I have a router centrally located in my basement. I can use my WiFi on the back deck and front porch, but not in my shop 25-30 ft away from the house.
Shop is cement block with metal roof.
Will a plug in WiFi booster get me a signal in the shop?
I was looking at something along these lines.
https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR...583795260606798&th=1.
Thanks for your help

Probably won't work as the extender needs to be in an area in between the basement and the garage. Sounds like that is outdoors and that's an indoor extender. They do make outdoor extenders but that's still not likely your best option as you still have to overcome the brick walls. Also, the wireless backhual will cut your speed roughly in half.

A better option would be to install direct burial Cat 6 cable from basement to garage and then install a wireless access point in the garage. The Netgear 6150 is both an extender and access point, and I used to have two configured as access points. If you want to go this route, I'll instant karma you one of my old Netgear 6150s.

If you can't find the wifi network in your shop with a phone, an extender may or may not find it either.

You could try plugging it into an outlet on the outside wall that has the best 'path' to the shop & see if you get signal.

I have a mesh extender (similar, but works with router to create a seamless network) on the front wall of my shop. My router is in the basement as well, but has a walkout wall (concrete) between it & the shop. ~25' to the wall, then 75' to the shop. The repeater gets enough signal to work, but it constantly shows 'poor signal'. When it was in a window, it showed 'good' signal.

It's worth $30 to try, you can always send it back.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:

...Sounds like that is outdoors and that's an indoor extender...

...A better option would be to install a wireless access point in the garage...

If a unit is out of the weather under a covered patio does indoor/outdoor matter?

What is an access point? How does it differ from an extender?


Thanks for the lessons; I'm technologically challenged.

Dan

I had similar issues. I bought a 3 pack of Eero 6+ Wi-Fi extender. My garage is 30-40 yards away from my house. I have one connected to my modem, one in the basement and the last one by a window in sight of my garage. My internet speed sucks, as I’m at the end of the DSL line, but in the garage I can watch YT and Netflix without issue. I have a heated deer blind behind the garage. I brought the basement eero out to the garage and had no issues while “hunting “…..

This may be where a wifi mesh would work. As I understand it, wifi extenders have to connect with the main wifi router.

With a mesh system, each node talks to the one closes to it and it's more like a fire brigade passing buckets of water.

I have two underground conduits from my house to my garage. One for power and one for Ethernet and Coax. I’m just running Ethernet now but plan to put a second WiFi router in the garage when I change out my security cameras.

Despite all the good reviews I had zero luck with the extender you linked. I bout an Eero mesh 3 unit and have strong signal everywhere, including the backyard now.

quote:

Originally posted by KBobAries:

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:

...Sounds like that is outdoors and that's an indoor extender...

...A better option would be to install a wireless access point in the garage...

If a unit is out of the weather under a covered patio does indoor/outdoor matter?

What is an access point? How does it differ from an extender?


Thanks for the lessons; I'm technologically challenged.

Dan

I can't blindly answer the weather question as there are too many variables and not enough info. I suggest reading the manual for the device you're wanting to use.

As far as the two technologies, here is a good illustration of the differences:


An access point is hard wired to your router via a cable (e.g. the Cat 6 direct buried cable I mentioned) and it's placed inside the OP's garage. In the garage, it'd communicate wirelessly with all of the devices (phones, computers, streaming devices, etc), but use the cable to communicate with the main router back in the house.

Strengths: There is a distance limit of communicating over Cat 6 cable but it's more than an order of magnitude greater than wireless. For the OP, the distance limit of a Cat 6 cable is a moot point because he stated the garage is only 25 to 30 feet away. Additionally, its signal doesn't need to "penetrate" the garage's concrete walls or metal roof because it's placed inside the garage. Generally (i.e. there are sometimes exceptions), the communication speed will be double that of the repeater/extender option.

Weaknesses: The OP would have to physically install a direct burial cat 6 cable from the basement to the garage.

A repeater/extender has to be placed in a location with good wifi and it extends the wifi to the desired location (e.g. the OP's garage). Think of the main wireless router having a circle around it and the repeater extender having a circle around it. Here is a good illustration of repeater/extender placement:

Strengths: easy set-up if location, distance, and "penetration" work

Weaknesses: The repeater has to be placed within the main wireless router's circle and it's extending the circle has to reach desired points in the garage. The OP's garage has to be BOTH within the circle and the wifi signal "penetrate" at sufficient strength. Generally (i.e. there are sometimes exceptions), the communication speed between the main wireless router in the basement and the repeater/extnder will be half that of the access point option.

Several people have mentioned mesh. There are two types of mesh:

Wireless backhaul. It'll have the same strengths and weaknesses as the repeater/extender above. In other words, it won't work if you can't physically place the somewhere beneficial AND can't "penetrate" at sufficient strength. If it physically works, it's even easier to set-up that a repeater/extender and even easier to use.

Wired backhaul. It'll have the same strengths and weaknesses as the access point above, but be easier to set-up and use. My new mesh system is wired backhaul, and it takes much less tech savvy than my old wireless router and wired access point that I had essentially made into a homemade mesh system.

---

Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity

DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer.

We have ~3,500 sq foot house on a 1/3 acre. Installed Google Mesh with 2 extra nodes (2 remote and 1 base). Set-up results in uninterrupted video streaming anywhere in the house or edge of property (1/3 acre, whether at the street or at the back area of the yard (fire pit).

