Extending internet signal strength

[mark kosse]

Happy Thanksgiving all,

my shop is about 300' from my house. I'd like to get internet there. I've been searching the net trying to find these answers to no avail. My garage is halfway to the shop. Can I get multiple repeaters, one in the garage and one in the shop, to extend the range? Anyone have any luck doing this?

thanks, mark

[Todd Mason-Darnell]

You can put a repeater in, but it will cut you speed/strength in half.

Do you have line of sight between the shop and the house--especially where the router is? How tech comfortable are you? if you have (or can get line of sight), I would recommend putting a wireless bridge in. I had the same problem. I bought a good nighthawk router and put one of these (Engenius Wireless bridge) on a pole on the shop pointed at the area of the house where the router was located:

https://www.amazon.com/EnGenius-Technologies-2-4GHz-Wireless-ENS202/dp/B00BOVOKR8/ref=pd_sim_147_5?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00BOVOKR8&pd_rd_r=FEMJYQ50KRF7SKMER89H&pd_rd_w=WRAG6&pd_rd_wg=dutri&psc=1&refRID=FEMJYQ50KRF7SKMER89H


Depending on the distance and signal strength, you may need to put one at each end.

[mark kosse]

Thanks for the reply Todd, I still have a flip phone so that should tell you my tech savy. Line of sight is good with a glass wall where the receiver/router is. There are trees in the line of sight. That bridge appears to be the ticket. I never heard of a bridge before.

Ill be ordering one soon. I want to set up a security system.

[Jim Becker]

One option that's relatively reasonably priced if your shop is on the same electric service/meter as your home is to use power-line extenders to get the signal out to the shop and then a simple WiFi access point. Line of sight via wireless only may work, but it will absolutely depend upon what the structures are built with and other factors. My shop is less than 50' from our house...about 75' "as the crow flies" from the closest WiFi access point...but the signal is poor in the shop due to stone house plus block wall shop structure.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Build your self a better antenna for a second router which will become your bridge. Research "cantenna" on you tube. An old dish / direct tv antenna will boost your reception. Right now, HD has range boosters on sale for less than $40. With their 90 day (may be 1 year) return policy, if it didn't work return it.

[Jim Laumann]

My shop is about 125-130' from the house. The thought of needing/wanting 'net access in it never occurred to me when I wired it way back when. :( Our computer / router sit in the back of our house, the shop is in front. I tried the powerline extender that Jim Beck describes - it works, but range is limited.

My house panel feeds all other buildings - including my shop (acreage / former farmstead). I was able to get the powerline to connect to a second router (in my living room which is in the front of the house), so I now have 2 wireless access points, but that is the extent of it. Once I take the power line outside the house, it will not connect.

That is not to say I can't get wireless in shop - I can - off the 2nd router w/ my cell - but the connect speed varies, and since my cell screen is small, it's a chore to use if any amount of scrolling/screen read activity is needed. My HP tablet computer - it will not connect - period. Full disclosure: My shop has steel siding, and a steel liner, and that may be a wifi reception factor - I know it is a issue for my wireless land line (900 MHZ) phone - if I don't stand by a window which is line of sight to the house, the phone doesn't work.

My theory is that I have to many places for the powerline signal to go - the house panel (200A), garage panel, shop panel, and 3 additional outbuilding panels. I traced the feed legs in the house/buildings, and have tried keeping the power line on the same leg (ie black), but no joy.

So I am now debating the merits of trenching in a strand or two of cable from the house to the shop.

Edit: Should have read Todd's post more closely - I need to look in to that extender idea....

[Malcolm McLeod]

Search "yagi antenna for router". You can put the antenna outside the structures that are killing your signal. And its amazing how far it will reach. And cheap.

Caveat: You may give up some signal strength in other areas (that are not in the antenna path). All design is a compromise!

[John K Jordan]

Happy Thanksgiving all,

my shop is about 300' from my house. I'd like to get internet there. I've been searching the net trying to find these answers to no avail. My garage is halfway to the shop. Can I get multiple repeaters, one in the garage and one in the shop, to extend the range? Anyone have any luck doing this?

thanks, mark

I tried several different amplifier/repeaters in my house and was not happy with any of them. So when I built my new shop I ran ethernet cables 250' underground in conduit and installed a second WiFi router in the shop. The two are configured for seamless coverage, same SSIDs. Signal is always great.

I actually ran a second, spare ethernet cable while I was at it, just in case. The special Cat-5 cables are rated for underground use.

BTW, with a metal roof I also had unreliable cell service in the shop. I tried two different cell antenna/amplifiers without much joy. I finally installed a Femtocell device (a personal cell tower) in the shop - it doesn't use the outside cell signal but plugs into, tada, ethernet. Now I get full bars and don't drop calls. The Femtocell is a registered node on Verizon's cellular network and can be used by the public, but the range is so limited it effectively works only in the shop. There is no monthly charge but you have to purchase the device.

JKJ

[lee cox]

The best way to extend your wireless network is to back haul across Ethernet. If the power over Ethernet does not work then trenching works.

[phil harold]

Happy Thanksgiving all,

my shop is about 300' from my house. I'd like to get internet there.
thanks, mark
The standards for Cat 5e and Cat 6 call for a maximum run length of 90 meters or 295 feet. While you may make a longer run and get it to work, this is not recommended. Even if problems don't show up immediately, they may come up later as your computers are upgraded to transmit faster or your network is expanded. If you must make a longer run, you can either put a signal repeater in the middle of the line or you can make your long run with fiber optic cable.
If your run is between 295 and 590 feet, the repeater option may be the best option for you. A switch or hub will act as a repeater. Make sure that you locate it in such a way that both runs on either side of the repeater are within the 90 meter standard. It won't do much good to split a 500 foot run into two runs of 100 and 400 feet.
If your run is longer than 590 feet or if most of the run is outside, fiber optic may be your best option.

[Jim Becker]

To clarify, Ethernet spec is 100 meters for copper, but that's 90 meters of "fixed" with 10 meters in reserve for "flexible" connections. Most gear will accomodate a little more, especially with today's high quality cable, but yes, it's true that's not "recommended". One additional physical way around the distance issue is to use pre-terminated fiber. It can be a bit pricy, but is doable. The challenge with Mark Kosse's situation is that if the buildings are 300' apart, it's darn hard to have the gear right at the wall of both buildings and at the same height as the cable run so the distance "as the cable flies" is going to be quite a few feet longer...

[Bob Grier]

Five to 10 years ago I used Engenius antenna on my boat to pick up wifi while in marinas or anchored offshore, sometimes nearly a quarter mile. Recently, in my house (I no longer have/live on boat) I tossed a 2 year old router and bought a fairly expensive AC 1900 Dual Band ASUS router. There are other high quality routers. Anyway, the new more expensive router with dual bands increased my range and wifi quality around the house and property significantly. I am thinking that if you mount a high quality router in window of house and antenna mounted outside the shop and pointed at the router, you will have good signal. My understanding from looking on internet is that 2.4GHZ band is good for 300 feet outdoors. I certainly had longer range than that on the boat and didn't have new router technology. I think the antenna I had used a power module between the antenna and computer. I know there was some coax cable too.

[lee cox]

Three hundred feet should work fine. I have pushed Ethernet 341 feet before. I would measure and confirm your distance. Use good copper for your cable. Antennas are pain in the neck. If you try to push your wireless that far, run it in a separate VLAN so you don't slow your home network down.