This probably deviates a bit from your question, but if it helps, it helps. 

I'm not sure of the construction of the condo, but no signal getting through
is a bit unusual. I've had my 614+ penetrate ~1' rebar - a lot of signal
loss, but it did penetrate enough to be usable.

Replace the antennas on the 614+. It is a weak AP to begin with and the
antennas suck - I know, I have one (not that I'm complaining about a $25 AP)
If you have the 2 antenna version, align them in an "L" pointing in the
direction you want the signal to go. i.e. if you want the signal to go to
me, I should see an L (or _| ) formed by the antennas.  That should get you
a surprising boost on the signal, possibly enough to go through the wall. In
my experiences, it penetrates about 1 more room in my house if I do that. 
If you have a tower without a wlan card, this won't really be useful, but if
all of you only have laptops setting up 2 APs on non conflicting channels
(1,6,11) should work. . . . 
A better AP is probably an idea too. 

You might be able to save a couple bucks by creating your own antenna /
booster a la http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template/index.html
The increase of signal quality with one of these is also quite surprising.

Compgeeks had a really good deal on powerline cards some time ago, but they
seem to be out right now. If you do buy from them use coupon code
"bensbargains" for 10% off. They were a really good deal, which is why I
bring it up. (Like $20 for 4 cards or something). Sorry about the
advertising, they were pretty good when I last dealt with them and they ship
from northern California. I'm not affiliated with them.

As for whether the power line adapters will work, they "should" work on the
power lines up to a transformer, so the only real way is to test it. AFAIK
the fuse box should transform down from 440V, but my limited experience
comes from houses, not condos - ask an electrician I suppose. A cheap way of
testing is if you have a couple x10 switches, if those fail, most likely the
power line network cards won't have much success. 

I wasn't sure if your wife would kill you if you ran a couple feet outdoors,
but if you want to, look at "direct burial" cat 5. The jacket is filled with
a gel that makes it water proof, etc. Wear a pair of latex gloves while
crimping it, the gel is an absolute pain to get off your hands. Also, most
"direct burial" cable is UV resistant, but I don't believe it is a part of
the spec, so you'd want to check on that just to be safe. You can paint /
stucco it if you want in order to make it unobtrusive. Home despot or lowes
or something similar should carry it. It shouldn't be too expensive -
certainly less than a buck a foot. . .

Good luck.
Karol

-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Behalf Of Apollo (Carmel Entertainment)
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2003 12:56 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [BAWUG] Need HomePlug powerline advice to connect two APs

Hi,
I am moving to a new place next month and I will be talking with my
neighbors to
see if I can share 1 more expensive DSL connection (instead of slowest speed
one) with 2 of my neightbors. All three of us would have Dlink 614+ access
points.
Here are the main issues:
1. Our wifes will kill us if we drill holes through walls to each other or
we
run cables through outside walls (condo assoc. won't allow that either).
2. All three units are next to each other. All three condos have thick thick
walls that will not let wireless signal through.

Here are the questions:
1. I am the middle unit, so DSL will go under my name and I will have the
router. What powerline adapters should we get (and not blow more than $50
for each)?
2. Will it work? All three of us have separate fuse boxes, but we are on the
same floor (and there are about 15 units on each floor).
3. Would it work if we had another dude from lower floor connect to us?
Thanks for your advice.

Apolinaras "Apollo" Sinkevicius

-------------------------------------------------
Visit CARMEL MUSIC & ENTERTAINMENT website http://carmelme.com
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