The real answer is with tatertodd's first post.
You need a signal in the shop and physical barriers are affecting the signal.
Run the cable, install a AP there.
Running cable is more work but it is what to do.
Mesh and extenders are all have a varying level of performance and always substantially less than a proper installation.

quote:

Originally posted by KBobAries:
If a unit is out of the weather under a covered patio does indoor/outdoor matter?

Yes, because indoor electronics aren't rated for the temperature and humidity extremes. They may survive. They may not.

quote:

Originally posted by KBobAries:
What is an access point? How does it differ from an extender?

See my "technical nit," wrt tatortodd's comments, below.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
The real answer is with tatertodd's first post.

Correct--except for one technical nit (explained below).

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
Running cable is more work but it is what to do.

It is the best thing to do for performance But, as discussed in a thread from about a year back, not without its challenges. (I.e.: Trenching, burying the cable, acquiring direct-bury cable and its associated cost, etc.)

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
Mesh and extenders are all have a varying level of performance and always substantially less than a proper installation.

Particularly through RF-unfriendly barriers.

Now the technical nit: tatertodd wrote:

quote:

Also, the wireless backhual will cut your speed roughly in half.

A "wireless repeater" (or "wireless extender") is not the same thing as a "wireless backhaul."

A wireless repeater serves as both a WiFi Access Point and a wireless backhaul. Yes: You will realize half, probably less than half, of the bandwidth, at the repeater.

A "wireless backhaul," utilizing point-to-point wireless bridges, is a link that backhauls between two points and that's all it does.

Crude ASCII diagram:

Site A LAN <-> wireless bridge <- airspace -> wireless bridge <-> Site B LAN

Depending upon the performance of the wireless backhaul there may be little to no performance difference between Site A and Site B.

Both EnGenius and Ubiquiti make devices purpose-designed and -built for wireless backhauls.

If running cable is prohibitive, for whatever reasons, a point-to-point wireless backhaul is a reasonable alternative.

For what rexles wants to do:

House LAN <-> wireless bridge <- airspace -> wireless bridge <-> WiFi AP

That's what I'm doing for our shed, about 50-60 feet from the house, only I'm currently backhauling directly to the house AP because I haven't gotten around to putting the house end of the point-to-point bridge in, yet.

The other thing you might get away with is Ethernet-over-Powerline. I've a pair of Comtrend G.hn EoP adaptors, one of which has a built-in 2.4GHz AP. It worked "ok" doing the same thing: Providing WiFi in and around the outdoor shed.

House LAN <-> EoP Adapter <- power lines -> EoP Adapter w/WiFi AP

Or a pair of EoP adapters and a separate WiFi AP:

House LAN <-> EoP adapter <- electrical wiring -> EoP adapter <-> WiFi AP

Those recommending mesh solutions are missing a big point: "Shop is cement block with metal roof."

Those mesh products won't work well through that. If at all.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
A "wireless backhaul," utilizing point-to-point wireless bridges, is a link that backhauls between two points and that's all it does.

Crude ASCII diagram:

Site A LAN <-> wireless bridge <- airspace -> wireless bridge <-> Site B LAN

Depending upon the performance of the wireless backhaul there may be little to no performance difference between Site A and Site B.

Both EnGenius and Ubiquiti make devices purpose-designed and -built for wireless backhauls.

Are those asynchronous or synchronous?

tatortodd and ensigmatic,

Thanks for the education. If something isn't plug and play with automatic setup then I struggle.


rexles,

If I drifted your thread then I apologize.

Dan

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
Both EnGenius and Ubiquiti make devices purpose-designed and -built for wireless backhauls.

Are those asynchronous or synchronous?

I presume you mean the wireless bridges?

Half-duplex.

No, they won't hit Gig-E performance levels, but, neither will the AP in the home or, even if it's wired, the AP in the remote location.

I saw in excess of 500Mb/s on a pair of EnGenius ENH500v3 Wi-Fi 5 Wave 2 Outdoor AC867 5 GHz Point to Point Wireless Bridges when set up for test/config/eval inside the home. (Using iperf3 on devices capable of full wire speed, plugged directly into each end. They were shooting about 40 feet, through two inside walls, more-or-less aimed at one another.)

Right now I'm getting ±100Mb/s to the AP in the shed. (The AP has a built-in iperf3 server.) But that link isn't great. Like I said: The bridge is backhauling directly to the home's AP. It's shooting through the shed wall (particle board + vinyl siding), a tree, two outside walls (the current outside wall and the interior wall that used to be an outside wall--both of which have foil-backed insulation), and an inside wall The connection strength wanders all over creation.

Once I get the other bridge mounted to the back of the house, and move the one in the shed to outside the wall, I expect to see somewhere between 350-500 Mb/s between them.

Tatortodd;
thanks for the info. I sent you an email with some questions

quote:

Originally posted by rexles:
Tatortodd;
thanks for the info. I sent you an email with some questions

I've replied

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
The real answer is with tatertodd's first post.
You need a signal in the shop and physical barriers are affecting the signal.
Run the cable, install a AP there.
Running cable is more work but it is what to do.
Mesh and extenders are all have a varying level of performance and always substantially less than a proper installation.

I'm a bit late to the party, but if the OP intends to run high res security cameras in the shop, then go with hardwired Ethernet cables, and avoid using security cameras over wifi.

High resolution security cameras over wifi is a losing game. You get dropouts, missed frames, etc.