WiFi IN MY SHOP

[wniemann]

That would work fine. I didn't want to trench in a line so that's why I did what I did. If you have no problem running the conduit that's the most reliable easy solution.

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[Dragfluid]

It's a bad idea. I've gone through why in other threads. Fiber is cheap. All that said its your equipment and you've been warned. You may get away with it for the next 20 years fine and it may blow up all the electronics connected to your network. Like most other things in this world it's all a cost vs risk decision.





I use Ethernet over powerline stuff. It has come a long way in the last few years. While a CAT 5 is the best the HomePlug units are way more reliable for me than WiFi especially for high bandwidth application. I use them to get my network into my TV for streaming high def (20 MBps video encodes) rips of my Blu Ray collection. There is just no way to get a cable to the back of my TV with any acceptable level of WAF intact and when I was using wifi (802.11 N at the router and device) I'd get drop outs or stutters anytime the bitrate got high (think explosion scenes). For the past two years I've been using a set of the Netgear 500 HomePlug devices and I've never had a problem or had to touch them.





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Thanks for checking in, Geek. I couldn't remember who it was, and was too lazy to go searching.
If I would have read this before I buried the CAT over a year ago, I would have done it your way, but too late. I'll hope for the best.

 

[jeepnatv4life]

That would work fine. I didn't want to trench in a line so that's why I did what I did. If you have no problem running the conduit that's the most reliable easy solution.

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Ill be running conduit and wire anyways... Ethernet cable over a 60' or so distance will be ok wont it?

 

[Steevo]

Ill be running conduit and wire anyways... Ethernet cable over a 60' or so distance will be ok wont it?

Cat5 ~ Cat6 Ethernet is fine for up to 100 meters (328 feet).
Get the best quality cable you can, not the cheapest, and use large enough conduit, and pull it through with some lube so you don't have any issues with damaging the insulation.

 

[Pwrgeek]

Ill be running conduit and wire anyways... Ethernet cable over a 60' or so distance will be ok wont it?

Copper Ethernet is good up to 100m (328 ft). If you want 1000Mbps you need CAT 6 for anything over about 75'. If the run is going between buildings that are detached using copper cable is a bad idea. IEEE 802.3 (the formal electrical definition of Ethernet) was not designed for that and doesn't incorporate sufficient galvanic isolation to protect from ground potential differences that will occur if there is a nearby lightning strike. Fiber is cheap and is the appropriate solution in this case.


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[JPinSTL]

I'm running this TPLink $50 Ethernet over PowerLine Kit and could not be happier. I'm not moving around tons of files, but it works great for surfing/email with a Tablet or Phone.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HSQAIQU/?tag=atomicindus08-20

I tried a WiFi Extender but the 100ft between buildings and a metal PoleBarn did not cooperate. If I would have thrown more money at a weatherproof exterior antenna on the Shop to then feed the Repeater inside it may have worked?

A few things though, the adapter on the house side needs to be directly plugged into an outlet, not a powerstrip with surge protection as that filters out the signal. My setup hops 5 circuit breakers to make it from the branch circuit in the house to a branch in the workshop. This technology has come a long way since the '90s

I also setup the house WiFi and the Shop WiFi with the same SSID and Password. All my devices seem to roam/handoff just fine.

 

[checkthisout]

Copper Ethernet is good up to 100m (328 ft). If you want 1000Mbps you need CAT 6 for anything over about 75'. If the run is going between buildings that are detached using copper cable is a bad idea. IEEE 802.3 (the formal electrical definition of Ethernet) was not designed for that and doesn't incorporate sufficient galvanic isolation to protect from ground potential differences that will occur if there is a nearby lightning strike. Fiber is cheap and is the appropriate solution in this case.


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So what if I go 328 feet to a switch? Can I then go another 328 ft and so forth??

 

[Aerogt01]

Yes...

 

[CNGsaves]

So what if I go 328 feet to a switch? Can I then go another 328 ft and so forth??

Yes...

. . . . . it would work . . . . buy WHY ??

At that point, decide to . . . . Do It Once, Do It RIGHT . . .
. . . . AND . . . . go with FIBER !!!

 

[checkthisout]

. . . . . it would work . . . . buy WHY ??

At that point, decide to . . . . Do It Once, Do It RIGHT . . .
. . . . AND . . . . go with FIBER !!!

