Trying to get WiFi into my shop

[Brian_232]

My house has a Howbn1 hi gain antenna. I get WiFi pretty much my entire 5 acres. My shop is 200 feet away inside I get 2 bars WiFi but very hit and miss. I bought a netgear ac 1200 WiFi extender put it in shop. But because the reception from the Howbn1 is so up n down. I want to know if I bought an outdoor antenna such as the amped A8ex antenna can it attach to the extender and solve the problem.

 

[velocityg4]

Use a WiFi point to point system. You aim the house external antenna and the shop external antenna at each other. One end connects to the router in the home via Ethernet. The other connects to an access point in your shop. Which I don't know if the Netgear will perform that function or if you will need a new one. The caveat being it is limited to 802.11n speeds.
https://www.amazon.com/EZ-Bridge-Lite-EZBR-0214-Outdoor-Wireless-System/dp/B002K683V0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493177892&sr=8-1&keywords=outdoor+point+to+point+wireless

You can also do something similar with this.
https://www.amazon.com/COMFAST-Coverage-Extending-Wireless-Repeater/dp/B06WVHRN9V/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1493179532&sr=8-10&keywords=outdoor+wifi+bridge

Although the EZ-Bridge has tons of good reviews. The COMFAST has no reviews.

 

[Solandri]

What's the shop made of? If the walls are metal, yeah that will block radio signals.

An antenna mounted outside the shop should solve the problem. Another option is a directional antenna pointed at the antenna on your house.

https://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-NanoStation-loco-M2-Wireless/dp/B00HXT8FFI
(I assume your network is 2.4 GHz since the Amped antenna you listed is for 2.4 GHz. Ubiquiti makes a 5 GHz Nanostation as well.)

The issue with a passive antenna mounted outside the shop is that it will be losing signal strength along the entire length of antenna cable to your extender in the shop. If the extender is mounted next to the window with a short length of cable to the antenna outside, you'll be fine. But more typically (because of where the power plug is located) people mount the antenna outside, then have a 10-20 ft antenna cable going to the WiFi extender. That length of cable can easily cause more signal loss than you gain with the bigger antenna.

The Ubiquiti actually mounts the WiFi receiver in the antenna, so there's no signal loss. The connection is then sent inside via an ethernet cable (where you can use a switch or WAP to distribute it). Since ethernet is digital and spec'ed to work out to 100 meters, there is no loss of signal strength.

 

[velocityg4]

I would add both the EZ-Bridge and COMFAST use are connected via Ethernet to the devices in each building as well. They get their power via power over Ethernet.

 

[Brian_232]

I would add both the EZ-Bridge and COMFAST use are connected via Ethernet to the devices in each building as well. They get their power via power over Ethernet.

 

[Brian_232]

To give you all more info the Howbn1 on house is tied to router set up as access point if I take my extender outside I get excellent signal 2.4 and and good signal 5. Once I take it into metal sided shop 5 goes away and 2.4 goes from excellent to bad and back again. If I get an antenna outside. Set up as a repeater the amped A8ex says it can plug into the antenna connector of a router or extender will that then basically move my extender antenna outside. And do what I need. Thanks for all the info in advance

 

[Brian_232]

Not up on this site yet tried to reply through post an answer

 

[gregjar]

If you don't mind a little outdoor work with a trenching shovel, 200 feet isn't too far to send a Wi-Fi signal over an LMR-600 cable. Just get the right connectors, and put the LMR-600 run between your router's antenna port and any sort of antenna inside the shop. Wi-Fi over coax would also eliminate free space path loss and rain fade.