocide instead if there are trees near the drainpipe.)
response to the question and Re:Buried fibre (Score:4, Insightful)
Now, answering:
The mention of "high gain aerials" points the way.
Find a point in each building where rf-transparent material (glass would be best, but wood sheltered from rain would do (2.4Ghz and water, don't you know)) faces a spot of similar material on a building you want in the network. Finding a trail of thses, connecting the dots, you can then lace the campus together with 802.11 WAPs, pringle-can antennae [arwain.net], and some N jumper cables, and you're using 802.11 to bridge the buildings, probably for about $200US per building. Note that the antennae don't have to be at the exterior wall. Inside a nice DRY wooden cabinet, able to see the target through a window, will do nicely. Sure, the wall may block signal, but it's signal you don't care about anyway. I don't know of any WAP that can be both a bridge and an access point simultaneously, so you'd need a second wap in the building if you want to use 802.11 to the nodes. Otherwise, you just hang the bridging WAPs on the wired network.
OOH! Do these buildings have cupolae? If so, enough rf should shoot through the slits to propogate even during mild rain (put the WAP inside a tupperware container or something).
Think Outside The Box (Score:2)
Also remember that these beams can bounce off metallic surfaces. If these walls don't let radio signals through, they might also be reflective. So a beam through a window might reflect off another building and reach another window at an angle other than line-of-sight. If the street has cobblestones under it, those might also be reflective.
Well, back to the inside of the building...
No cupolae on Woolsthorpe Manor. The Newtonia [archive.org] site is gone except for the Wayback Machine. The picture there and on other sites shows a high pitched roof.
The Newtonia pictures inside the house show a flat ceiling. I don't know if those rooms are on the first or second floor. If they're on the second floor, then there is an attic. But even if the rafters are exposed, perhaps a wooden cabinet in the rafters could be used for wireless equipment.
It looks like a shingled or slate roof. If there is not too much metal in the roof, you could fire a beam through it (I don't know the metallic and moisture content of slate, and there might be a layer of tin). And the building is L-shaped, so all four directions are visible through the faces of the roofs.
Of course, what would be needed are beams (802.11 or infrared lasers) between the buildings, connected by Ethernet cable to wireles access points for use within the buildings.
Re:Buried fibre (Score:2)
Re:Call me crazy but ... (Score:2)
No furnace room.
No central heating
No concrete.
No easy access to the street.
My parents live in the UK. I live in the US. Our plumbing, electrical and heating infrastructures are very different.
Re:Why are you so adamant about wireless? (Score:2)