WiFi file serving

[n3m3ss]

I have a laptop as a file server using Win 2008 Server connected via ethernet to a Cisco EA4500 router to provide internet and media access to all my devices including a Macbook Pro. Our ISP has a 2km WiFi hotspot we all access. There are bi-directional antennas everywhere. I'm sharing 150,000 files via the server via wireless using the internal WiFi card. The problem: Only the ppl near me can access the files on my server, and I can't figure out why. I have posted this on another forum and the response was... We don't deal with issues this basic. I have tried googling different phrases on this, but no bueno thus far.

[goatnetworking]

What is a 2km WiFi hotspot?

Are they connecting directly to your laptop (adhoc), or through an access point?

When you say the people near you, how close are they? 10ft, 100ft etc..

[n3m3ss]

Our ISP covers about a 2 kilometer radius. They are connecting wireless to my laptop directly. The ppl near are as close as 5 ft. We live in row of trailers like a trailer park. There is cat 5 coming out of the trailers in our row going to a bi-directional antenna mounted really high. the row in front of me can connect but the row behind me cannot. I've walked around with a netbook to see the connectivity and all row have full strength. I noticed there is one computer that I can see no matter what row I'm on. What did that person do to their computer? Any ideas?

[n3m3ss]

All trailers have cat5 connections coming from the back of the trailers to a bi-directional antenna mounted high. I'm assuming that's how they can cover such a large radius. Even so, the majority of us just use the wireless card in the laptop because the speed is the same. So, most ppl don't use the cat 5 connection in their room, but It's really all the same. It's all wireless anyway since the cat5 routes to antennas.

[goatnetworking]

When you say that you use the wireless card in your laptop, are you referring to the 802.11 Wireless card? or a special USB type card to connect to that ISP?

Are the bidirectional anttenas repeaters?

If you have an android tablet or phone you can download a wifi analyser. You can then leave your laptop at home and test your signal strength with tablet. Good signal strength does not always mean you have good data rates. If the Access point can push the signal farther then the PC, your PC can have great signal, but a bad data rate.

Different PC's have different wireless cards, that other person may have a better wireless card then you.

I would think that it would be helpful to connect a wireless router or bridge to the wired connection to the ISP. Then let the wireless router connect other users.

I hope this helps.

[extr3mex]

Hey, am a little confused with your question. I just wanted to get couple of things cleared:

1. Does all of those who want to access your filesharing system have a seperate internet connection or do they access the internet through your router (i.e. by shariing your internet connection)?

2. Are all these computers outside of your home connected via CAT5 cables to one another?

3. How do you access the internet? Through the wireless router at your home which is connected to the ISP? or directly to the ISP via wireless without the use of the router at your home?

4. You said your ISP covers about 2km radius. Are you talking about Wi-Max?

[n3m3ss]

Thanks for the responses I'm having a hard time with this one.

@goatnetworking
yes internal wireless b/g. I thought about the signal strenth and ordered an Alpha wireless card. But shouldn't I be able to use the Wi-Fi network to serve files all the way across the network? why am i restricted to my little area when we all connect to the same network? We are deployed contractors in Iraq. When I was in Afghanistan I did something very similar with a wired network and shared files up to 100 miles away.

@extr3mex
we all have the same internet connection and i dunno if it's Wi-Max. Let's assume all computers are connected wirelessly because I know the ppl I want to share with are. If I choose ethernet wouldn't ppl have to connect to the SSID of the router? I want ppl to be able to connect to my server using the ISP's network because they wouldn't have to log onto the SSID of my Wi-Fi router to share files with me meaning they can stay on the internet, without using the bandwidth of my internet connection, while still downloading or uploading files to my server. I have this working great for the ppl near me. They can download @ 2Mbp/s and Upload @ 700Kb/s while still surfing the net without anyone losing bandwidth on their internet connection. This is what I have.