In my instance I just don't want to invest that much in equipment. The fiber price isn't terrible but there is no real risk of lightning strikes where I live.

Everything is in conduit. I could literally pull a new wire from house to garage in less than 10 minutes and I can't justify something as fancy as fiber running out to my chicken coop!

They need to focus on making eggs, not lounging watching Netflix and YouTube all day.

 

[CNGsaves]

^ ^ ^ BUT . . . they will NEED all the Neflix programming . . .
. . . . . to keep watching documentaries on . . .
. . . . . . . . . Which came first, The Chicken . . . OR . . . The Egg ??!!??

 

[oscar80]

What are the fiber optic people using for equipment?

 

[Pwrgeek]

You need two media converters plus two sfp modules plus a fiber patch cable that is long enough. If you have more than one device at one or both ends you can replace the media converters with switches with sfp ports.

Links

Media converter
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003C...C_UL100_SR100,61_&refRID=0QETHFPZZ104ZR2XJSRH

Switch
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00N2...switch+sfp&dpPl=1&dpID=31S15jMIN0L&ref=plSrch


SFP
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003C...C_UL100_SR100,75_&refRID=06S263QTAD1TYWFPAKBS

Cable (just search Amazon for the length you need)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0055...plex+cable&dpPl=1&dpID=41AO7aKkhaL&ref=plSrch

Note you can save about $30 on the switch if you don't need PoE but that's the one I bought to run my cameras in the shop.


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[Pwrgeek]

In my instance I just don't want to invest that much in equipment. The fiber price isn't terrible but there is no real risk of lightning strikes where I live.



Everything is in conduit. I could literally pull a new wire from house to garage in less than 10 minutes and I can't justify something as fancy as fiber running out to my chicken coop!



They need to focus on making eggs, not lounging watching Netflix and YouTube all day.

My issue isn't with destroying the cable it's the equipment on both ends that I worry about. If you live somewhere there is never lightning you're probably okay but the extra $100 on the front end was worth it to me for peace of mind.


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[oscar80]

Thank you for the info

 

[checkthisout]

My issue isn't with destroying the cable it's the equipment on both ends that I worry about. If you live somewhere there is never lightning you're probably okay but the extra $100 on the front end was worth it to me for peace of mind.


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Right, forgot to consider that.

 

[jblnut]

I have one Ubiquiti Picostation in my house and one in my garage. I have the unifi software on my PC that acts as the controller. Zero handoff between the 2 AP's. It is really neat how cheap and effective the Ubiquiti stuff is.

Same basic setup here and it works great. One AP in the house, one in the shop and another out in my barn. Loaded Unifi firmware on them all and I can roam seamlessly between them all. Covers the better part of a 40 acre patch with just these three AP's (they are spaced nicely throughout the property).

At first glance the Ubiquiti hardware can seem a little intimidating but there are great walkthroughs to configure just about all of them to do whatever you want them to do. There is more expensive hardware out there that doesn't deliver the performance that the Ubiquiti stuff does.

Start here and see what you can do ... https://help.ubnt.com/hc/en-us/sections/200914480-Configuration-Guides

For example .... I have a pair of NanoStations that are currently running perfectly 5 miles apart. Ubiquiti makes hardware that can pass a 500MB/s link 120 miles and each end is less than $400. Bonkers ....

 

[checkthisout]

Same basic setup here and it works great. One AP in the house, one in the shop and another out in my barn. Loaded Unifi firmware on them all and I can roam seamlessly between them all. Covers the better part of a 40 acre patch with just these three AP's (they are spaced nicely throughout the property).

At first glance the Ubiquiti hardware can seem a little intimidating but there are great walkthroughs to configure just about all of them to do whatever you want them to do. There is more expensive hardware out there that doesn't deliver the performance that the Ubiquiti stuff does.

Start here and see what you can do ... https://help.ubnt.com/hc/en-us/sections/200914480-Configuration-Guides

For example .... I have a pair of NanoStations that are currently running perfectly 5 miles apart. Ubiquiti makes hardware that can pass a 500MB/s link 120 miles and each end is less than $400. Bonkers ....

So you have to have a pc running all the time to run the ap's?

 

[jblnut]

Technically you only need a pc to setup and adopt the ap's for the initial install but there are tons of useful features you'd be missing out on. I'd say if having a pc running all the time is a deal breaker to look elsewhere as that's part of the point of the Unifi hardware/software package.

On a similar note, a pair of PicoStation's can be set to AP-Repeater/bridge mode, pull from each other, extend the network, be range extenders or however you want to word it. Basically, you can put one in the house and another in the garage and have the garage one grab and rebroadcast the signal from the house. WEP is the best you can do for security so not great but it's still something. A tad messy but it works. Every such hop does reduce your throughput by 50% so with 4 hops you'd be down to 37.5Mbps at the last one. Not great but workable.

 

[Denwood]

Check out the Netgear EX7000. It's marketed as a repeater but has an AP setup option that gives you dual band AC wireless..so over 280 Mbps actual to your iOS device reliably for $139. I like it in the garage as it also has 5 x Gigabit network ports as well. I have it in the shop connected via 100ft buried CAT5 to the house switch. I wrote a little review here: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=312373&page=2

It was tested over at smallnetbuilder.com performing pretty much at the top of their extensive test database. As a fellow coming from 25yrs of IT, it's not so often that hardware impresses me, but the fact that all newer iOS devices have AC wireless, makes it a no brainer for me. In my tests wireless throughout was pretty much twice the wireless N, and over four times faster than G. Good buzz for your buck there.

 

[Beemer533]

Cable (just search Amazon for the length you need)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0055...plex+cable&dpPl=1&dpID=41AO7aKkhaL&ref=plSrch



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Just keep in mind, this is a patch cable and isn't intended to be used outside or buried in conduit. Long pulls could also damage patch cables if one isn't pretty carefull.
I'm not saying it won't work at all, just that it is not the correct type of cable for an outdoor/buried application.

So you have to have a pc running all the time to run the ap's?

For a typical residential application, no you don't, with one exception (see below)

Technically you only need a pc to setup and adopt the ap's for the initial install but there are tons of useful features you'd be missing out on. I'd say if having a pc running all the time is a deal breaker to look elsewhere as that's part of the point of the Unifi hardware/software package.

For the typical residential installation or usage there is no real reason to keep the controller running all the time; the primary exception is if you want to use the Guest portal as the UniFi AP do not have a built in web server so the controller takes care of this.

Note that you can still set up guest access, you just can't use the portal option without the controller.

Are there lots of things you can do with the controller and tons of data to be monitored? Sure there is, but none of them are important or really that useful for the typical home user.

I consider myself to be more than the typical user as far as my home network goes, but even then I don't really have any reason to run the controller all the time. I have been running mine for years without the controller (except of course to add additional units and upgrade firmware)

After setting up the AP initially, other than adding additional units or installing updates there is no real benefit to the casual home user to run the controller software 24/7.

I would recommend saving the config file somewhere else though, if you swap computers or something happens to the software install you will lose the backup.

 

[12valve]

Good reading on here. I need to run electric out to my shop. I will need at least a 200 amp service. Welders, two post lift large compressor and more. Not sure what size electrical cable to bury. I also want to hardwire for internet. What cable do I need for my application cat 5, cat 6? The house is 425' from the steel building. Can I bury the internet cable in the same trench or will I have weird issues with the power and internet in the same trench. I will also be trenching water lines out there. Does the internet cable need to be in it's own trench or can I run it in with the water or electric?

 

[Denwood]

At 425', see the posts on running fiber. That's what you want for that distance.

 

[checkthisout]

Bleh, still can't figure out what I want to go with.

Here is my property all labeled up:

View media item 59402
I'm running this router:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006QB1RPY/?tag=atomicindus08-20

I get 2.4ghz at the far end of the shop in relation to the house and just barely get it out at the chicken coop depending on the weather that day. The 5ghz band stops within about a 20 foot perimeter of the house, again depending on weather and moon alignment and how many walls it's passing through. The router is mounted almost dead center in the middle of the house.

So, you're me and you want to blanket your property with WIFI, OK?

I was going to put an AP dead center in the ceiling of the shop and then run a wire down to the chicken coop and mount an outdoor AP on a light pole I have out there. I may also mount one on the left side of the picture near the property corner as that area is about 180' away from the house.

What equipment would you use? Can the existing router in the house be used in conjunction with something like the Ubiquiti or Engenius products or would I need to shut the radio on my router off and then add another AP in house to match the one in the shop?

1)I want dual band coverage like I have now.

2) I want seamless handoff between the AP's as I am always moving all around the property on quads, tractors, wheelbarrows, lawnmowers, my feet...whatever.

3) I'm not really computer savvy but I am above a plug and play level and willing to do say a 1/2 days research and learning to get it working solid. The kid up the street is a software engineer, would he know anything about networking?

4) It will all be hardwired.

Talk to me.

 

[cybrdyke]

+1000 on the comments that say to avoid the use of wireless range extenders. Especially NetGear ****. I have a pretty good home wifi signal, but it was too weak in the detached garage, which is only about 15' from the house. Not only did the extender NOT reach the garage, but it also made the signal in the house much WORSE. You cant even watch a short youtube video without buffering every 10 seconds. Compound that with the fact that Netgear support is virtually non-existant and you have a complete waste of time and money. Good thing Amazon has a good return policy.

 

[Denwood]

I'm not a fan of extenders, however the newer (not the cheapest!) hardware will use one band to extend and another to host an AP. This is miles better in performance than what typically happens with extenders...it's more like a bridge.

Coming fromm 25yrs of IT, the Netgear EX7000 is an excellent product. Granted I use it in AP mode, however I tested in it's hybrid extender mode and was faster than any extender I've ever tested. The formal reviews support these observations.

As far as handoffs, just use the same SID and password (different channels) for your APs. Unless you have some kind of special application, this generally works very well roaming with modern wifi mobile devices in a home environment.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Yes Im late to this thread but i do this for a living so i figure i can offer some help.

Theres 2 frequencies/bands that wifi operates on- 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz, each having their own pros and cons.

2.4Ghz goes through objects better than 5Ghz does but has lower throughput and capacity as well as has congestion issues in areas with lots of APs. This is because there is less spectrum and therefore less channels available. On top of that, theres only 3 non-overlapping channels- 1, 6, & 11.

If u setup an access point on channel 6 and your neighbor is on channel 5 with good signal inside your place, chances are good that u will have interference and connectivity issues.

5Ghz has higher throughput and capacity but shorter range and poor object penetration.

Hello all. It has been a long time since I have been on the site. Who can advise me on the best way for me to get WiFi in my shop? It is a cinder block building 50 feet from my house. I have good Wi-Fi all through the brick house, but outside the side of the house closest to the shop I get very little signal and no usable signal in my shop. My first thought was to run some cat5 cable from my router to my shop and connect a router there. Some friends are suggesting I add a booster or range extender at the edge of the house and then again inside the shop closest to the house. Have any of you had good luck extending your home network into a shop or barn/outbuilding? I have looked at the Netgear range extenders but am unsure how they would work using two to three in a linear fashion to extend the network.

What do yall suggest

Cinder block and metal are great attentuators of wireless signals meaning they cut the signal. So it makes sense that youre having this issue.

U have several options that have already been mentioned:

1) wired connection between buildings with an AP setup in the garage. Make sure to use ethernet surge suppression/lightning arrestors.

2)wireless bridge between house and garage with an AP in the garage.

EOP adapters and range extenders dont work very well and can be frustrating. Ive had many customers that purchased these cause the geek squad highly recommended only for the customer to get fed up with them, throw them out and switch to a wired connection.

Range extenders by nature can have issues because they pickup the existing signal and rebroadcast it. If the signal is bad to begin with, then the resulting repeated signal, while strong, wont give good performance because of the poor signal being repeated.

Ubiquitit.... will have many options for you. I have their product at work for wifi in our office and shop and at home between house and shop. They work great.

Yup ubiquiti stuff is great. I use it all the time.

I've been a sysadmin for a couple decades & built a WiFi link across Kabul Afghanistan to get Internet access...With all that experience and well over $1000 worth of random WiFi gear in boxes I used crappy CAT3 phone line to get Internet out to my shop rather than deal with WiFi repeaters or extenders. Repeaters & extenders & just point to point WiFi links are always a pain at best & pretty flaky at worst.

I recently trenched out to my shop for a solar install & ran spare conduit to pull Ethernet in. Haven't pulled the cable yet, but the conduit is all in place. Still using the 2 pair of CAT3 to get 100 megabit for the moment, but not for much longer.

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Ive seldom ever had issues with wireless point to points. However every location is different.

Question

Do you think it would work with my shop .

About 60' from house , steel siding , steel roof , interior walls plywood , ceiling steel.
I haven't been able to get wifi out there yet.

The building materials are causing the issues. U need a CAT5e wire between buildings or a wireless bridge.

Not sure ? But all in the C9 was about $100.00..........all I can confirm it work in my case.
I learned of the C9 from my son in law ........he was in a condo situation. With dozens of WiFi signal in a small area. The C9 solved his signal issue his of course was rated to congestion not distance. I was not willing to spend $400-500 on a router so gave the C9 a try. As bonus my wireless printer use to drop drop the connection with the Linksys and was a ***** to get the connection back. That issue was resolved with the new router. The printer was 15' from the router.

There are a lot variables in WiFi some just in placement and location and direction of the devices. Not to mention setup variables and quality of the box itself.

If theres congestion issues, a new piece of hardware wont solve that because theres already too many devices using up the already limited 2.4ghz spectrum. The C9 didnt add any spectrum that wasnt previously available. Only way to fix 2.4ghz congestion issues is to either put up shielding to block other people's AP signals or shut off some of the APs.

Network guys,

When you set up a network with multiple access points, do all the access points simply behave as one large antenna or does the device you're using have to drop the connection from each point before it connects to the next one?

They dont behave as one large antennae no. But they create a mesh network IF all APs have the same SSID.

Yes the host drops the connection and renegotiates with the new AP. With todays fast hosts, the user may hardly even notice the switch.

The Ethernet over power line stuff *****. I wouldn't waste my time with it. Trying to put data over a small chunk of the insanely big power grid isn't stable. How many circuits do you have in your house? The signal will be echoing over every one at different speeds due to different lengths, gauges & any other number of factors.

EoP ends up being slow & flaky in the best of situations. You are better off with bridged WiFi.

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Agreed. EoP isnt worth it!

I used the ubiquiti nano's. Its about 300' from house to shop. Easy setup it you dont mind it hanging out in a window. Have it connected to a router in the shop. Hasn't missed a beat in 3 years.

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Theres a mount u can use for those to mount them outside then run the CAT5e inside.

I'm surprised we haven't heard from those that strongly oppose hard wiring between buildings due to lightning issues.

For the record, I've got direct burial CAT (5 or 6) between the house and shed.
I guess we'll see.

Its doable with the proper protection.

I have one Ubiquiti Picostation in my house and one in my garage. I have the unifi software on my PC that acts as the controller. Zero handoff between the 2 AP's. It is really neat how cheap and effective the Ubiquiti stuff is.

Yes I love ubiquiti equipment.

Explain how this principle works? My shop will be 42 feet from my house.. And this sounds interesting how does it work?

Which principle?

can i not just run a ethernet cable from my router thru conduit into my shopand plug up another wireless router?

Im new to this and want wireless in my shop

Yes thats one option!

 

[cybrdyke]

Here's the response from NetGear on my complaint about their wireless range extenders:

Sorry to hear about your Support experience. Please note that this is expected behavior for devices on extenders. Extenders take your router signal & rebroadcasts it, halving the throughput.

So, they are telling me to EXPECT crappy behavior from their product, insinuating that ALL range extenders are worthless.
And their suggestion for tech support was to go to their forum and ask the "community" for help. My suggestion to them was to F*** off....
CD

 

[Rigpig]

A lot of great info in this thread. I'm running conduit to my shop, about 150' away with a couple runs of CAT5. Is running COAX that far even worth it if i want to hook up a TV and watch the game??
Thanks

 

[Fallon]

A lot of great info in this thread. I'm running conduit to my shop, about 150' away with a couple runs of CAT5. Is running COAX that far even worth it if i want to hook up a TV and watch the game??
Thanks

You are only looking at a few extra bucks to dump an additional conduit in that expensive trench. You can easily figure out if coax is worth it later & just pull it through the extra empty conduit. Or figure out that coax isn't worth your time & pull fiber or something.

Conduit = cheap options

One minor warning... Really you can't pull any more cable through an existing conduit. You can pull out your existing cable then re-pull that old cable & new cable at the same time. The cable & pull string just twist around each other to much & cause to much friction to pull additional cable through a conduit filled with existing cable. I'd have minimal worries about pulling ethernet & coax through the same conduit, although technically they could interfere with each other.

 

[Superbec]

I just wified my shop.
Old router found in the box

Must have WDS mode(instead of AP) , do some research here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_distribution_system
http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/d...system-and-how-does-it-work-with-my-nighthawk
(basics: put the router in wds mode and stick the cable in the WAN , setup a wireless network , that's it)

I used CAT7 cable, 30 meters of it was just about enough from my home router to my shop one.

Cost ~30$

Much better then any wifirepeaters I now of, I tried that route before , I have the internet jeebeewibeees .. it must be fast or a loose it.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Here's the response from NetGear on my complaint about their wireless range extenders:

Sorry to hear about your Support experience. Please note that this is expected behavior for devices on extenders. Extenders take your router signal & rebroadcasts it, halving the throughput.

So, they are telling me to EXPECT crappy behavior from their product, insinuating that ALL range extenders are worthless.
And their suggestion for tech support was to go to their forum and ask the "community" for help. My suggestion to them was to F*** off....
CD

Im not sure why youre upset.

As theyve pointed out, thats how range extenders work. Not much u can do other than change the range extender for a wire AP...

A lot of great info in this thread. I'm running conduit to my shop, about 150' away with a couple runs of CAT5. Is running COAX that far even worth it if i want to hook up a TV and watch the game??
Thanks

U can run coax that far. However, its a little more complicated than running CAT5e is.

U probably will need an amplifier at your demarc, depending on how long your service drop is and what the signal level is. and u will DEFINITELY need coax bigger than RG6- ie RG11 or larger due to the distance. This requires special tools.

 

[Rigpig]

You are only looking at a few extra bucks to dump an additional conduit in that expensive trench. You can easily figure out if coax is worth it later & just pull it through the extra empty conduit. Or figure out that coax isn't worth your time & pull fiber or something.

Conduit = cheap options

One minor warning... Really you can't pull any more cable through an existing conduit. You can pull out your existing cable then re-pull that old cable & new cable at the same time. The cable & pull string just twist around each other to much & cause to much friction to pull additional cable through a conduit filled with existing cable. I'd have minimal worries about pulling ethernet & coax through the same conduit, although technically they could interfere with each other.

U can run coax that far. However, its a little more complicated than running CAT5e is.

U probably will need an amplifier at your demarc, depending on how long your service drop is and what the signal level is. and u will DEFINITELY need coax bigger than RG6- ie RG11 or larger due to the distance. This requires special tools.

Thanks for the quick reply guys.
I ran two lengths of Cat5 and one coax. If the coax is deemed useless should i ever need it, then it can stay or be used as a pull string.
I had a couple dozen 3/4" sticks of PVC kicking around so i used them up and wasn't too worried about the expensive trench, it was just a bunch of "sweat-equity". I also ran a water line out to the shop and wanted to cover the trench up before heading off to work for a few weeks.
I'll run some LB's and terminate at a later date.
Cheers!

 

[jeepnatv4life]

What is the proper protection for burying Cat 5? I have a metal sided pole barn 40' from the house.. Will a better wireless router inside the house pentrate or should i just hard wire?

 

[Fallon]

There is direct bury rated Ethernet cable. It usually has a gel between the sheath & the wires to prevent water intrusion. Water can actually work its way into normal Ethernet cable. You want to use direct bury rated cable if you are burying it or even putting it in conduit to prevent the cable from getting wet inside. Conduit will end up filling with water due to condensation, so you must always consider conduit wet, just like buried in the dirt.

I'd always recommend burying conduit. Trenches are expensive, conduit is cheap. You can always pull out the cable & re-run something new in conduit if you have problems. You have to re-dig an expensive trench if you direct bury.

Wire is always better than wireless, unless you have mobility issues. Run wire to your shop then put another AP there. Metal walls is great RF (WiFi & cell signal) shielding.

 

[checkthisout]

What is the proper protection for burying Cat 5? I have a metal sided pole barn 40' from the house.. Will a better wireless router inside the house pentrate or should i just hard wire?

After replacing my router, I get a signal in my shop about 70' away but it's spotty.

You'll be much happier with a hard-wired access point or router.

Ya know though, if you're a light user you can try a repeater. They are only like $30.00 on Amazon. If it doesn't meet your needs no big deal. Return it or give it to a buddy or something.

 

[Denwood]

Here's the response from NetGear on my complaint about their wireless range extenders:

Sorry to hear about your Support experience. Please note that this is expected behavior for devices on extenders. Extenders take your router signal & rebroadcasts it, halving the throughput.

So, they are telling me to EXPECT crappy behavior from their product, insinuating that ALL range extenders are worthless.
And their suggestion for tech support was to go to their forum and ask the "community" for help. My suggestion to them was to F*** off....
CD

Cyb, yes typical extenders halve your throughput. If you use one of the "FastLane" enabled products, this however is not true at all. From a similar product review on the EX6200 (older/slower hardware)

Switching over to using a 5 GHz backhaul looks more promising. The straight 2.4 GHz extended signal provided only 21 Mbps down and 26 Mbps up, while the FastLane extended signal yielded three times more downlink and almost two times more uplink throughput! So if you had an AC1200 or higher class router serving mostly 2.4 GHz clients, it looks like the EX6200 could put the idle 5 GHz radio to good use

I found the same results. A solid,reliable 60Mbps on 2.4GHz using the 5Ghz radio as the backhaul. Just pointing this out as the AC2400 and AC3200 tech, as it matures, will likely add a few more channels for "back haul", again increasing the potential performance in extender/bridge mode. Again, I'm using two of the EX7000 in wired AP mode as I wanted a usable 300Mbps for AC wireless on the newer iOS devices.

Throughput drops off dramatically as you move away from an AP with most devices, so it makes sense to have them as close as possible to your clients, with the fastest link possible (1000Gbe) to your router. This is what I ended up with after terminating CAT5 run out to my shop.

 

[cybrdyke]

Thanks Denwood.
It's hard for me to believe that my expectations were too high. I have strong wifi throughout my house, without a problem with an Asus router. I built a garage about 10' away from the house. At the back of the garage, I mounted a TV. I thought that I would run Netflix on it or Chromecast to it. Doesn't sound like a problem. So, I took my laptop out to the garage and the signal isn't strong enough, even though I'm only 30 feet away. I recognize that there's two exterior walls in the way. I thought that I would get an extender to push the signal those extra 30 feet. It's too late for me to run cable out there.
Once I got the extender installed, which wasn't nearly as easy as they claimed (which started my aggravation), the performance was so bad even inside my house that it was unusable.
Tech support pointed me to look at the FAQ's on their website for an answer or to sign up for their forum and "ask the community". I found that insulting. And then the topper was what they told me that I posted previously.
I just find it incredible that several companies make and sell this product to lots of folks like me, who are expecting it to make their wifi reach further, but they dont tell you that it will destroy the performance to an unusable point....until you've already bought it.
Mind blowing.
CD

 

[Superbec]

I just find it incredible that several companies make and sell this product to lots of folks like me, who are expecting it to make their wifi reach further, but they dont tell you that it will destroy the performance to an unusable point....until you've already bought it.
Mind blowing.
CD

that's my experience with repeaters also.

Man UP and cable UP !

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Thanks Denwood.
It's hard for me to believe that my expectations were too high. I have strong wifi throughout my house, without a problem with an Asus router. I built a garage about 10' away from the house. At the back of the garage, I mounted a TV. I thought that I would run Netflix on it or Chromecast to it. Doesn't sound like a problem. So, I took my laptop out to the garage and the signal isn't strong enough, even though I'm only 30 feet away. I recognize that there's two exterior walls in the way. I thought that I would get an extender to push the signal those extra 30 feet. It's too late for me to run cable out there.
Once I got the extender installed, which wasn't nearly as easy as they claimed (which started my aggravation), the performance was so bad even inside my house that it was unusable.
Tech support pointed me to look at the FAQ's on their website for an answer or to sign up for their forum and "ask the community". I found that insulting. And then the topper was what they told me that I posted previously.
I just find it incredible that several companies make and sell this product to lots of folks like me, who are expecting it to make their wifi reach further, but they dont tell you that it will destroy the performance to an unusable point....until you've already bought it.
Mind blowing.
CD

If u cant run a CAT5e cable, then do a wireless bridge.