WordMan
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Anyone know anything about WiFi extenders? Need to ensure I can get WiFi in the garage.
WiFi Extenders
- Thread starter WordMan
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TheToolEnthusiast
Well-known member
Depending on the size of your home and your budget you may want to look in to a mesh WiFi system.
nadogail
Well-known member
Ask your IT guru about a mesh system. I have one and I can notice the difference it made at my place.
Gto7419
Member
If you can, run cat5/6 out there and use an access point. If this isn't something you can do, a mesh system is wayyy better than a wifi extender.
vpd66
Well-known member
If I run a cat6 wire to my shop do I have to buy another router for Wifi in my shop?
67carl
Well-known member
Having just gone through this I highly recommend a mesh network. I tried a netgear extender and wasn't happy with it; buggy, not much improvement and it has a different wifi name so I had to reconnect when going from 1 location to another.
Picked up a mesh system (and a new modem - got rid of the Comcast modem/router and the rental fee), and it was super easy to install, even with several switches. Performance is amazing.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084GTH5LL/?tag=atomicindus08-20
Picked up a mesh system (and a new modem - got rid of the Comcast modem/router and the rental fee), and it was super easy to install, even with several switches. Performance is amazing.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084GTH5LL/?tag=atomicindus08-20
momobuttons
Well-known member
I would also recommend a mesh network. We use the TP-Link Deco system, easy to setup and has been very reliable.
DGersic
Well-known member
I have a detached garage, just out of range of the house WiFi access points. I used a network over power lines set to get out there, comes with a wall wart sized access point for the garage.
Works good for me, easy to set up, and cheap.
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banjopete
Well-known member
I'm in this boat. I've tried the wifi extender at the wall nearest the garage inside the house and it made no perceived difference for my wifi signal. Totally useless would be how I would describe it.
The powerline options are what I would like to try next. What unit did you use?
vpd66
Well-known member
My shop is 50ft from my house and is a metal building. Will a mesh network work for met? I get great Wifi until I walk threw the door of my shop then the signal fades. The metal building seems to be the killer in my setting.
Leaflessshadetree
Well-known member
I'm running over power as well. I put a WIFI router where ever I need them. One at the far end of the house, one in each shop. Works fine, but I don't use the internet heavily in the shops (ordering parts, looking up specs or repair info).
ScaldedDog
Well-known member
Not if it's like mine - a Morton building with metal on both sides of the walls.
I used a Ubiquiti bridge, and ran the wire from the barn-side bridge node through the wall to a switch, and plugged an AP into the switch. Works great!
I just used the relatively cheap 5ghz bridge nodes, not the much more expensive 60ghz B2B bridge, and it has been flawless.
Mark
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DGersic
Well-known member
Attachments
vpd66
Well-known member
Could you give a little more detail on your setup? Do you have a link for the Ubiquiti bridge and what is an AP???
bad_idea
Well-known member
I just setup the WiFi at our house this past week. I bought the TP-Link Deco X20 (mesh network) setup with three nodes (routers that all work together to form one large network) - $240 on Amazon. I have a 2000 sq ft single story house and a 1200 sq ft detached garage - all on a 1/2 acre lot. I have the main node in the living room in the middle of the house, one in the master bedroom in a window sill, and the third in the garage. The one in the garage is wired with ethernet and the one in the bedroom is communicating wirelessly.
I have excellent WiFi all through the house, garage, and entire backyard. Very pleased.
I have excellent WiFi all through the house, garage, and entire backyard. Very pleased.
aggie113
Well-known member
No idea what your range is from the house, but you could possibly just do with an extended range AP installed in the side of the house nearest the garage.
DGersic
Well-known member
AP is Access Point. That’s the box with the antenna on it.
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JazzBlueRT
Well-known member
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- Jun 11, 2017
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Run a Cat5(e) or Cat6 cable.
A hacker can sit in-between the house and your workshop and broadcast an access point with the same name as yours. You computer will connect to it because it will have a stronger signal and will not require a password. Once that happens, the hacker can record everything you do, obtain your passwords etc....
They also do this at hotels so never do anything important on a hotel wifi system or any public wifi for that matter.
ScaldedDog
Well-known member
As a previous poster mentioned AP is access point, which is a device that transmits and receives Wi-Fi signals, and passes them onto, and off of, the wired network. Just think of it as antenna, which, in their simplest form, is what they are.
The bridge nodes I used are the Nanobeam 5ac Gen2 (https://store.ui.com/collections/op...**********-devices/products/nanobeam-5ac-gen2), and they cost $100 per side. They can work independently from Ubiquiti's other gear, so you don't need to have an all Ubiquiti network to use them. There are cheaper options, I'm certain, but I wanted something I could manage and troubleshoot, though there has been zero of the later in the year I've had them.
Whatever you use, the principle of getting wifi in and out of a metal building is the same: Use outside devices to transmit wifi between buildings, pass the traffic through the wall on a wire, and use access points inside to allow wifi clients (e.g. your phone, computer, TV, thermostat, etc) to connect to the network.
Mark
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I need to do something. Got new internet service and it's an intergrated modem and router.
The wifi signal is horrible. With my old router, I had coverage everywhere on my ~1/2 acre property.
This thing barely gets a signal into my attached garage, which is maybe 35ft feet away.
The wifi signal is horrible. With my old router, I had coverage everywhere on my ~1/2 acre property.
This thing barely gets a signal into my attached garage, which is maybe 35ft feet away.
LGR
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HenryAZ
MEMBER EMERITUS
No to the router. Terminate the cable with a small switch (8 port), when then becomes part of your LAN. Then plug a Wi-fi Access Point into the switch (I prefer EnGenius APs because you can configure/monitor them with just a browser). Now you also have some extra switch ports (on your LAN) that you can use for other things in your garage, such as cameras.
vpd66
Well-known member
This makes the most sense to me. Running a cat6 cable to my shop is not a big deal for me. It is gravel between my house and shop and like I said it is only about 50ft distance. Only one device and a 8 port switch sounds easy to me. Thank you for the simplified explanation. It is amazing how this simple task can get complicated in a hurry! I guess there are my ways to skin a cat.
vorpal
Active member
Yes, this is also why you hide your SSID (WiFi name) from broadcasting... you and your guests will connect because you will tell them what the name and passwords are but the outside world won't see it.
To the original poster, if the garage/shop is outside your home WiFi broadcast range, a Mesh network won't be effective. Mine was borderline, WiFi would work for phones but not my garage door openers and WiFi thermostat. After many trials with extending my home network to my garage, I opted for a Cat 5e cable connection to a garage router when we installed underground conduit from the new garage to the house. That finally got me the same internet speed I have in the house. I had 'pretty good' internet before by extending the home WiFi through access points, but every time I tried something like video (Zoom meeting from the garage/shop) it was too slow.
Cable connection fixed that problem.
b-boy
Well-known member
Just throwing this out there. Fiber is also an option. It will cost a little more, but not that much more.
If you do run Cat6, make sure you get weatherproof cable.
This is wrong in multiple ways. Your device won't connect to the same SSID unless it has the exact same password. If the hacker has your exact password, you have bigger concerns than a fake AP. (Like a hacker lurking in your freaking driveway, haha)
Obtaining passwords depends on if the website you're on is using HTTPS, etc...
Hotel wifi can be perfectly safe if it's set up correctly. The question is, is it correct? That's why it's better to not trust it as a general rule.
There are tools to reveal hidden SSIDs too, so don't let that be a false sense of security. Keep strong passwords and change them periodically if you live in a densely-populated area.
OP, there are multiple ways to skin this cat and most are pretty good, except for wifi repeaters. Pulling cable would be best choice (but some work), Point to Point bridge would be my next option.
EDIT: OP has given us ZERO information on their setup (is the garage attached, existing wireless setup, etc). vpd has hijacked this thread somewhat about a detached shop, hence the mix of replies. I think we're discussing 2 different scenarios. Not trying to police or anything, but there's a lot of confusion going on here.
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ScaldedDog
Well-known member
/\ Great post. I certainly would have run a wire, but it was going to be a pain. The bridge was cheap and easy, so I thought I'd try it, and it's been fine. A wired connection is always better, though, if reasonably doable.
Copper. It's the future. [emoji1787]
Mark
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LGR
Last edited:
MikeF2316
Well-known member
This is what I did, although I used a Netgear AC1750, which is also configurable with a browser. The distance from the back of my house (where the router is) and the back of the garage where I put the AP is only about 60 feet.
When I went into the garage, my computer seamlessly switched to the AP. Then when I went back into the house, even to the front, I remained connected to the Netgear AP, the signal was that good. So I got the bright idea to turn off the wifi on my router and put the AP in that central location. Now this AP covers my whole property with no issue. It's kind of a hokey setup, but it works.
vpd66
Well-known member
If I understand this right I could just run the cat5 cable to the AP you referenced inside my shop and it would give me the same WIFI inside my shop?
BruceMc
Well-known member
/\ This is the principle that always gets overlooked. About the only other alternative for getting a (usable) wifi signal through a metal wall is to mount the antenna/device in a window. Which can be a crapshoot.
khnitz
Well-known member
This is the setup I used, as well! I have a Ubiquiti wireless bridge to go the ~150' from the house to the shop and then I used one of the APs in the shop from my Netgear Orbi mesh network for wireless coverage in the shop and surrounding area of the yard (the main router and other AP cover the house).
The only thing I tweaked in my setup was to make sure that the Ubiquiti units (as they are Power over Ethernet) are connected to a switch, and then to my Orbi APs or Router, and not directly plugged into them. This seems to have resolved an issue I had where my network would go offline and be unreachable at times or lose internet access (though our local internet service has many outages, too).
ScaldedDog
Well-known member
I did the same with mine. In the barn, the bridge node is plugged into a Ubiquiti PoE switch, as are the other wired devices, including the Ubiquiti PoE AP. In the house, the bridge node is plugged into a PoE injector, then into the UDM Pro that runs the network. The only think I don't like about my setup is the Nanobeam bridge isn't manageable with Unifi. It's been as reliable as a piece of wire, though, so there hasn't been much to manage. I would like to at least be able to see the bridge nodes in the Unifi interface, but that's not worth the $500 cost of the Unifi B2B bridge, that I could never justify by it's increased bandwidth. My 40Mb WISP connection means the slowest link on my network is more than 2x faster than my internet connection.
Mark
strunz0
Member
I put a WiFi mesh system in my home from deco - amazing service now across my home and garage.
BearsFan315
Well-known member
Small house Small garage, and this one works great for me. my router is in the front of my house and the extender is in the front of my garage by window, but i now get full signal anywhere in my garage and my back yard. so i can stream music on my phone while mowing the lawn 
NETGEAR Wi-Fi Range Extender EX6120
between the 2 probably 50 or so feet several walls, pond, hvac unit, etc... but over a year now and no complaints.
NETGEAR Wi-Fi Range Extender EX6120
between the 2 probably 50 or so feet several walls, pond, hvac unit, etc... but over a year now and no complaints.
Lucid Moments
Well-known member
No you do not. You will need to buy a wifi access point instead.
GRivera
Well-known member
Not sure what Internet service OP has but I went through with a metal pole barn nearly 200' from my house. The powerline set up didn't work. I have Verizon Fios cable and internet. After much frustration I rented trencher from HD and buried a 1" conduit from house to barn with CAT6 and RG6 cable. Using the RG6 connection, the Fios TV One box, and a Verizon Fios Network Extender I have full internet on same wifi address as house. Also, with TV One box I get full access to everything in the house. So digging a trench wasn't fun but at the end of the day the results are worth it and only cost one day of aggravation and purchasing wire.