An old HP connected via cat5 to a Cisco EA4500 Wi-Fi router. The router is connected via ethernet to an ethernet socket in the wall of my "house". There's a cat5 cable running from my socket outside to a big bi-directional antenna connecting the ISP. I'm using that for internet connectivity for the server (an old HP laptop), a Macbook Pro connected via cat5 to the router for internet, a PS3 connected via cat5 to the router for internet, and all my devices (ipad, iphone) wirelessly to the SSID of the router for internet.

I'm using the internal Wi-Fi card of the server (the old HP) to connect to the Wi-Fi signal (ISP network) to only share files. I have this working great except not everyone can see it. I can't figure out why. I would like everyone connected to the ISP network wirelessly to be able to see my server, and use it. Again, the server is connected wirelessly to the ISP through the internal wireless card of the server which is 802.11 b/g.

I've had someone tell me it's a vlan issue. Any ideas? One person can connect from 100 ft away, but another behind me can't and he's only 50ft away. The only difference is there is 1 bi-directional antenna per row. The guy behind me 50ft away is on a different row. The guy next to me 100ft away is on the same row as me. We are in trailers, 3 rooms per trailer with one person per room in a row of 6 trailers. I can walk up and down my row streaming media flawlessly. If I go to the row behind me (50 ft away) I can't even find the server. The row behind me houses the other people I want to share with. I know their subnet mask is the same as mine.

Thanks for ur time and help everyone :)

[n3m3ss]

I've also had someone tell me I would need to edit LMHOSTS. I dunno much about that stuff though :(

[n3m3ss]

I do believe the bi-directional antennas are repeaters.

[n3m3ss]

Ok. I figured something out yesterday. I can map to the IP of the ethernet port and max out the wireless D/L bandwidth from the server to any wireless device if I'm connected to the broadcast SSID of the router. I need to do that without connecting to the SSID of the router because 1) I don't want other people using my internet 2) I don't want them to have to disconnect from the ISP (their personal internet) to use my server. Is there a way to forward ports so that I can connect to the IP of the LAN connection of my server without using the network SSID of the router? I need to be able to ping the IP of my server's ethernet port from the network it's connected to. If I map this for instance: \192.168.1.115\sharedfolder from a network connected to my Wi-Fi router's Internet port. I truly believe this will solve all my troubles. My router is connected to the ISP via cat5. This is the same network all other people connect to the internet with. I want to map to the ethernet port of my server wirelessly which is behind a Wi-Fi router...

[n3m3ss]

*\\192.168.1.115\sharedfolder

[n3m3ss]

Im an idiot with stuff guys. we get 2 mb/s download max and between 1-5 mb/s upload. 



last night i bridged the connections on my server (Wi-Fi adapter and Ethernet) and got wireless 15mb/s download speed 

but it didn't last long. when i rebooted the pc that was downloading the file it went back to 300KB/s. 

now i can't duplicate whatever i did to increase the download speed. i bridged the connections thinking 

instead of ppl downloading from my wireless connection this would route their traffic to ethernet. 

thus, increasing their download speed. this would have been a way around the issues i posted before. 

at least i thought it would.




ISP<----------------------------->Cisco  EA4500

                                 /             \  

MacbookPro-Server-PS3<---->Ethernet -Bridge- Wireless<---->everyone-iphone-ipad 
              |
              |


          Wireless
              |
   Everyone sharing files



I can connect to the ethernet port only when im connected to the ssid of the router. shouldn't there be a way to fix that? 



Connected to the ISP or the router ssid i still see the same network devices. i understand it's because the router is 

connected to the ISP via cat5 which would be the same. But why can't I ping the IP of the ethernet port with a pc 

connected to the ISP wirelessly? I understand it's behind a router. Im beating google up looking for answers. 

i know that wouldn't be the cure for the underlying problem though. i want to be able to see ppl on the 

back row from the server. And im still trying to figure out how i got 15 mb/s download speed from the server wirelessly. 

rebooted and lost it.

[n3m3ss]

i was only getting 2mb/s download speed with 1 pc connected wirelssly. a Toshiba. all others were getting around 300KB/s d/l.