Wireless between two offices.

I guess both your offices will need Internet access also.

The most convenient way is to subscribe ADSL line for both offices and do a VPN connection from sales office to main office. The main office ADSL line must have at least a static IP.

In this way, both offices can access Internet and at the same time sub office can access main office's database server. Sales person who is travelling outside can also connect to the main office using VPN, enable them to retreive data on-the-fly.

I have had some success with non line of site connections using wireless links but there is never a guarantee. Most wireless 802.11b connections can be set up as either bridging or routing. I suggest you get a radio that can accomodate an external antenna and connect a directional antenna (13 dBi is good) via a short piece of LMR400 cable. Test the link in one room but be aware that high-gain antennas can overpower the receive side and cause data errors if they are too close. Next move one end to the other building and point it through the walls on both ends. Sometimes this will work reliably depending on the construction of the building. If this does not work, then you need to put the antenna outdoors and run a longer coax cable.

As this is for business, stay away from cheap consumer products such as Linksys.  They are cheap for a reason and the reason is not protocol compatibility but manufacturing quality and the detailed radio performance. www.demarctech.com has outdoor units that have the best performance on the market and then you only need to run cat5 to your switch on either end.

Be sure to use the security features of your radio. WEP is not totally secure but does work. A better solution is to use MAC address filtering and to turn off SSID broadcast - two features that make it very difficult to break in, or even to detect the signal unless you are faced with a truly malicious hacker.

Good luck.  --Eric

The Cheepest and least secure way to do this is to make a VPN. (tunneling)
This though isn't the most secure or fast solution to your problem.
If security is an issue though wireless isn't a good option since the encryption systems are not that good.
Also wireless technology has severe distance limitation. If the wireless router must go through many walls or pass by things that could create interference(flurescent lights, magnetics, cars) you will have a spooty connection
Also speeds on wireless are undepenable and are slower than advertised.
I like the T1 option or Line of sight.
Emereger's idea of a directional antenna may work and it'd be cheaper than normal line of sight technologies.
I'm still worried about connection quality over 500ft and I'd like to know what sort of terrain the signal will go through.
daJman
suggested using repeater, I don't see where you will put them if the signal must go outside.
If you do use an 802.11 standard don't use D-Link. I've had bad experiences with multiple bad pieces. Splurgee and get Linksys.
How large is your company? Are we talking Gigabytes of traffic or Megabytes? Is this material trade secrets or Inventory? How important is security?
There are so many ways of linking you two sites that more information is needed to decide the best plan of action

Also If you buildings don't face each other(other sidfes of 2 buildings) line of sight (obviously) won't work.
buying or renting a T1 line is a workable solution no matter your answer. It is reletively cheap(you can buy fractional ones if you want), expandable, secure and fairly easy to implement.

Hope that was helpful.

I agree that the VPN tunneling idea is the best bet to ensure security. WEP encryption on wireless has been broken and should be used only when security is a relatively minor concern. VPN is THE answer from a security point of view. Your encryption should be be fully under your control an doutside of the physical link. Then you cna change wireless equipment or physical layer or whatever and not have to worry about losing yoru security plan.

As far as wireless gear goes. You can figure on real full-duplex equivalent speeds of about 40-50% of the rated number IF you have  a good quality signal.  The best way to do this is to try it. I am not a fan of renting T1s form phone company for a 500 foot link because you pay forever and you lose control and you are subject to outatages at tehir CO.

Finally, in the same sense as D-Link, stay away from Linksys. Their radios are of very poor quality and they have been known to have problems with ethernet ports. Fine for a cheap home system but not for a commercial application.  Similary, I had a problem with SMC but that one may have been my fault rather than theirs:)

Good luck.

migit03, the company has approx 30 employees, and security is very important, trade secrets, inventory, client information will be transmitted.

As suggested in this topic, d-link and linksys is unreliable.  Which manufacturer has the highest quality and has very reliable products.  Of course connectivity is very important, however if we have equipment that is unreliable, then everything else is null.

Thanks