WIFI to the barn using a CAT6 Cable???

[29Sedanman]

I need some help here. I am not a very tech savy guy and would appreciate some suggestions. Our new place has a CAT6 cable buried from the house to the shop. The previous owners had an upstairs office and the cat 6, I assume pluuged into their router there and ran to the barn where he had an extender plugged in. We have the WIFI router installed down stairs. The cat 6 connection is up stairs and is currently not plugged into anything. What components do I need to make this all work. Do I need 3 pieces? One at the router down stairs, one in the room upstairs pluuged into the cat 6 cable and one in the barn on the other end of the cable? Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[PCMusicGuy]

If you are certain the cable end in the house upstairs is the same one buried to the barn, then you need to figure out a way to connect that to your router, which is currently downstairs. There are many ways to achieve the same things. You could use a female to female CAT6 connector and just extend the cable from upstairs to plug into your router downstairs. Alternatively, you could buy a small cheap network switch and use that upstairs. You would plug your router from downstairs into one of those ports and the cable from the barn into another. This would effectively extend your router connection to the barn. On the barn side, you could run a range extender or a separate WIFI router even.

 

[KSJeff]

A good cat6 run is under 100meters. If you can patch your router to that cable upstairs and the total run is less than 300 feet, then do that. Then, you can just grab an access point for the shop and plug it into that cable. So, what you end up with is a wired connection from your house to your shop with an added access point in the shop.

Fairly easy to accomplish and should run very well.

*edit. Here's exactly what you would need.
1 Patch cable to run from your router to the upstairs cable.
1 RJ45 Cat 6 coupler to connect the two cables.
1 Wifi access point for the shop.

If your run is too long and you can't just couple the cables together, you can buy a simple switch for upstairs and use the switch as a coupler/repeater.

If you need extra help, let me know.

 

[KSJeff]

One more

Patch cable (get the length you need from router to upstairs cable): Link
Coupler - Link
Simple switch if needed: Link
Access point: Link

That gets you both Wifi speeds to the barn. If you want some wired connections in the barn, you'll want a different access point with more ports.

 

[29Sedanman]

A good cat6 run is under 100meters. If you can patch your router to that cable upstairs and the total run is less than 300 feet, then do that. Then, you can just grab an access point for the shop and plug it into that cable. So, what you end up with is a wired connection from your house to your shop with an added access point in the shop.

Fairly easy to accomplish and should run very well.

*edit. Here's exactly what you would need.
1 Patch cable to run from your router to the upstairs cable.
1 RJ45 Cat 6 coupler to connect the two cables.
1 Wifi access point for the shop.

If your run is too long and you can't just couple the cables together, you can buy a simple switch for upstairs and use the switch as a coupler/repeater.

If you need extra help, let me know.

without drilling a hole in freshly installed wood floors have no way of connecting to the cable up stairs. Can you possibly give me an example of the switch that I need to make this work without connecting my router to the cable upstairs. I aplogize for not being familar wtih this and appreciate the help.

 

[29Sedanman]

One more

Patch cable (get the length you need from router to upstairs cable): Link
Coupler - Link
Simple switch if needed: Link
Access point: Link

That gets you both Wifi speeds to the barn. If you want some wired connections in the barn, you'll want a different access point with more ports.

Thank you for the info. You must have posted while I was responding. Thanks!!!

 

[cgrutt]

I think I'm missing something here you need to somehow connect the cable in barn to your router. If that cable is terminating upstairs but router is downstairs you need to make connection. Do you know where cable is actually entering your house? Perhaps in a basement or garage? If that's the case and you can see where it's running through wall to upstairs you may be able to pull the cable back and then reroute it to the room with router. There are many ways to accomplish this, even wirelessly, but that would involve purchasing more devices. On barn side you would need to plug into an access point after connection is established to router. The first thing I would do is buy a cable tester and make sure the cable in room is in fact the same one terminating in barn and confirm the cable is still good. If it's not the same cable or cable is damaged you can establish a connection with an Ethernet bridge between the buildings (as long as you have line of site). Probably looking at $400 or so in equipment if you decide to go that route. You would need the bridge (two devices), a small POE switch and a wireless access point for inside the barn. One side of bridge is configured as a transmitter connects to your router, the other side is configured as a Station and connects to the POE switch and wireless access point in barn. The bridge serves the same function as the CAT6 cable but works wirelessly.

 

[Hooked]

What is the distance between house and barn? If you can't use the existing cable.........for years I used wireless extenders to reach my workshop which is about 175' from the house. It worked extremely well. I recently was able to have fiber internet installed(1gig) which included EERO mesh wireless throughout the house so I simply added another EERO device in the workshop to gain 1gig wireless service out there. I have line-of-sight between the two EERO devices.

 

[reader2580]

I wonder how the previous owner made it work with the Cat 6 cable terminating upstairs in the house? Are there other Cat 6 cables in that room?

 

[Black58]

Look into a mesh Wi-Fi network if you can't use the cat6. We have a mesh network that covers our garage and pole barn and all over our acre lot.

 

[KSJeff]

Thank you for the info. You must have posted while I was responding. Thanks!!!

You have to get the cable up there for it to work. You might talk to an electrician or a low voltage cable specialist. You can do extenders and point to point bridges, but the hard wire is the way to go IMHO.

 

[alex2929]

May look at ubiquiti stuff. I recently put a dream router in my house….an access point up stairs and one in the shop. It’s been great….all the same network and was super easy to set up.

 

[kj_mustang]

Find where the cat6 run from the barn enters the house and transits to the upstairs. If done after the house was built, I would guess it is run on the outside of the house. If so, you can always reroute that under the first floor and pull it up into a new wall outlet near your router. Patch cable from wall outlet to router.

 

[dougf]

Now would be a good time to test the cable to ensure it allows you to transfer data. Most Cat 6 is counterfeit (I bought some myself) but you wont notice any throughput issues for normal use.

 

[Denwood]

If you don't want to run patch to the Cat6 upstairs, grab two TPLink RE650s and set it one up as an extender connecting to your house WIFI. Plug the CAT6 (going out to your shop) into the "house" RE650 gigabit network port. Then set up another RE650 in access point mode in your shop. Connect the CAT6 in your shop to the "shop" RE650 gigabit port. This will give you WIFI in your shop. That will work and cost under $200. Use the same WIFI SID and password on both RE650s as your house is using. It will likely be quite ok for your needs. You'll be speed limited by your house WIFI connection to the RE650.

I like the TPlink devices as they are lowest cost (fast) WIFI access point that also has a gigabit network port...and is reliable. They can be used both as WIFI extenders, or access points.

 

[NUTTSGT]

I think the first thing you need to do is figure out where the Cat6 runs to and from.

Not "think" where it is but "know". I'd suggest getting a tester to check.


Something like this.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TRDRHCG/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[BillK]

I think the first thing you need to do is figure out where the Cat6 runs to and from.

Not "think" where it is but "know". I'd suggest getting a tester to check.

Exactly what I was thinking. If the previous owner had a router in that room how was the router getting its signal ? Unless it was wireless from downstairs I am betting the Cat6 in that room was actually feeding the router.

 

[FredWanaker]

I did this IT networking stuff for a living for 25 years and still have certifications. Others here have the same and by no means do I want to step on anyone's toes.

step 1, please verify that the cable in the upstairs goes to the barn, and that it is intact. It is possible it goes somewhere else in the house, and that somewhere else is where the PO had his modem and router. For example, all my network cables terminate in my office. That includes a DSL and Cable line that could bring in signals. Someone already suggested using a $10 cable tester for that, which is quicker to arrive and less than the postage if one of us sent an old one of ours. The lights on it that will light up if the connection to each line is correct. Extending an existing cable is not a really good idea. As stated, there is a 328' limit on cat6 cable lengths without having a network switch (not hub) involved.

step 2, ask yourself what type service did he have in his house prior to you. Was it cable like Comcast/xfinity, some kind of satellite system, DSL thru the phone company etc.. How did he get his Internet. You really need to know this before you do anything else or you may duplicate a lot of work for nothing.

step 3. Once you know that, make a quick list of what Internet services are available in your area. Tell us how you are getting Internet access now.

Share those things with us. Anything else is speculation at this point and could involve more than you need to do.

 

[DanaC]

I did this IT networking stuff for a living for 25 years and still have certifications. Others here have the same and by no means do I want to step on anyone's toes.

step 1, please verify that the cable in the upstairs goes to the barn, and that it is intact. It is possible it goes somewhere else in the house, and that somewhere else is where the PO had his modem and router. For example, all my network cables terminate in my office. That includes a DSL and Cable line that could bring in signals. Someone already suggested using a $10 cable tester for that, which is quicker to arrive and less than the postage if one of us sent an old one of ours. The lights on it that will light up if the connection to each line is correct. Extending an existing cable is not a really good idea. As stated, there is a 328' limit on cat6 cable lengths without having a network switch (not hub) involved.

step 2, ask yourself what type service did he have in his house prior to you. Was it cable like Comcast/xfinity, some kind of satellite system, DSL thru the phone company etc.. How did he get his Internet. You really need to know this before you do anything else or you may duplicate a lot of work for nothing.

step 3. Once you know that, make a quick list of what Internet services are available in your area. Tell us how you are getting Internet access now.

Share those things with us. Anything else

Hi Fred, I'm hoping you can help me with a similar scenario.

My current situation is starlink dish and gen2 router providing wifi in my house.
My goal is to get wifi in my detatched shop. Both buildings are cinder block, so a wired connection to the garage seems to be the best solution. I've already dug a trench and bought this cable-
Eswmc Cat 6 Outdoor Ethernet Cable 100 FT, Heavy Duty High Speed Ethernet Network Internet Cable - Waterproof, Outdoor, Direct Burial Ethernet Cable, UV Jacket, POE https://a.co/d/0aZJcy5k
I've also purchased an ethernet adapter from starlink because the router has no ports. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to purchase a new router and bypass the SL one as well as some sort of AP for the shop. Here's where my confusion starts. What to buy to make this work? Is this the right cable? Will it need to be bonded and grounded? Will I need a switch, and what kind? And I already access to an electrical outlet in the shop so it doesn't have to be PoE.
The total distance is going to be about 75 ft. with approx. 30 ft. buried underground with flexible conduit.
I'm hoping to maintain good wifi in the house as well as the shop without interference with internet traffic causing interruptions or slow speeds to either building. Please help. The more I read, the more I get confused.
Thanks,
Dana

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[75gmck25]

Ethernet is low voltage cable, so bonding and grounding is not necessary to meet any code requirements. However, you do want to protect the devices connected to the cable. Many folks here have chosen to use media converters (converting cat 6 to fiber) and fiber cabling between buildings because it nearly eliminates the risk of a lightning strike passing through the cable and damaging equipment on either end. YMMV.

I would also lay PVC conduit in the trench you dug, run the new cable in the conduit, and then lay warning tape on top of the conduit before you bury it. You want plenty of warning when someone starts digging near your cable.

If I understand your description, the STARLINK router is WiFi only and it does not have any Ethernet jacks. In my experience the lack of a hardwired ethernet jack is unusual for a home wifi router, but I've never worked with Starlink.

You have the right idea for the new connectivity, with the Ethernet cable between the STARLINK router and your new router in the shop. Your new router would be configured to run in AP mode, and it essentially just extends your current network to the shop. IP addresses and DNS will still be issued by the Starlink router. Most new routers will have a setup wizard that you run the first time, and one option will be to configure it in AP mode. You can always do that setup back at the house with the routers sitting side by side, using a short ethernet cable, and then move the new router to the barn once you have it configured.

 

[Innovate1]

Don't use flexible conduit underground - it's generally a poor choice other places too. It may collapse from the pressure and it's difficult to pull things through. I would use 1" PVC conduit - it's big enough to pass fiber LC connectors. Use converters and use fiber - it will eliminate possibility of electrical storm damage