[SOLVED] Two questions please about extending WI-FI signal to garage & bottom of garden ?

[sponkwig]

Hi,

Is it possible to extend my home's WI-FI signal to the bottom of my garden which is about 17 metres away from the house? The garage starts about 10 metres away which runs to the end of the garden. It has electrical sockets inside.

If it's possible to do this at a cheap to modest price, is it also possible to restrict the signal to this direction?

I already have this extender near my patio doors but the signal quickly diminishes a third of the way down the garden.

I know it may be possible to use powerline adaptors but I'm not sure how reliable this will be for this use. It would be interesting to know if this is a possibility but nothing will be connected to via a network cable, just WI-FI such as a smart plug and hopefully CCTV.

Running a network cable to the garage will not be an option.

Thank you and hope you can help.

 

[bill001g]

You could try outdoor AP. They are made by many companies but ubiquiti is known for making this type of equipment fairly cheap. These are connected via ethernet cable but ethernet cable can go 100 meters so you could use outdoor ethernet and run it say under the eaves as far as you can.
Wifi should easily go 17 meters.....unless the extender is inside the house which means the walls eat it. What may help is to use a directional AP. These concentrate the wifi energy in one direction. It hard to say how much it will help it could be end device causing it and not your current repeater.

If you have coax cable you can use moca to get a ethernet connection.

 

[sponkwig]

You could try outdoor AP. They are made by many companies but ubiquiti is known for making this type of equipment fairly cheap. These are connected via ethernet cable but ethernet cable can go 100 meters so you could use outdoor ethernet and run it say under the eaves as far as you can.
Wifi should easily go 17 meters.....unless the extender is inside the house which means the walls eat it. What may help is to use a directional AP. These concentrate the wifi energy in one direction. It hard to say how much it will help it could be end device causing it and not your current repeater.

If you have coax cable you can use moca to get a ethernet connection.

Thank you for your advice.

I can see what my options are now. I thought there might had been a whizzy jolly spiffing solution that could easily have sorted this issue but sadly doesn't seem to be the case. You're right about the extender, it's supposed to cover 600 square feet but I think the cavity wall next to it could be considerably diminishing the signal, although there are double glazing patio doors next to it so I'm not sure if that's an issue, regardless, it's disappointing. I'm going to stick it into the outside power socket on the house to see if it makes difference.

Thanks again, really appreciate it.

 

[bill001g]

energy coating on windows can easily block wifi. It takes very little to block wifi. When you consider your microwave over work on 2.4g the same as wifi at 1000 times the power but the amount allowed to leak out is only a fraction of what a wifi router is legally allowed to transmit. So you can see in through the glass door but nothing can come out.

 

[sponkwig]

Just tried the extender in the outdoor socket, works a treat outside & inside! Full bars right to the bottom of the garden.

Now depressed because I can't keep it outside.

Now wondering if I can put some kind of waterproof (Perspex?) box around the socket and extender without affecting the signal.

Seems you're right again, the patio glass doors could be even worse than the walls themselves since I can still get full bars inside despite the extender now being behind the cavity walls on the outside. Maybe it's just bad luck and the fact that the extender was nearly in a corner before. I'll try it in some sockets in the kitchen and upstairs as well to see if it improves enough to forgo buying anything else.

Thanks again, really helpful as I'm starting to understand and appreciate the pitfalls of WI-FI!

 

[bill001g]

Outdoors and power Is a hard one.

Generally plastic boxes will not block a lot of the signals. Years ago before they sold outdoor AP cheap I used to put a router in a plastic box but the new problem was then it got too hot if you sealed it up too well.

In your case you have 2 radio signals since you are using a repeater. It must also get though the wall back to the main router. This might be partially solved if you use a powerline network device that has wifi radios in the outdoors. You still have the problem of electical power and water to solve.

If there is any way you can run a ethernet cable outside it will make things a lot easier. It is pretty easy to get a AP that is rated for outdoor use and both the data and the power use the ethernet cable.

 

[sponkwig]

Thanks, I will really need to think about this.

Running another ethernet cable through the house is doable but it means drilling a couple of holes through brick walls, if I want to hide it of course. This POE AP seems to be one of the cheapest that has got decent reviews. I guess it all depends on how badly I want this when factoring in time and money!

Just realised, I do already have an ethernet cable outside, unfortunately a POE CCTV camera is using it which is directly plugged into a DVR.

As always, thanks again.

 

[nigelivey]

Thanks, I will really need to think about this.

Running another ethernet cable through the house is doable but it means drilling a couple of holes through brick walls, if I want to hide it of course. This POE AP seems to be one of the cheapest that has got decent reviews. I guess it all depends on how badly I want this when factoring in time and money!

Just realised, I do already have an ethernet cable outside, unfortunately a POE CCTV camera is using it which is directly plugged into a DVR.

As always, thanks again.

Can you not put in a POE powered switch which passes through the POE. I would avoid wifi CCTV, these can be rendered useless in seconds by anyone who has the mind to do so.

https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/prod...z7s2kVLW0xg3b37qR5pjaBR8y7Q_6vdwaAqsdEALw_wcB

This should passthrough enough power for your existing CCTV camera and the AP you were looking at.

 

[gggplaya]

The problem is less the rain, and more a problem of temperature. Because it's easy enough to put it into a weatherproof box. I've had several devices die in my garage due to the heat and cold. After which I switched to Ubiquiti which rates most of their access points for -22 to 158F, which is more range than it ever gets where I live. Worst we've ever had here is -3 degrees F and that was during the Polar Vortex a few years ago. My UAP-AC-M has been going strong in my garage for several years now. It's also weather resistant and designed to be mounted outside in the rain.

My garage is 25 yards away from my house, powerline AV2000 adapters work fine. Though I've had one set die due to the heat and cold. I'm on my second set. I get about 50-60mbps in my garage which is more than enough to stream tv, music and youtube out there, as well as my security camera. One of these days I'm going to dig a trench and run ethernet, just haven't really felt the urge to do the work since it's all working so well.