Wireless Bridge Installation in Katy & Houston, TX

Link two buildings without a trench — a wireless bridge, done right

A wireless bridge is a pair of directional radios that carry your network through the air between two locations — a “virtual cable” you can install in days instead of trenching fiber for weeks. EVOTECH IT LLC designs, mounts, aligns and tests point-to-point and point-to-multipoint bridges for homes, acreage, warehouses and multi-building sites across Katy, Houston, Sugar Land, Richmond, Fulshear and Cypress.

We are a licensed and insured low-voltage contractor with more than 20 years of hands-on experience and a 5.0-star rating. That matters here because a wireless bridge is outdoor infrastructure: it lives on a mast in the Texas sun, it has to survive lightning season, and it only performs if the line-of-sight math, the antenna aim and the grounding are all correct. Most “the bridge keeps dropping” complaints are not the radios — they are a link mounted too low, aimed by eye, sitting on a congested channel, or wired with no surge protection. We install so those problems never happen.

This page is a straight, no-jargon guide to how a wireless bridge actually works, what line of sight really requires, how far and how fast these links go, the difference between point-to-point and point-to-multipoint, and exactly when a bridge beats running cable — so you can make a confident decision whether you hire us or not.

How a point-to-point wireless bridge actually works

A wireless bridge is not Wi-Fi for your phone. It is a dedicated link between two fixed points, built from two radios that each have a directional antenna — an integrated dish or flat panel — aimed straight at each other. Because the energy is focused into a narrow beam instead of sprayed in all directions, a bridge reaches far, rejects interference from the sides, and holds a strong signal that an omni-directional Wi-Fi router never could.

It behaves like a transparent Ethernet cable

Once aligned, the pair forms a transparent Layer-2 link. One radio plugs into the switch at Building A, the other into the switch at Building B, and everything crosses as if a single cable joined them: the same subnet, DHCP from your main router, tagged VLANs, camera streams, a VoIP phone system, door access controllers — all of it. That is why we describe a bridge as a virtual cable rather than a second network.

One cable up the mast (PoE)

Each radio is powered by Power over Ethernet, so a single outdoor-rated cable runs from the switch or a PoE injector inside the building, up the mast, to the radio. That one cable carries both power and data, which keeps the outdoor hardware simple and the failure points few.

What crosses the link — and what does not

A bridge carries your network to the far building; it does not, by itself, give the devices over there Wi-Fi. At the far end you terminate into a switch and add access points for phones and laptops, or plug in PoE cameras, a phone system, or a rack. Think of the bridge as the highway between the two properties and the access points as the local streets once you arrive.

Line of sight and the Fresnel zone — the part everyone underestimates

The single biggest factor in whether a bridge works is line of sight. There are two kinds, and they are not the same thing.

Visual line of sight vs. RF line of sight

Visual line of sight means you can see one antenna location from the other. RF (radio) line of sight is stricter: the radio needs not just a clear straight line but a clear elliptical zone around that line, called the Fresnel zone. A link can look perfectly clear to the eye and still perform poorly because a rooftop, a fence line or the tops of trees are intruding into that invisible zone.

The 60% rule

As a working standard we keep at least 60% of the first Fresnel zone clear of any obstruction. The zone is fattest at the midpoint of the link, and it gets wider the longer the hop and the lower the frequency — which is exactly why the fix for a marginal link is almost always height. Raising each antenna a few feet on a mast can lift the whole beam clear of a tree line or a neighbor’s roof and turn an unreliable link into a rock-solid one.

The Texas-specific enemy: trees

Foliage is a heavy absorber of these frequencies, and wet leaves after a storm are worse. A link we align through bare branches in January can fail in April when the trees leaf out. We plan for the worst-case canopy, not the day we happen to visit. Over longer hops we also account for the curvature of the earth, which begins to eat into clearance past roughly six miles and demands taller mounts on both ends.

During the survey we measure the actual path, the obstacles and the mounting heights each end needs. If a clean shot is not achievable, we tell you before you spend a dollar — sometimes the honest answer is a relay on a third rooftop, and sometimes it is trenched fiber instead.

Throughput and distance — how fast, how far, and the trade-off between them

Speed and distance pull against each other, and the honest numbers depend on your hardware, your path and your spectrum. Here is what actually determines them.

What sets the speed

• Frequency band and channel width — a wider channel (40/80 MHz, or the very wide channels on 60 GHz) carries more data, if the spectrum is clean enough to use it.
• Signal quality (SNR) — the cleaner and stronger the received signal, the higher the modulation the radios can hold, and modulation is what turns into throughput. A weak or noisy link quietly drops to a slower, more robust rate.
• Distance and line of sight — longer hops and any Fresnel intrusion lower the signal, which lowers the modulation, which lowers the speed.
• Interference — other radios on your channel, common in dense parts of Houston, cause retransmissions that eat real throughput.

Realistic figures

With clean line of sight, unlicensed 5 GHz and 6 GHz point-to-point links commonly deliver a few hundred Mbps up to around a gigabit of real throughput over short-to-medium hops. 60 GHz (mmWave) radios can push multiple gigabits, but over shorter distances and with more sensitivity to heavy rain. Licensed microwave delivers carrier-grade, interference-protected multi-gigabit links over long distances. These are capability ranges for the class of equipment, not a promise for your specific path — we confirm the achievable number for your site during design.

