Looking to boost signal between two houses (~50 foot gap)

[Aaron23]

Here's where I'm at.

I have two properties my main house and a "mother in-law" home that's two doors over.

The main house has the internet connection I'm trying to bridge over to the second property so we only need to pay for one internet service line.

The main house is brick one story (~900 sq ft).

The house in between the two properties is also brick one story. ~30 ft wide lot

The second house is aluminum siding on wood frame single story (~800 sq ft)

I currently have a Netgear WDNR4500 (wireless disabled) in my basement running as the wired router.

I have a Netgear X6 R8000 in AP mode that I've wired up in a kitchen cabinet that is on the exterior wall of my house nearest the second home.

I've tried various alignments and placement of the antennas on the X6 in hopes of boosting gain at the other house and nothing seems to help, I actually had slightly BETTER service when the X6 was originally in my basement instead of above ground over the sink.

I've also tried both setting channels based on my neighbors current channel and trying auto, neither helped.

There is A LOT of wireless traffic in the neighborhood, I walked around my house and the other with an analyzer running on my phone and saw at least 12 other strong signaled transmitters and a bunch of other weaker signals that came and went.

The house in between us has a very strong Wireless N signal that I'm sure is helping interfere.

The most common solution I can find seems to be powerline but that's obviously not an option since these two properties are not connected in any way physically.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can accomplish adequate coverage of both homes with this AP? It seems with it's size and usual expected coverage it should be more than enough, the two homes together and the property between is smaller than many large subdivision homes.

 

[bill001g]

You have 2 issues. The first is being able to get the signal that far. That will greatly depend on the walls and materials as you suspect. The second and more important now days is the interference. With lots of other people using wireless around you it greatly reduces the distance usable signals can go. Very technically your signal still goes the same distance but you are receiving many other signals mixed in. This is the main difference between signal strength and signal quality although they are closely related.

The method that will work for sure is outdoor directional bridge equipment on both houses. You want to be above the house that is between you. Engenious and ubiquiti both sell units. Something like enh202 is just a example. The signal is concentrated into a narrow beam which increases the signal strength but more importantly it greatly reduces the reception of many of the interfering signals.

Key here is to make sure the unit have clear line of sight...likely above the other house.

 

[Aaron23]

Thanks, that's along the lines of what I was thinking. I wish the R6 had detachable antennas so I could try a pringles can to begin with, but I'd bought the Nighthawk before the new (2nd) house so I'm trying to work with what I've got.

I was also looking at trying to use my old WDNR4500 as a wireless bridge/repeater but it seems to only work if there's no encryption on the connection, and the DD-WRT option isn't much better, IF it even works.

I'll look into dedicated wireless bridges a little more.