So... those Wavlink N300 Outdoor Weatheproof WIFI extenders. Just showed up on the Newegg deal of the day.

From $159 down to $55 a piece.

If interested: https://www.newegg.com/wavlink...FH015937&ignorebbr=1

quote:

Originally posted by myrottiety:
So... those Wavlink N300 Outdoor Weatheproof WIFI extenders. Just showed up on the Newegg deal of the day.

From $159 down to $55 a piece.

If interested: https://www.newegg.com/wavlink...FH015937&ignorebbr=1

Interesting but I see at it only supports 13 year old wifi standards.
Even their 1200 model ($99) only supports the 8 year old "ac" standard but would seem a better choice at 10X the potential data rate of the 300.

My current router, as well as our iPhones, support the 2019 "ax" standard.

Need to study these a bit more...

quote:

Originally posted by cparktd:
My current router, as well as our iPhones, support the 2019 "ax" standard.

You don't really care whether the bridges support ax or only ac, as long as they supply the back-haul bandwidth you need. You're not going to communicate with them directly. They'll only be talking to one another. E.g.:

House network <-> bridge <-RF-> bridge <-> barn network

While fiber is definitely the best way to go, IMO, a pair of those EnGenius bridges I mentioned, earlier, if you got the 350Mb/s I'm seeing in the install I did up north, would supply more than enough back-haul bandwidth for what I imagine will be the relatively light use you're going to need in that barn.

It's not like you're going to have several TVs streaming HD out there or something, are you? Or running a high-performance workstation with networked file storage in the house?

You're talking supporting your mobile devices out there, with maybe some surveillance cams, no?

As for covering the inside of the barn: I put one of these: EnGenius Technologies ENH1350EXT Wi-Fi 5 AC1300 2x2 Dual-Band Outdoor Long Range Access Point/Range Extender/Bridge in my buddy's big, metal pole barn, hung off one of the rafter ties with a piece of 1 in. PVC, so it was about ten feet off the floor, and it covers both his large pole barn, the connected old, smaller, pole barn, and, when the big doors facing that way are open, even his pistol range, about a hundred feet from that bigger pole barn.

You give it the same SSIDs as the house WiFi Router has and everything should roam from one to the other fairly seamlessly. I do not, however, recommend you enable band-steering or fast roaming on either device. (2.4 and 5GHz should have unique SSIDS.) Band steering can be problematical and fast-roaming is only meant for WiFi networks using RADIUS authentication.

I installed an EnGenius EWS357AP access point in his cabin, rather than a WiFi router (his cellular modem handles routing to/from the Internet, DHCP, etc.) It covers the entire inside of the cabin, its front porch, out to the fire pit about twenty feet in front of the cabin, and even out to the outdoor kitchen about thirty feet off one corner of the cabin (though that's marginal & we may eventually put another ENH1350EXT in that--probably back-hauled with Ethernet-over-Powerline).

Both APs are set up with both private WiFi SSIDs for him and his wife, and guest WiFi SSIDs for, well, guests

His cellular problem is even worse than yours. They have marginal coverage even outside his buildings. So they rely on WiFi calling a lot. He, his wife, and guests were up there last weekend. I've heard no complaints about the WiFi network at all.

ETA: Oh yeah, I also put one of those ENH1350EXTs in our µBarn. That is back-hauled with a (now discontinued) EnGenius ENS500-AC bridge, connected to the EnGenius EAP1300 access point that serves the house. I put that bridge in, and associated it with the house AP, more as a lark than anything else. (It's not even mounted outside the µBarn, but shooting through the wall.) It worked "well enough," so I added the AP out there. We now have 2.4GHz and 5GHz WiFi throughout the back yard--and even into our next door neighbors' yards to either side

I've another ENS500-AC I'll eventually install, then the back-haul to the µBarn will look like the ASCII diagram I showed, above. The ENS500-AC on the house end will be outside. I may or may not move the one in the µBarn to the outside. It's only shooting through a bit of OSB and some vinyl siding.

Shouldn't there be some discussion about the security cameras and location or locations of the NVR/NVRs before any decision can be made to go fiber or wireless between the house and barn?

If the NVR is in the house, how many cameras can a 350mbps half-duplex wireless connection handle while some one is streaming how to fix the Corvette videos in the barn?

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
If the NVR is in the house, how many cameras can a 350mbps half-duplex wireless connection handle while some one is streaming how to fix the Corvette videos in the barn?

