Yes,another Internet in Garage thread.:)

[Kev7274]

The garage is around 75-100 behind the house with an unobstructed view.

I see that there are a few different options....Powerline Adapters,Amped Wireless,
Ubiquiti NanoStation loco M2 and Unifi Ap Long Range. I'm just not sure as to what solution would make more sense to try for my needs. I even thought about using and old router with DD_WRT on it.

Any opinions? Thanks

 

[canuckian]

in my last shop I used a powerline adapter and it worked great. Plugged my computer in the LAN port and it also gave wifi so I could use my tablet or phone

 

[Forever Fixin]

I'm doing a wireless shot of about 50 ft right now. The kicker is the garage has steel siding on it which KILLS the signal. I ended up buying a router that could be configured as a repeater with detachable antennas. Added better antennas and cable so that I could mount the antennas outside while the repeater was inside. Ran cat 5e from the inside router to the computer. Speed is about half of what it is in the house. I've spent MANY hours tweaking and changing this setup. This is what has worked the best for the least cost.

 

[UserNameAttempt3]

Just go with a good quality Wireless-AC router that is 300-700mW in the house and an AC-booster in the garage for added signal strength. So long as there is a fairly clean shot, and the router isn't on the opposite side of the house already, the AC router alone should be enough.

But if it were me, 100-Ft isn't that far to rule out running some Cat5 in conduit. Cable is cheap, conduit is cheap.

 

[barks]

As said above---conduit and cable.

 

[UserNameAttempt3]

Coming back to this, I talked to a friend this weekend and he wants to network his shop as well. It's only about 40ft from the house, but he's going to have a smart tv, desktop pc and a tablet out there. the cost of running THE cat5 lines, connectors, conduit, and wall plates is going to be cheaper than him upgrading his router and adding a booster... plus speeds will be faster. Is not hard at all to do.

But if you plan on running hardline, double how many lines you need for the amount of connections you'll have *in case any get damaged on the install*

 

[Chevy-SS]

....

But if it were me, 100-Ft isn't that far to rule out running some Cat5 in conduit. Cable is cheap, conduit is cheap.

Yep, yep, yep.... been using long runs of Cat5 cable for years, in numerous situations. Always works good.

Put it in some large enough conduit, so you can replace it if you have to.

Happy interweb garage surfing!

 

[burger]

Coming back to this, I talked to a friend this weekend and he wants to network his shop as well. It's only about 40ft from the house, but he's going to have a smart tv, desktop pc and a tablet out there. the cost of running 4 cat5 lines, connectors, conduit, and wall plates is going to be cheaper than him upgrading his router and adding a booster... plus speeds will be faster. Is not hard at all to do.

But if you plan on running hardline, double how many lines you need for the amount of connections you'll have.

Why run 4 CAT5 cables? Not trying to be a smartass, I just don't understand the purpose and would like to.

 

[Beemer533]

Just go with a good quality Wireless-AC router that is 300-700mW in the house and an AC-booster in the garage for added signal strength. So long as there is a fairly clean shot, and the router isn't on the opposite side of the house already, the AC router alone should be enough.

But if it were me, 100-Ft isn't that far to rule out running some Cat5 in conduit. Cable is cheap, conduit is cheap.

For something like this, just extending the wireless coverage is iffy, especially in a steel building.

If a conduit is in place, run a CAT5e cable... The standard allows for up to 100m (328'). I would probably install a second cable as a backup, but unless there are some special network and heavy bandwidth requirements, one CAT5e or 6 will do eveything you need..

If no conduit is in place, and LOS is good, just install a pair of Nano stations and then put a switch and an AP (no reason to have a router and the configuration is more involved) in the shop.

 

[Kev7274]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I do have around 1000ft of cat6 cable from a previous renovation. I also have the gray electrical conduit left over. The only problem with the electrical conduit is that the side that has the opening to insert the conduit is cut off,I could always buy some couplers to use it I guess. So I have the stuff already to do it.

I had my contractor run power and dig the trench to the building for power and I just wasn't thinking about having him dig another trench for the Cat6,oh well.

How far should I be away from the trench he dug for the power and how deep do I need to dig the trench for the Cat6?

 

[eastbaysubaru]

I'll also throw my hat in for cable and conduit. The hassles of wireless connectivity are only worth it, IMHO, for devices that do not have an ethernet port.

I don't think you have to go too far from the power, maybe 6-12"?

-Brian

 

[PassnThru]

Why run 4 CAT5 cables? Not trying to be a smartass, I just don't understand the purpose and would like to.

Yes - totally unnecessary. Your friend needs to run one (some people run two for a backup although if one gets damaged the other probably will also be damaged) and just buy a switch for the garage. A switch will 'split' that one cable into many extra ports. He'll probably have to buy a switch anyway unless he has one at the house with 4 extra ports.