Latency, and the one cap people forget

A well-built bridge adds only a few milliseconds of latency — fine for VoIP calls, live camera viewing and everyday use. And remember the ceiling: the speed the far building feels is the smaller of the bridge’s capacity and your actual internet circuit. A gigabit bridge cannot make a 300 Mbps internet plan faster; it simply carries whatever you have, intact, to the other end.

Frequency bands: 5 GHz, 6 GHz, 60 GHz and licensed microwave

Choosing the band is a trade between range, speed, spectrum congestion and cost. There is no single best band — there is a best band for your distance, your throughput target and how crowded the airwaves are at your address.

Most homes and businesses are served beautifully by unlicensed 5 or 6 GHz. We reach for 60 GHz when you need multi-gig across a shorter, clear span, and we recommend licensed spectrum only when a link is truly mission-critical or the unlicensed bands at your location are too congested to trust. Part of our survey is a spectrum scan — we look at what is already on the air at your address and pick the cleanest channel, rather than guessing and hoping.

Point-to-point vs. point-to-multipoint — one link or a hub

How many places you need to reach decides the architecture.

Point-to-point (PtP)

One dedicated link between exactly two locations. All of the capacity is committed to that single hop, so PtP gives you the highest, most predictable throughput. This is the right choice for a warehouse-to-office backhaul, a house-to-shop link, or any single high-bandwidth connection where performance matters.

Point-to-multipoint (PtMP)

A single base station on a high, central point uses a sector antenna to serve several remote units at once — a hub-and-spoke layout. It is the efficient way to connect a cluster of buildings from one vantage point: several outbuildings on acreage, a business park, a church or school campus, or an RV park. The trade-off is that the base station’s capacity is shared among the remotes, so PtMP fits sites where each endpoint’s demand is modest, while a hungry site still deserves its own dedicated PtP link.

When a wireless bridge beats trenching fiber or running cable

This is the decision most people are really trying to make, so here is the honest comparison we give every customer. The starting fact that drives it: copper Ethernet only runs reliably to about 100 meters (328 ft). Past that you are into fiber or wireless no matter what — so the real contest is usually wireless bridge vs. trenched fiber.

A bridge usually wins when

• There is a public road, creek, bayou or parking lot you cannot dig across.
• The path crosses a neighbor’s land or an easement you do not control.
• Trenching means tearing up mature landscaping, a driveway or historic pavement.
• You need the link now — or it is temporary, like a construction trailer or an event.

Cable usually wins when

• The run is short and the trench is easy — the two buildings are close with open ground between.
• You need guaranteed multi-10G today and headroom to grow, with zero weather risk.
• There is no usable line of sight and no rooftop to relay from.

We install both — see our fiber-optic cabling and structured network cabling pages — so our recommendation is not steered by what we happen to sell. We tell you which one genuinely fits your property.

What a professional EVOTECH bridge installation includes

“Installing a bridge” should mean a surveyed, aimed, grounded and documented link — not two radios zip-tied to a pole and pointed by eye. Every EVOTECH wireless bridge project includes:

• Path & site survey. We measure the real distance, verify line of sight and Fresnel clearance, and determine the mounting height each end needs — before we quote.
• Spectrum scan. We check what is already on the air at your address and select the cleanest channel and band for your path and throughput target.
• Right-sized hardware. Radios matched to your distance and bandwidth need — no overselling a licensed link where clean 5 GHz will do, and no underpowering a critical one.
• Solid mounting. Masts, poles, non-penetrating roof mounts or wall brackets, installed to stay rigid in Gulf-coast wind so the aim never drifts.
• Precise alignment. We align to real signal and SNR targets — not “good enough” — so the link holds its high modulation in weather.
• Grounding & surge protection. Proper grounding and surge suppressors at the building entry protect both the radios and the switch behind them from Texas lightning.
• Weatherproofing & clean cabling. Sealed outdoor connectors, UV-rated cable, and tidy runs down the mast into your rack or switch.
• VLAN pass-through & throughput test. We confirm your VLANs cross correctly and measure real throughput in both directions, then hand you a documented baseline.

Our wireless bridge installation process, step by step

1. Free on-site estimate. We visit both ends, check line of sight, and give you a clear written scope and quote. No pressure and no invented numbers.
2. Path design. We finalize the band, the radios, the mounting heights and the channel plan from the survey and spectrum scan.
3. Mounting & cabling. We install masts or mounts at both buildings and run outdoor-rated PoE cable from each radio down to the switch or injector inside.
4. Install & align. Radios go up and are aimed to real signal and SNR targets — the step that separates a link that lasts from one that drops in the first storm.
5. Ground & protect. We bond the mounts to ground and fit surge protection at each building entry.
6. Test, tune & document. We verify VLANs, measure throughput both ways, record a baseline, and walk you through the link.
7. Support. We are local — if the link ever needs attention, we are a call away at (832) 359-2425.

Mounting, grounding, security and surviving Texas storms

A wireless bridge is outdoor infrastructure, and the parts most installers rush are the parts that decide whether it is still working — and still private — in two years.

Mounting and aim stability

The antenna has to stay pointed. A mount that flexes in high wind lets the aim wander, and on a narrow-beam link even a small drift costs you signal. We use rigid masts, poles, non-penetrating roof mounts (weighted, no holes in your roof) or wall brackets sized to the wind load, and we place them where the beam clears obstructions with room to spare.

Power over Ethernet

Each radio draws power over the same Ethernet cable that carries its data, from a PoE switch port or an injector inside the building. One cable up the mast keeps the outdoor side simple and gives storms fewer things to damage.

Grounding and surge — non-negotiable on the Gulf coast

Houston sits in one of the more lightning-active regions in the country. An ungrounded mast with an unprotected cable running straight into your switch is an invitation for a strike to take out the radios and everything they are plugged into. We bond every mount to a proper ground and fit surge suppressors at the building entry, so a nearby strike is shunted away instead of riding the cable into your rack. It is the cheapest insurance on the whole project and the first corner a bargain install cuts.

Heat, UV and sealing

Texas sun degrades cheap cable and unsealed connectors within a season. We use UV-rated outdoor cable and weatherproof every connection, so the link does not slowly rot where you cannot see it.

Is it secure?

Yes. Modern bridge radios encrypt the link (AES) between the two endpoints, and the signal is a tight, directional beam aimed at one specific antenna — not an open broadcast anyone nearby can casually join like a public Wi-Fi network. Combined with your normal VLANs and network segmentation, a properly configured bridge is a private, encrypted extension of your LAN, not a hole in it.

Redundancy for critical links

For sites that cannot tolerate downtime we can design in a second link on a different band or a failover path, so one point of trouble does not take the far building offline. We are honest about which sites genuinely need that and which do not.

Where wireless bridges fit — homes, acreage and businesses

The same technology solves very different problems for homes and for businesses, and much of it is shaped by how spread out west-Houston properties are.

Homes and acreage

On the larger lots common around Fulshear, Richmond and Cypress, the buildings you care about are often too far apart for a cable and too far for good Wi-Fi. A bridge brings your real network — not a weak signal — to a detached shop, barn, garage, guest house, ADU or pool house, so the far building gets full-speed internet, cameras and its own access points. It is also the clean way to put a camera on a distant gate or the back of the property without trenching to it.

Businesses and campuses

For commercial sites a bridge links a warehouse to the front office, joins two buildings across a parking lot or a street, connects a construction trailer or a retail annex, or ties a whole church, school or multi-building campus together from one high roof using point-to-multipoint. It is also the fastest way to get a working network into a second suite while you wait weeks for a carrier circuit, and to backhaul a remote camera array or UniFi network segment.

Because we are local, service is a short drive — not a support ticket to another state — and we design for the specific distances, tree lines and storm exposure of the Katy and Houston area.

Six mistakes that ruin a wireless bridge (and how we avoid them)

Almost every disappointing bridge fails for one of these reasons. Knowing them helps you judge any installer — including us.

1. Ignoring the Fresnel zone. Mounting too low so the tops of trees or a roof clip the invisible zone. It limps along until spring foliage kills it. We plan height for the worst-case canopy.
2. Skipping the spectrum scan. Dropping the link onto a congested channel in a dense area, then blaming the radios for the retransmissions. We scan and pick clean spectrum.
3. Aiming by eye. “Close enough” alignment leaves the radios on a low modulation that collapses in rain. We align to real signal and SNR targets.
4. No grounding or surge protection. The first close lightning strike takes out the radios and the switch behind them. We bond and protect every install.
5. Wrong band for the job. Running rain-sensitive mmWave over a long wet path, or fighting interference on 5 GHz where the site truly needed licensed spectrum. We match band to path.
6. Treating the bridge like Wi-Fi. Expecting phones to connect to it, or forgetting you still need access points at the far building. The bridge carries the network; APs serve the devices.

What affects the cost of a wireless bridge

Every path is different, so we give real quotes after a free on-site look rather than a fake “starting at” number. The honest drivers of cost are:

• Distance and line of sight — longer hops and marginal paths need taller masts, more clearance work, and sometimes higher-grade radios.
• Throughput target — a modest 5 GHz link costs less than a multi-gig 60 GHz or a carrier-grade licensed one.
• Licensed vs. unlicensed — licensed microwave adds FCC coordination and license fees on top of the hardware.
• Mounting complexity — a simple wall bracket is one thing; a tall mast, a non-penetrating roof mount or a rooftop relay is another.
• Cable, grounding and surge — the runs from each radio into the building, plus proper grounding and surge protection at both ends.
• Number of endpoints — a point-to-multipoint hub serving several remotes adds a subscriber unit and alignment at each site.
• Redundancy — a failover second link, if you need zero downtime.

Our estimate is itemized so you can see exactly what each part costs and adjust the scope to your budget. The on-site estimate fee, when one applies, is credited toward your project. To get real numbers for your property, request a free on-site estimate or call (832) 359-2425.

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