[SOLVED] What is the best way to share internet in this situation?

[Ben136]

Please consider the situation described below.

• House 1 is partly two stories and has the high speed internet source on the ground floor on the west side. It has a wifi router TP-LINK AC1750. House 1 has thick wooden log walls and some metal roofing. In some parts of house 1 far from the router reception is poor.
• House 2 is immediately to the east of house 1. It is two stories and can see and use the source wifi router in some parts of the house. No metal roof or thick walls.
• House 3 is immediately to the east of house 2. It is one story can not see the source wifi router. The room where house 1 has internet has a window and there is a wifi extender on the fence between houses 1 and 2, which houses 3 uses to get internet (works so so). It is a cheap Netgear Wifi extender, meant for indoors really.

The internet access in House 2 and House 3 needs to be improved. Houses 2 and 3 are at the bottom of a hill, cant get internet from a source themselves. The three houses are close together and owned by the same extended family. Houses 2 and 3 are used part time. What would work the best? All options are on the table.

I have been thinking of a Wifi mesh in house 1, but how does that cover houses 2 and 3?

It may be possible run a wired ethernet line from house 1 to house 2, underground, but ideally no digging? But if it must, then it must. And then what would you put in house 2 to reach house 3?

I have also thought of putting a CEP210 unit in House 1 and one in House 2? Would that work, or are they too close and these units are meant for outdoor, right? Or put one in House 1, and one on the fence, but how do you get the signal to house 2 then?

Maybe an outside access point on the east side of house 1? Higher up? Will that be strong enough?

Please recommend some specific equipment that would provide good internet at all three houses.

 

[bill001g]

I know nothing about the cep210 units but they appear to be targeted at small WISP ISP. They are lots cheaper than anything else I have every seen.

I doubt too close matters most this type of equipment you can actually reduce the power if you need to.

I would put a unit on all three house with the main house acting as the AP and you should get good results. Most other equipment I have seen for doing this, like stuff from ubiquiti is based on simple WiFi. This tplink stuff uses a method that allows the main location to control the remote radios. This should greatly improve the performance when both remote houses are using the network at the same time.

Key is they need direct line of sight. Since they connect via ethernet cables that also provide the power you should be able to fine some location on each building that works. Some short antenna poles if nothing else works. You want it fairly high above the ground so say someone can't part a truck in the path.

 

[Ben136]

I know nothing about the cep210 units but they appear to be targeted at small WISP ISP. They are lots cheaper than anything else I have every seen.

I doubt too close matters most this type of equipment you can actually reduce the power if you need to.

I would put a unit on all three house with the main house acting as the AP and you should get good results. Most other equipment I have seen for doing this, like stuff from ubiquiti is based on simple WiFi. This tplink stuff uses a method that allows the main location to control the remote radios. This should greatly improve the performance when both remote houses are using the network at the same time.

Key is they need direct line of sight. Since they connect via ethernet cables that also provide the power you should be able to fine some location on each building that works. Some short antenna poles if nothing else works. You want it fairly high above the ground so say someone can't part a truck in the path.

Hmm, can I something like like the CEP 210 units INISIDE each house? Do they need to be outside? Surely it has some wall penetration if a regular wifi router can go through a well?

 

[bill001g]

You can try it. It will likely go though windows. The beam in directional so it might go through walls better but it takes very little to stop wifi signals. You can see through the front glass on a microwave oven and a microwave oven puts out over 1000 times the power allowed on a router. The amount that is allowed to leak out is not even 1/100 the power you can transmit on a router.

This is completely unpredictable all you can do is try. Worst case you know if you have to put them outside you know for sure it will function.

 

[kanewolf]

Please consider the situation described below.

• House 1 is partly two stories and has the high speed internet source on the ground floor on the west side. It has a wifi router TP-LINK AC1750. House 1 has thick wooden log walls and some metal roofing. In some parts of house 1 far from the router reception is poor.
• House 2 is immediately to the east of house 1. It is two stories and can see and use the source wifi router in some parts of the house. No metal roof or thick walls.
• House 3 is immediately to the east of house 2. It is one story can not see the source wifi router. The room where house 1 has internet has a window and there is a wifi extender on the fence between houses 1 and 2, which houses 3 uses to get internet (works so so). It is a cheap Netgear Wifi extender, meant for indoors really.

The internet access in House 2 and House 3 needs to be improved. Houses 2 and 3 are at the bottom of a hill, cant get internet from a source themselves. The three houses are close together and owned by the same extended family. Houses 2 and 3 are used part time. What would work the best? All options are on the table.

I have been thinking of a Wifi mesh in house 1, but how does that cover houses 2 and 3?

It may be possible run a wired ethernet line from house 1 to house 2, underground, but ideally no digging? But if it must, then it must. And then what would you put in house 2 to reach house 3?

I have also thought of putting a CEP210 unit in House 1 and one in House 2? Would that work, or are they too close and these units are meant for outdoor, right? Or put one in House 1, and one on the fence, but how do you get the signal to house 2 then?

Maybe an outside access point on the east side of house 1? Higher up? Will that be strong enough?

Please recommend some specific equipment that would provide good internet at all three houses.

First, the disclaimer, that sharing internet between houses may violate the terms of service of the ISP. Your service could be terminated.
The CEP210 look like they are intended to work in pairs. They may not broadcast "standard" WIFI.
What is the distance between #1 and #2/3 ?
What would work best? Trenching fiber down the hill.
Would a device like the CEP210 work mounted inside? Best case -- maybe. With a significant elevation change, you really need the units mounted outside and pointing up/down the hill.
It is quite possible that a single CEP210 mounted outside #1 could connect to two CEPs mounted on #2 and #3. That would make them independent from each other.

 

[gggplaya]

How far is house 1 from house 2? Is it less than 300ft?
Buy a trenching shovel from Home Depot for like $20 and buy a spool of direct burial CAT6 cable. You don't have to dig deep, ideally you want to be under the frost line, but really you just need to be deep enough so you can't accidentally cut the line or disturb the line when the ground is wet or when mowing. If you can get 6+ inches, that would work depending on how much effort you want to put in. Actually if you want to go out there with some muck boots the next time it rains, might make trenching down 12+ inches really easy, albeit really messy.

If you don't want to dig at all, a pair of $65 Litebeam AC dishes pointed at each other from 2 houses can create a bridge, you need to be tech savvy enough to set them up. Then add an access point at the 2nd house. https://store.ui.com/collections/operator-airmax-devices/products/litebeam-5ac-gen2