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Question about how to expand a WiFi signal 150ft?

Posted on 9/1/21 at 9:48 pm
Posted by coondaddy21
Louisiana
Member since Oct 2012
3222 posts
Posted on 9/1/21 at 9:48 pm
My sister and her husband have cox internet for their home and he has a nice outdoor barn/man cave where they have many outings/parties/crawfish boils. It’s roughly 125-150 feet from their house. They have 1 TV that has a direct tv connection and another one that sits outside, over the fireplace, that we have to hot spot our phone to in order to watch buffering TV service. Definitely not the best picture quality. What’s the best way to extend their home signal out to their barn/man cave?
This post was edited on 9/2/21 at 7:39 am
Posted by Korkstand
Member since Nov 2003
29000 posts
Posted on 9/1/21 at 10:07 pm to
The best way is to trench a cable over there, but that's probably not cost-effective and maybe not feasible.

There are two basic approaches to getting service out there wirelessly. One would be to mount an access point to the exterior of the house and hope it blankets the barn well enough (or hope that it provides enough coverage to locate a meshed wifi unit in the barn to strengthen the signal). The other way, and the method I recommend, is to use a pair of point to point radios, one on the exterior of the house and one on the barn. Then in the barn you'd run a cable to a wifi access point. These point to point radios end up working pretty much like a wireless wire.

If none of this makes sense I might be back later tonight or tomorrow to explain and add some product links. Or maybe someone else will do it.
Posted by coondaddy21
Louisiana
Member since Oct 2012
3222 posts
Posted on 9/2/21 at 6:06 am to
Ok. Thanks!
Posted by dakarx
Member since Sep 2018
7845 posts
Posted on 9/2/21 at 7:57 am to
Adding a wifi bridge will cut the avaiable bandwidth in half for each 'hop', so streaming over a bridge may be problematic depending on the usable frequency (2.4 vs 5ghz) and attenuation.

Might want consider just adding an external antenna (panel or yagi type) to an access point at the house and see if that works or is acceptable. If possible borrow one to test.

A colinear omni placed as high as possible would work as well, however would extend coverage to areas beyond the desired location (may or may not be acceptable).

A 2.4 Ghz antenna close enough to twice the electrical length of a 5gz to be negligible at these power levels so they are pretty much interchangeable (1/4? @2.4ghz vs 1/2? @5ghz).
Posted by coondaddy21
Louisiana
Member since Oct 2012
3222 posts
Posted on 9/2/21 at 9:26 am to
Is this something you’re referring to?

LINK
This post was edited on 9/2/21 at 9:30 am
Posted by Korkstand
Member since Nov 2003
29000 posts
Posted on 9/2/21 at 10:49 am to
quote:

Adding a wifi bridge will cut the avaiable bandwidth in half for each 'hop', so streaming over a bridge may be problematic depending on the usable frequency (2.4 vs 5ghz) and attenuation.
This is not a problem with point to point radios like I recommended. The radio at each end is wired, so the only "hop" is the direct wireless link between them. Depending on the radios you choose, this link can be damn near gigabit, but I would go with a pair of Ubiquiti Loco's for $50 each and have a nice solid ~300mbps link. That'll stream about 50 HD channels simultaneously.

This is just a cheaper and easier alternative to running cable in order to get the home network out to the barn. These radios shoot for miles, a couple hundred feet is no problem at all. There is a 250' link at the site I'm on right now, been running for years streaming 4 HD security cameras 24/7 without issue, and there is plenty of bandwidth left over to do whatever you need to do in the remote building.
Posted by rexorotten
Missouri
Member since Oct 2013
4586 posts
Posted on 9/2/21 at 12:20 pm to
I have a similar situation. I had google wifi with 6 pucks and had a garage between my house and mancave. With a puck in the garage and one in the mancave, I could get a signal in the man cave but it started to get iffy and only got about 25Mbps down. I bought an orbi mesh system (Orbi RBK753S AX4200) My shed is about 100 feet from my house.

I have gigabit service and get 250 down with no hiccups out in the shed. My house is 2800 square feet. I have the router on the South end of the house, a puck in the North end of the house and one in the mancave. Works like a champ. Running the cable would be the best option for sure, but this worked for me.
Posted by Kudzu65
CENLA
Member since Feb 2014
51 posts
Posted on 9/2/21 at 3:11 pm to
I’ve been using powerline adapters for years with no problem. $50

Something like this:

Powerline
Posted by Inadvertent Whistle
Atlanta, GA
Member since Nov 2015
4960 posts
Posted on 9/2/21 at 3:52 pm to
Might be overkill, but we used these to push internet out from our main building to a smaller building on our church property. Works great as long as you have line of sight.

LINK
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