 

[GS-Louie]

I ran a conduit for the 75' feet I needed. In it is a couple of wires for the alarm system, 2 ea RG6 cables and 2 ea cat 6 cables. The smart TV and the computer will be wired from the gigabit router in the house through a switch in the garage. Also from the switch I will run a short cable to a router for wifi to the printer and my tablet, and anything else friends bring. The router was $15 or $20 and is a mate to my home router. It is set up an access point to the home router which does all the wifi verification.

Lou

 

[UserNameAttempt3]

Why run 4 CAT5 cables? Not trying to be a smartass, I just don't understand the purpose and would like to.

I think I was on my phone... should have been a "the" ...

But I pull aot of cable too, redundancy is good for long runs of 200Ft+, just in case one gets damaged during the pulls or having a backup. 2 Lines to his house should be fine though.

 

[volleyball]

If you are running a tv and do some heavy web, I'd make sure I had gigabit switches.
If anyone is doing wireless, you might want to buy some pringles in the can.

 

[03protege]

Wireless would be fine.

If It was me I would get a pair of routers with detachable (AKA UPGRADEABLE) antennas, add an Omni directional antenna on either one facing each other. If you have to get an outdoor rated antenna for the shop and run it out the soffit.

Make sure the routers can be setup as access points / repeaters. Some brands use marketing words like "linkable".

If you don't want wireless and just doing a desktop you can substitute one router for a directional antenna in the networking card on the PC.

 

[Beemer533]

Wireless would be fine.

If It was me I would get a pair of routers with detachable (AKA UPGRADEABLE) antennas, add an Omni directional antenna on either one facing each other. If you have to get an outdoor rated antenna for the shop and run it out the soffit.

Make sure the routers can be setup as access points / repeaters. Some brands use marketing words like "linkable".

If you don't want wireless and just doing a desktop you can substitute one router for a directional antenna in the networking card on the PC.

I wouldn't bother swapping antennas and using routers for something like this;

Get something made to do the job, like the nanostations. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004E...s=ubiquiti&dpPl=1&dpID=41RVFkkPOaL&ref=plSrch

Outside of functionality, the benefits are POE power, so all you need to run is a CAT5e to each unit, antennas are built in so no screwing around.

Omni antennas aren't really the best choice for a PtP installation (granted, in this case the distance isn't that great), but a directional antenna is the proper choice choice for a PtP bridge.

This post edited by the NSA

 

[Falcon67]

Wireless would be fine.

This. Running smart TV, Netflicks, Pandora, etc - $50 range extender in the shop, house router is about 60' away behind multiple sheetrock walls (approx 6 dB loss), brick wall (10~12dB) and concrete siding (maybe another 6dB).

 

[86turbodsl]

I ran two cantennas with cheap wireless bridges between two buildings at 300' for years. So reliable i had my server out in the pole barn. Cheap too. Lots of ways to do this.

 

[jgorm]

I just bought another 1000' of cat6. I did notice that they had cat6 rated for direct burial. Bury it 5" and call it a day. I ran 3 wires because I have 3 different networks. Mine is in conduit because it wasn't much extra work when I had to run conduit for electricity.

 

[Kev7274]

So I would need two of these? One for the house that has the router and one for the garage to receive the signal? What about PoE adapters?

Run cat5/6 from the router to one outside the house and the other mount outside the garage and run cat5/6 to inside the garage?

I wouldn't bother swapping antennas and using routers for something like this;

Get something made to do the job, like the nanostations. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004E...s=ubiquiti&dpPl=1&dpID=41RVFkkPOaL&ref=plSrch

Outside of functionality, the benefits are POE power, so all you need to run is a CAT5e to each unit, antennas are built in so no screwing around.

Omni antennas aren't really the best choice for a PtP installation (granted, in this case the distance isn't that great), but a directional antenna is the proper choice choice for a PtP bridge.

This post edited by the NSA

 

[Kev7274]

Thanks for all the replies so far guys. If I can get away without digging another trench through the yard,that would be great,even though I know hard wired would be the preferred choice of most.

 

[dan10101]

I have about 100' from the house to the shop. It's through a few trees. I chose not to run a cable but instead used this wireless. Seems to work fine. Right now it's in the window pointing back to the upstairs window. Supposed to work well over long distance.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004EGI3CI/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[Kev7274]

Good to know.I actually measured the distance to the garage and its around 130ft with a slight angle line of sight. There is a big tree in between the house and garage,but it's trimmed high underneath so I don't see a problem with it.

Do they come with the PoE injectors or do I need to grab a couple also?

I have about 100' from the house to the shop. It's through a few trees. I chose not to run a cable but instead used this wireless. Seems to work fine. Right now it's in the window pointing back to the upstairs window. Supposed to work well over long distance.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004EGI3CI/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[dan10101]

It comes with them. I was hoping it would run off my POE switch, but for some reason it wouldn't.

 

[Kev7274]

Great,thanks.

 

[dan10101]

BTW, you need 2. I didn't notice the others were recommending Nanostation as well. They seem to have good products.

 

[maxpower_hd]

I guy I work with went to U Do It electronics and they made up a 160' cat 5 (I believe) and it works great. It only cost like $45-$50 if I remember and it was easy to run. No conduit for him because it was an indoor run and not exposed to elements.

