Question Good access point to cover a flat roof bungalow, front yard (36ft) and garden (100ft), 13ft above the house.

[Tobias Claren]

Hello.

I am looking for a wifi device to mount on antenna mast.
The device should cover the bungalow from a height of 13ft below with wireless LAN. Also the front yard and garden.

Red arrow: Antenna pole position.
The garden does not have the visible trees.
All the trees (except the one on the right) are gone since the last storms.

And if there is already a device with Wifi HaLow, also beyond.
Currently there is an Asus GT-AC5300 on a notebook cooler in the basement.
Also because cool room temperature exists there in the laundry room all year round.

* LAN ports of the GT-AC5300 are not used anyway.
A Gbit switch is available.

• USB ports are also dispensable, there is a NAS available.
• I think it should probably have at least Wifi 5 ("AC").
• Multiple antennas (not just a single stub) like "MIMO" is also available on outdoor devices?
• More than one network (GT-AC5300 has two 5Ghz networks)?

Do the two networks have separate antennas? The reception strength of the two 5Ghz wifi is different. This indicates extra antennas for each of the bands.
* Good reception even directly under the antenna mast in the living room?
For example, if there were two 5Ghz networks, one network could be pointed down toward the house with its antennas.

I don't want to limit the choices, but are there any well cooled units?
E.g. through heat sinks routed to the outside.

 

[bill001g]

The heat outdoor part is the easy part. You just buy equipment designed for outdoor use. It is powered via ethernet cable in most cases so it tends to be easy to get install anyplace.
So go to ubiquiti site and look for outdoor AP. They have all kinds of stuff rated to very high temperature and are water proof.

Your problem is going to be the tiny antenna in the end devices and not the AP. You might for example see very strong signal levels on your end device because it can hear the AP but the AP can not hear the end device talking back. There is no good solution for this. Sometime you can use directional AP with a number of them pointing
in different directions. This helps for coverage but it makes mimo more difficult because it needs slightly different paths/timing for mimo to work well.

I would put a different wifi source in the house connected via ethernet cables. You have 2 big issues. The first is wifi antenna radiate the power perpendicular to the antenna which is good for coverage in a larger area but if you are under the antenna the signals do not go up and down as well. Next you are trying to punch the signal though the exterior walls of a house. If they are concrete it will eat almost all the signals. Even normal wood with insulation eats a huge amount of the signal. Again the problem is not so much the AP it is your end devices tend to not have the power to get their signals through the wall.

 

[Tobias Claren]

The heat in midsummer is comparable to the heat inside the house.
Possibly there could be a maximum of 36°C/97°F.
I also never ran the Asus GT-AC5300 on the ground level, always only in the basement (possibly maximum 25°C/77°F in midsummer) with notebook fan below.
Possibly, the device wouldn't have worked for 2+ years without dropouts otherwise.
I mean the "normal" wear.
Possibly also planned obsolescence. Because the manufacturers could also stick heat sinks inside on the chips.
Even without a fan, that would make a big difference.
The Oculus Quest VR goggles even have an active fan inside.

A different Wifi source means I still have to buy two or three or more Wifi sources for inside.
Then I can also do without the Wifi outside, if one AP is in front at the kitchen window, and one behind at the terrace window or bedroom window...

Maybe I can put the "spider" on top of the antenna mast for testing.