cat5 or wlan

Hi,
Been on google,haven't found much on connecting between two separate buildings,That said There is about 50 pc's in the first building running a mix of windows 2000 and win xp connected to 1 server running windows 2000 server,there is going to be about 10 pc's running windows xp in the next building which is about 70-80 mtrs apart.The budget is small but can be adjusted depending on the equipment that will work better.

I see no real advantage using wireless, expect that it will be easier to install.

Wireless is more expensive, more insecure and finally more unstable. Of course I don't know what kind of encryption you are going to use, but those that are avabile today, are not secure at all. Unless you use high-end equipment like cisco, but then you will have to spend a lot of money.

From what I have learned, going wireless is very stupid unless you want to stay mobile.

Here are some links to products that do building to building wlan connections I got from Google.

www.3com.com/products/en_US/detail.jsp?t...&sku=3CRWE91096A
www.dealtime.com/xPO-_3Com_3CRWE91096A
www.3com.co.kr/products/wireless/pdf/400698-001.pdf

www.tribecaexpress.com/aironet.htm
enterprise.state.wi.us/home/standards/std0527_new.htm

www.tribecaexpress.com/wireless_lans.htm

Can you confirm that when you say wireless you are talking about wireless 802.11, not RF wireless or microwave, since both the latter are common forms of inter-building links

I would not recommend 802.11, signal leakage is too high and is not focused in one direction, and there are of course the usual security concerns which become more valid the second you find that someone else in the building accidentally associates with your WLAN

I would go with an RF link, it will be focused, there will be minimal signal spread (just a little bit behind the two recieving antennas).

There are also point-to-point laser and infrared solutions that would do it as long as you have a clear line of sight (e.g. rooftop to window or something). Have a Google as there are several products at varying prices

Hi, I was thinking in the lines of the 802.11.I'm getting a bit confused coz there is some people advising me that if it is less than a 100mtrs apart then the best would be to go for the cat5 wired network coz its more reliable and secure,Im in south Africa and the regulations allow to lay cables from one building to the other if certain things are taken into consisderation.So my problem is that which is the best and easiest way to do this "wired ior wireless?" :roll: