[chasil]

There are many long-range WiFi solutions. I wonder how these would have performed as alternatives.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-range_Wi-Fi

[NoiseBert69]

Nowadays you just can buy pair of cheap Mikrotik oder Ubiquiti directional dishes.

Back then this was rocket science.

[beAbU]

Google "pringles cantenna" to get an idea of what state-of-the-art long range wi-fi gear was like in 2005...

[chasil]

Yes, these were Yagi antennas.

EBay has many models.