WiFi into garage 40(ish) meters away

  1. Frequent Poster Joined: Mar 2009 Posts: 649
    #1
    We're trying to figure out the best/easiest way to get a decent WiFi signal into our new garage.

    At the moment you'll be lucky to get signal outside the house at times.


    Red is House
    Black is barn/garage

    2 options I can assume are powerline adapters and a network repeater.

    I'm unsure of the powerline adapter working as from my assumption that as it's a different building the power goes elsewhere. My dad says the power comes from all the same place and it just T's off to the different house and units. So perhaps could work?

    Repeater is next option, but unsure where to mount it (Inside house, outside or inside garage). Then there's the issue it doesn't pick up the signal due to distance. We also have a BT Homehub and I've found it to be shit with other devices, so could there be issues with certain repeaters having issues?

    Opinions on best for those with experience with either would be great.

    tl;dr - I need WiFi/ethernet into a unit about 40 meters from my house


    Cheers
  2. Frequent Poster Joined: Apr 2012 Doyncaster Posts: 783
    #2
    If the electrics are from the house, it should be fine to use powerline adapters. Because your old boy says the setup is as you've described, it can be his problem if they don't work.

    Repeaters aren't worth a left handed wank.

    I'd buy another wireless router (even a shit one you get free with sky or plusnet) and get that broadcasting a separate SSiD in the garage, with the Ethernet patched into the powerline adapter. Switch off DHCP on the garage router, turn off the internet services also - just ensure it has a management I.P address on the same network as your one in the house.

    Boom.

    Thats how I've done my garage/house setup. The distances aren't as much as yours, but its enough not to have a wifi signal in the garage... thus, the phone just connects to the garage ssid when its close and vice versa when I'm in the house.
  3. Saxperience Post Whore Joined: Aug 2010 Little Mill, South Wales Posts: 7547 Mondeo ST TDCI Saxo VTS
    #3
    If the garage is on the same phase then wireless power line adapters are the way forward.
  4. Established Member Joined: Nov 2011 Newcastle Posts: 1698 Range Rover Sport
    #4
    Dunno what the spec of the repeater is but we use microwave links all over, one goes from our office to the staff house which is just over 2 km's no problem
  5. Frequent Poster Joined: Mar 2009 Posts: 649
    #5
    It seems powerline adapter and router seems to be easiest /cheapest.



    Reckon that's okay to use on the budget end of the spectrum?
  6. Administrator Joined: Dec 2002 Glasgow United Kingdom (Scotland) Posts: 26097 Chelski Traktor
    #6
    Or why not just use a home plug with wifi, save buying a router.

    Example http://uk.tp-link.com/products/detai...=TL-WPA4226KIT

    Not recommending the above as I have no experience with it just showing an example powerline with wireless adapter
  7. Saxperience Post Whore Joined: Jul 2011 Newcastle upon Tyne Posts: 7779 Phase 2 VTS , E61 M5
    #7
    Pringles tube, the end.
  8. Saxperience Post Whore Joined: Aug 2010 Little Mill, South Wales Posts: 7547 Mondeo ST TDCI Saxo VTS
    #8
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Scott View Post
    Or why not just use a home plug with wifi, save buying a router.

    Example http://uk.tp-link.com/products/detai...=TL-WPA4226KIT

    Not recommending the above as I have no experience with it just showing an example powerline with wireless adapter
    A man with sense!

    If you get Solwise ones, you can get them with wireless and an ethernet port on them.
  9. Frequent Poster Joined: Mar 2009 Posts: 649
    #9
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Scott View Post
    Or why not just use a home plug with wifi, save buying a router.

    Example http://uk.tp-link.com/products/detai...=TL-WPA4226KIT

    Not recommending the above as I have no experience with it just showing an example powerline with wireless adapter
    Fair point, but it is a hefty bit dearer and do already have a router hanging around from before we switched to BT. Setting it up shouldn't be difficult between us either.

    I'll still look into them with wifi built in though
  10. Saxperience Post Whore Joined: Aug 2010 Little Mill, South Wales Posts: 7547 Mondeo ST TDCI Saxo VTS
    #10
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Brendan View Post
    Fair point, but it is a hefty bit dearer and do already have a router hanging around from before we switched to BT. Setting it up shouldn't be difficult between us either.

    I'll still look into them with wifi built in though
    Link to solwise
  11. Frequent Poster Joined: Mar 2009 Posts: 649
    #11
    I did look into Solwise adapters a few weeks ago (and yesterday to refresh myself) when Ross mentioned them in another topic.

    A quick update. I've just bought some cheapo Netgear adapters to see if they actually pair with each other and not much luck at the minute. Will try them in the house to see if I'm doing it right. I've got an old router in the garage set up which I'm able to connect to, so I will see if turning off DHCP helps. It's tricky at the minute as I don't have a laptop, so I'm using my phone/tablet to test which isn't ideal.
  12. Frequent Poster Joined: Mar 2009 Posts: 649
    #12
    Okay ,so it didn't work in the barn circled black. I tried it in the garage to the left of the house and it worked spot in the way sri_130 stated. So I can only assume that it's not wired in to the same as the house.

    We can get a very faint signal over at the barn with from the new router (the HomeHub is inside the house which is like 200 years old so the walls are made of horse shit and straw or something) so we might just sort a decent antenna for the garage and then we are good to go.

    Cheers guys
  13. Saxperience Post Whore Joined: Aug 2010 Little Mill, South Wales Posts: 7547 Mondeo ST TDCI Saxo VTS
    #13
    What is the distance between the two building? You may be able to run a Cat 5 cable between them.
  14. Frequent Poster Joined: Mar 2009 Posts: 649
    #14
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Brettles1986 View Post
    What is the distance between the two building? You may be able to run a Cat 5 cable between them.
    Was my initial hope, but there's another house next to ours, so we didn't want to have issues with them when routing the cable
  15. Super Moderator Joined: Nov 2009 Cambridge(ish), UK. Posts: 10581 BMW 5x M50d.
    #15
    40m?

    A pair of YAGI antennas would easily (and cheaply) cover that.