Extending Wifi

John Murdock · Sep 3, 2018

Hello there!

I am not sure If this is the right place to post this, If it is not please let me know.

I have recently built an extension in the back of my garden around 20 metres behind my house in the garden. I made a man cave there and I'm trying to extend the wifi to it. Currently, the signal is very weak and it only is able to half connect a couple meter outside of the structure.

I'm looking at some wifi boosters But not sure what specs to look for. My knowledge in this field is limited and I would appreciate any help.
If you could let me know what specs to looks for etc I would be grateful.

many thanks.

MikeMl · Sep 3, 2018

I have a similar problem. My main ISP modem (DSL over a phone-line) is in the house. That modem has a Wireless Access Port (WAP), as well as a four-port switch, both of which are used in the house.

The house is about 100ft from our aircraft hangar. The house WiFi does not reach inside the all-steel aircraft hangar building. I need network access for a couple of computers as well as WiFi in the hangar, so while building the house, I put an underground conduit between the buildings. That conduit has several low-voltage cable runs, including an telephone, intercom, doorbell and a Cat5e cable. The network cable from the house is fed from one of the ports on the ISP's modem.

I bought a retired cable modem with a built-in WAP at a thrift shop for $3. It was easy to configure it so that it distributes the network cable coming from the house to three computers inside the hangar as well as providing a WAP inside the hangar.

I named the two separate WAPs "house" and "hangar", respectively. They are set to different RF channels, so they don't step on each other. They have the same password. The IPad I use in my aircraft connects via WiFi inside the hangar to download pre-flight maps, weather, obstacles, flight restrictions, etc before flying. Laptops can connect to WiFi anywhere inside the 60 x 80 ft aircraft hangar. Visitors staying in an apartment in the hangar can use the WiFi, too.

Another way of solving this problem is to get a "plug-into-USB" WiFi dongle with a SMA RF connector (detached or detachable antenna). Then get an SMA coaxial RF extension cable a few feet long, and use that to connect to a Yagi-type antenna (gain, directional). Place that antenna (up high, aimed at the main house) outside the remote building. However, this method will only work with the single device that the USB dongle is plugged into...

John Murdock · Sep 3, 2018

MikeMl said:
I have a similar problem. My main ISP modem (DSL over a phone-line) is in the house. That modem has a Wireless Access Port (WAP), as well as a four-port switch, both of which are used in the house.

The house is about 100ft from our aircraft hangar. The house WiFi does not reach inside the all-steel aircraft hangar building. I need network access for a couple of computers as well as WiFi in the hangar, so while building the house, I put an underground conduit between the buildings. That conduit has several low-voltage cable runs, including an telephone, intercom, doorbell and a Cat5e cable. The network cable from the house is fed from one of the ports on the ISP's modem.

I bought a retired cable modem with a built-in WAP at a thrift shop for $3. It was easy to configure it so that it distributes the network cable coming from the house to three computers inside the hangar as well as providing a WAP inside the hangar.

I named the two separate WAPs "house" and "hangar", respectively. They are set to different RF channels, so they don't step on each other. They have the same password. The IPad I use in my aircraft connects via WiFi inside the hangar to download pre-flight maps, weather, obstacles, flight restrictions, etc before flying. Laptops can connect to WiFi anywhere inside the 60 x 80 ft aircraft. Visitors staying in an apartment in the hangar can use the WiFi, too.

Another way of solving this problem is to get a "plug-into-USB" WiFi dongle with a SMA RF connector (detached or detachable antenna). Then get an SMA coaxial RF extension cable a few feet long, and use that to connect to a Yagi-type antenna (gain, directional). Place that antenna (up high, aimed at the main house) outside the remote building. However, this method will only work with the single device that the USB dongle is plugged into...

Your idea was what many people I know do, The issue is, I will be connecting phones couple laptops there etc.
for laptops I have ethernet cables and such so its not a problem, the wires are cheap and I can do the extending easily.

For the phone I might give in to the weakness and just get this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/NETGEAR-Ex...&qid=1536019055&sr=8-13&keywords=wifi+booster

Only issue is it has to go through 2 walls and I'm not sure what kinda connection that is going to lead to.

Excuse me for my lack of detail here, this area is not one I know very well. Thanks for the help.

SPDCHK · Sep 3, 2018

I have a couple of these in my house "GL-AR150" and they perform quite well. My security camera system is running of one of them without any issues. You can setup one just outside your house (with line of sight to your cave) and another one then at the cave. Each Smart router can be setup such that you define the source IP. The case of the one at your house will be your ISP AP IP address, which in turn will be the source for the cave router.
Each router has one RJ45 plug, and you can use this with a CAT5 cable plugged into a network switch and that will allow more (hardwired via CAT5) network connections

Beau Schwabe · Sep 3, 2018

I have about 1000 feet between my house and an all metal barn. I have been using the product below for the past 2 1/2 years without any problems. You will need two of the items below to communicate to one another which essentially creates a wireless LAN from the house to the barn. At the endpoint (my barn) you will need a WiFi router connected the the LAN. (We also have a WiFi router located in the house). The unit claims that it will work Indoor as well as Outdoor... my unit is outside attached to the side of the barn about 15 feet from the ground, but I placed it in a 4 inch diameter PVC with a CAP on the top to further Outdoor proof the unit. A small hole punched in the barn alowes it to connect to the WiFi router. It has worked like a champ 24/7 for 2 1/2 years.

https://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-NanoStation-locoM2-2-4GHz-Outdoor/dp/B00DCNRTAG

ronsimpson · Sep 3, 2018

MikeMl said:
I have a similar problem

I think I have a similar answer.
In the center of the house I have a wireless/wired router that covers the house and connects to the internet. (normal set up)
I run wires from the house router to the north edge of the house and he south edge.
At the north and south edge of the house are more of the same routers. named North & South.
All three routers are set up the same except each uses a different channel. The center router is set up to assign IP addresses while North and South do not assign addresses.

In the barn I have a router that has two radios. Normally they are set up for radio-1 = 2.4ghz and radio-2 = 5ghz. I found I could set both radios to 2.4ghz and set the router to "extender" mode. It is set to listen to "north" on channel 1 and repeat the signal on channel 6.

OK; not to scale but the house has three wireless routers. The bare repeats "north" and the kid's house repeats "south".
Not shown; the green house used a high gain antenna for one computer.

dr pepper · Sep 14, 2018

I use these to connect wifi sensors at the plant where I work back to any pc, they work well, and would probably work over much greater distances.
A little research on ebay would probably find them cheaper.
An advantage is that they'll only pick up stations in approx line of sight, reducing the number of stations you dont want.
https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/wifi-antennas/7839634/

3v0 · Sep 15, 2018

I did what ronsimpson did with cat5e from the main router to the remote one. But I gave both routers the same name and network password. Turn off DHCP on all but the main router.

ronsimpson · Sep 15, 2018

3v0 said:
Turn off DHCP on all but the main router.

In some of the big buildings I work in: It appears that there are 30+ wireless routers all with the same settings. All connected with cat5 wire. (plus one router with the DHCP turned on) My phone/computer likes this. It moves from one router to another with out a complaint.

In some big buildings each router has a different name and I must log on to each router. Because my computer remembers the log on names it will work just fine the next day.

Extending Wifi

John Murdock

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