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?"

DSL?

[jat850]

If there are existing phone lines, is it not possible to set up some sort of VPN over DSL that does not require the addition of more phone lines?

Also ... why does this historic place need to be networked? :)

Blend in with the Surroundings.

[Anonymous Coward]

Why not use a standard antenna which can be hidden within the natural surroundings of the building.
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.

silly question

[SethJohnson]

This is an absurd question. The person asking this question knows the answer and even nearly admits it in the question.

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

Pictures of the house, a solution...

[Greg@RageNet]

A few pictures of Woolsthorpe Manor are here [theheritagetrail.co.uk]. I would propose putting the arials inside, against the windows in the attic (no tour groups go through there I would venture to guess). The 2.4Ghz signals could pass through the glass unimpeded and would not blemish the exteriors of the structures.

-- Greg

response to the question and Re:Buried fibre

[n9hmg]

Before I offer a useful response to the question, I must add a new acronym. RTFP (Read The Fine Post) -

Hard line (cabled) ethernet cannot be used as it will be both be too expensive and involve digging underground which is not allowed.

Oh. You can't bury copper, but you CAN bury fibre?
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).