 

[BlownSilverado]

I just hooked up WiFi in my shop, I used a TP-Link powerline wifi extender...so far it works well. Had a few issues where I could get an IP address but couldn't get to the internet. Unplugged it and replugged and worked fine again. Also had an issue with finding the "sweetspot" plug, some plugs would work, some plugs wouldn't allow the WiFi adapter to connect to the master unit in the house. Speedwise, in the house I get around 60Mb/sec, using the TP-Link extender I usually get around 10Mb/sec.

TP-Link 300Mbps AV500 WiFi Extender

Good luck!

 

[Chilliwack Murray]

Just put in a Dlink AV500 powerline system for exactly this reason. At $75 it would have cost me that much in wire and countless hours of work.

This literally took 3 minutes to setup - plug it in, push the button, try it. Then walk the receiver out to the shop and plug it in. These have come a very long way in the past two years since I last looked into them and are fast enough to stream HD if you so desired. This one has wired and wireless on the shop end, plus if you have other areas with poor wireless you can add extra receivers for about $40. If you have something that needs a wired ethernet connection like our DVD you can get these for $21.

Seemed to me to make all the rest of the options obsolete plus there are higher performance versions out there as well.

 

[Rocktaco]

I just bought another 1000' of cat6. I did notice that they had cat6 rated for direct burial. Bury it 5" and call it a day. I ran 3 wires because I have 3 different networks. Mine is in conduit because it wasn't much extra work when I had to run conduit for electricity.

How is that working out for you?

I know I've seen in some cases where people have ran CAT 5/6 parallel with Electrical for even minor distances that you will get about 40-60 volts inducted into the CAT 5 or 6. As a result we've seen networking equipment not perform well or flat out fry as a result.

-Robert

 

[Kev7274]

Think I'm going to try the powerline adapater or the Loco M2. If they don't work out,then I'll run cable to the garage. Figure I would try the simplest way first.

Those of you using the Loco M2....I assume that I can just use a switch on the M2 that will be in the Garage if I want to just connect the laptop to it or I would need to get a wireless router and connect it to the M2 if I wanted wireless in the garage? I see Ubiquiti also has wireless routers or would I just need an access point?

 

[Beemer533]

So I would need two of these? One for the house that has the router and one for the garage to receive the signal? What about PoE adapters?

Run cat5/6 from the router to one outside the house and the other mount outside the garage and run cat5/6 to inside the garage?

Exactly; one at the house connected into one of the LAN ports on your router/switch and one at the shop connected to another switch.

These should come with POE adapters, so you should be all set.

Think I'm going to try the powerline adapater or the Loco M2. If they don't work out,then I'll run cable to the garage. Figure I would try the simplest way first.

Those of you using the Loco M2....I assume that I can just use a switch on the M2 that will be in the Garage if I want to just connect the laptop to it or I would need to get a wireless router and connect it to the M2 if I wanted wireless in the garage? I see Ubiquiti also has wireless routers or would I just need an access point?

Yeah, you would just connect it to a switch in the garage. If you want wireless, you would need an AP like the Ubiquity Unifi.

I use these and they work very well. It also comes with a POE adapter so all you need is to run a CAT5/6 from the switch to the POE injector, then to the AP.

 

[Beemer533]

It comes with them. I was hoping it would run off my POE switch, but for some reason it wouldn't.

If I have one complaint regarding Ubiquiti, it is that their "non pro" stuff is all powered via a non-standard POE setup (they use 24VDC), not the POE standard of 48v that your switch and most other POE equipment uses...

This is why it didn't work for you.

 

[Kev7274]

excellent. Thanks

Yeah, you would just connect it to a switch in the garage. If you want wireless, you would need an AP like the Ubiquity Unifi.

 

[dan10101]

If I have one complaint regarding Ubiquiti, it is that their "non pro" stuff is all powered via a non-standard POE setup (they use 24VDC), not the POE standard of 48v that your switch and most other POE equipment uses...

This is why it didn't work for you.

Thanks for letting us know Beemer. That explains why my datacomm friend recommended the pro version of the wireless bridge.

 

[Beemer533]

Yeah, I went back and forth when i was looking at the Unifi APs; I really wanted to have a nice clean install and be able to plug them (I bought 3 of them) into my POE switch.. In the end I just couldn't justify the extra cost of the pro version for that, and I didn't really need the other features that came with the Unifi-Pro.. I got over it in the end!

This post edited by the NSA

 

[jeffmoss26]

I found that out the hard way when I installed several Ubiquiti cameras for a customer.
Standards, we don't need no standards!

 

[gayler]

I'm unable to trench in a conduit, but still like the hardwired idea. My cable line is overhead. Could I string it up with the overhead coax?

 

[Beemer533]

I'm unable to trench in a conduit, but still like the hardwired idea. My cable line is overhead. Could I string it up with the overhead coax?

You already have an overhead line?

If so, just go ahead and use the DB CAT5/6 and strap it to the existing overhead every couple of feet with SS wire..

I have done this before and it works fine.