[SOLVED] Home wifi extended 200' to workshop??

[blkdog1954]

Hi all,
Going back to a post from early January, I have one question that I didn't think of at the time.
I''m trying to get wifi to my shop 200' away from the house, and its been suggested that I try a Ubiquiti Nano Station Loco m5 mounted on the shop. My question is, if currently I'm getting a wifi signal outside the shop on the side nearest the house of 18% signal strength, is this sufficient for 1 nanostation at the shop to pick up and boost, or will I have to employ a second one on the house just to boost this to a larger %?
Thanks to all for your responses and patience with this.

 

[kanewolf]

The M5 version is the 5Ghz ONLY version. 5Ghz does not penetrate walls as well, and unless you have a dual band router may not even be part of your WIFI. You need to be sure which frequency you want to use and purchase the appropriate hardware. A pair of 5Ghz units is good for an environment with a lot of competing WIFI.
BUT for a single ended link you probably want the NSM2 Nanostation M2

 

[ElectrO_90]

You have to remember 2 things about Wifi
The output of the router can be insanely strong but the output of your phone or whatever device won't be as good.
So you can be flooded with a decent signal but your device may not have enough power to transmit it that far. So if you pick up 18% @ 200' then I really doubt you can send a signal back.
If you want decent wifi, use the Nano station, otherwise a tincan and string would be good.

 

[Solandri]

The output of the router can be insanely strong but the output of your phone or whatever device won't be as good.
So you can be flooded with a decent signal but your device may not have enough power to transmit it that far. So if you pick up 18% @ 200' then I really doubt you can send a signal back.

This is a common misconception. The mathematics of how an antenna works is symmetric. You get the same signal boost for both transmit and receive. A directional antenna like the Nanostation M2 which gives it an extra 8.5 dB on transmit, will also give it an extra 8.5 dB on receive. So it puts out a signal that's roughly 7x stronger (in the direction it's pointed), and can receive signals that are roughly 7x weaker (in the direction it's pointed).

The same goes for your device radio. So they both see the same signal strength in both directions.

The different direction of communication may cause different interference. If there's another wireless device transmitting directly in a line behind yours, the Nanostation may have trouble picking out your device. While your device can see the Nanostation clearly because there are no spurious signals originating from behind it.

 

[blkdog1954]

Thanks folks....unfortunately I'm still confused. where the modem/router sits in the house, the signal will have to travel through one exterior wall and then it's direct line of sight to the shop. The nanostation would be mounter outside the shop and linked through one wall by ethernet to a router in the shop. Would a 5ghtz not be able to penetrate just the house exterior wall?
And , I'm still asking if I need two, or if I can get away with just one at the shop able to pick up the wifi signal from the house?
Thanks again

 

[kanewolf]

Neither in your original post nor this one have you identified what existing WIFI hardware you have, by model. I do recommend you go back a re-read your original thread. I fear we will just restate things that were said in the original (like 2.4Ghz penetrates walls better than 5Ghz) ...