How to boost wifi to other buidlings on my property.

[jmesserly]

We live on a ranch that has 2 other homes in the same area. They are each about 250 yards from the main house. We currently have wifi set up in the main house. The other two houses, a bunkhouse for work/research crews and a guest house, can see the wifi network, but connectivity is very poor. We asked the telephone company to come out and set up a system for us to boost the service to each location, and although they can do it, the supervisor won't approve it, and they want us to set up service in each location instead. My question is, how do I boost the wifi from the main house, in two different directions. I need a network in each location that multiple computers and devices could access. Is it possible to do this off of the one network? Any help would be much appreciated!!

 

[unoriginal1]

Google boost wifi signal with beer can. Try that out 😉. It's an interesting and cheap solution. If that doesn't work you can look into a couple of other things. You can use a wifi repeater to boost the signal, you can also run cables underground and just properly insulate them. The max length for Cat 6 cable is 100 meters or 328 feet.

If you want to get advanced you could set up your own network with switches, routers etc (still running cables) but I imagine this would be the last option. It would be the most expensive route.

 

[unksol]

I can't imagine why the phone company would do that for you... That doesn't make much sense. You'll have to set up directional antennas on each end to set up a decent link.

 

[maxinexus]

If quest house has a same phone line just buy another DSL router, I assume you have DSL not cable internet. You can also buy range extenders.

here some modems
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100008185&IsNodeId=1&srchInDesc=dsl&page=1&bop=And&ActiveSearchResult=True&cm_sp=Networking281-_-VisNav-_-Modems&Order=RATING&PageSize=20

here are extenders

http://www.newegg.com/Wireless-Range-Extender-Media-Bridge/SubCategory/ID-2948?Tid=17195&cm_sp=Networking281-_-VisNav-_-RangeExtenders&Order=RATING

 

[JamesSneed]

I had a friend with a similar situation albeit it was a little shorter distance and he just trenched CAT5 and COAX from the main house. That may be a tad high of a cost or impossible in your case. If you have good line of sight you could use point to point wireless bridges that are made for doing this sort of thing(really the only good option for WIFI at 750ft range).

You would buy one bridge to install on the outside of the main house to point toward the second house. Then install the other one on the second house to receive. They should be pointing at each other for best reception.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833168093

One thing to consider is how fast of an internet connection you have in the main house and if it can handle all of the extra traffic. Yes you could run this all off one line but you would need decent bandwidth. If its an option to upgrade your internet speed to a higher tier I certainly would unless you happen to have something already very high bandwidth like FIOS.

 

[jmesserly]

I can't imagine why the phone company would do that for you... That doesn't make much sense. You'll have to set up directional antennas on each end to set up a decent link.

Might not make sense to you, but they can and will at their discretion. We had a technician come out to mark underground wires because we were installing a pipeline. He was the one that made the suggestion that got this ball rolling. His supervisor said no though. I assume it is because we already have service in the bunkhouse, and would be disconnecting that service if we could make this work. I understand why they said no as we would be saving $600 a year at their expense, but they will do it under certain circumstances.

 

[jmesserly]

I had a friend with a similar situation albeit it was a little shorter distance and he just trenched CAT5 and COAX from the main house. That may be a tad high of a cost or impossible in your case. If you have good line of sight you could use point to point wireless bridges that are made for doing this sort of thing(really the only good option for WIFI at 750ft range).

You would buy one bridge to install on the outside of the main house to point toward the second house. Then install the other one on the second house to receive. They should be pointing at each other for best reception.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833168093

One thing to consider is how fast of an internet connection you have in the main house and if it can handle all of the extra traffic. Yes you could run this all off one line but you would need decent bandwidth. If its an option to upgrade your internet speed to a higher tier I certainly would unless you happen to have something already very high bandwidth like FIOS.

We have our bandwidth at the highest we can get. Both houses are only intermittently used, so, if there was a slow down, we would just deal with it at those times. Thanks for the suggestions!