Even 8 megapixel cameras use only about 16mb/s using H.264 encoding. Assuming a 350mb/s back-haul, ten cameras would consume a bit less than half of that, and that's assuming they're all running full-time, as opposed to only when events occur.

It seems unlikely he'll be running ten 8mp cameras full-time

Good, now that that discussion is over, carry on.

I didn’t realize on the fly video compression was that good.

Gonna ramble a bit more and show more cluelessness...


We do depend on wifi calling.

I have 8 wifi cameras now. Cheap Wyze, I bought to get my feet wet with security cameras. The eventual system will replace them with wired cams. May be a slow build out… 12 or fewer.
Mostly around the house but also covering the barn/shop inside and out.
I had on a whim thought having the NVR in the barn because it could easily be made very hard to find out there. Otherwise it could be in the house. The better camera system is likely a year or more out.

If I go wireless bridge I see most are called wifi extenders. AP points. Do they require an additional wifi router or not.

Perhaps most important… seamless roaming between the house and barn.
No idea how to accomplish that.

Is there any advantage to using same brand equipment as my current wifi router (TP-Link AX600) Ease of setup or compatibility?

I have considered one outdoor repeater/extender well place, line of site might work for now. It could be in the gable end of the house or on an old over the air TV antenna pole. Either would be about 15 feet high.

Last night I had 2 bars wifi standing near the open 10x20 overhead door on the front of the barn and speediest reported ~45 Mb, At times however it is bad enough that it doesn’t work at all… and then with the door shut no go. I have fiber to the house and currently pay for 200Mb, with a free upgrade to 300mb happening any day now.

quote:

Originally posted by cparktd:
I had on a whim thought having the NVR in the barn because it could easily be made very hard to find out there. Otherwise it could be in the house.

Will the barn be insulated, heated in the wintertime and air-conditioned in the summertime? If not: Could be kind of hard on the NVR.

quote:

Originally posted by cparktd:
If I go wireless bridge I see most are called wifi extenders. AP points. Do they require an additional wifi router or not.

Poor (read: clueless/confusing) terminology:

WiFi Extender: Simply an Access Point that also talks back to another AP or WiFi Router. It may or may not use a separate radio or band for the back-haul to the other AP/WiFi Router. (Most do not.)

AP (Access Point): Serves only to serve WiFi clients. Mobile devices, streaming devices, WiFi cameras, what-have-you. Almost always a wired back-haul to the network. (Though a WiFi Extender with a separate radio for the back-haul does it all-in-one.)

WiFi Bridge: Serves only to bridge a wired network. Does not communicate with client devices at all. Most efficient when paired with an identical bridge on the other end.

quote:

Originally posted by cparktd:
Perhaps most important… seamless roaming between the house and barn.
No idea how to accomplish that.

I described it in my previous post.

quote:

Originally posted by cparktd:
Is there any advantage to using same brand equipment as my current wifi router (TP-Link AX600) Ease of setup or compatibility?

Familiarity, maybe. But that's a router, not an AP. You don't need another router, and they can be disadvantageous as they will interfere with something called MDNS (aka: Bonjour): A device discovery protocol that many (most?) IoT devices require for proper operation on a LAN/WLAN.

quote:

Originally posted by cparktd:
I have considered one outdoor repeater/extender well place, line of site might work for now. It could be in the gable end of the house or on an old over the air TV antenna pole. Either would be about 15 feet high.

You could do that, but you won't see the kind of bandwidths I was talking about.

Btw: If you place it that high, you'll be shooting through more vegetation.

The proper way to do it (I also "diagrammed" this in my prior post):

House network <-> WiFi Bridge <-> WiFi Bridge <-> Barn network

Where "barn network" can be as simple as Bridge <-> AP or as complex as Bridge <-> Switch <-> AP + a bunch of other wired stuff

Think of it this way: The pair of WiFi bridges would replace network cable or fiber between house and barn. That's all they'd do. Or think of them as "network cabling w/o the cable."

Using Wi-Fi cams you are already behind the eight ball then to couple with and Extender or Mesh would be certain disaster, Using a bridge even less so but why not just follow through with connecting wired solution and then go wired cams as soon as you can?
Compression will have trade offs and using the newer H.265 cams will ease that burden even further.

Interum update...
You guys have been so good to help and advise I thought I owed you an update.

Ordered...
USA made Direct Bury Armored Fiber cable, OM3, LC connectors multimode. From LANshack. Estimated ship date 8/31!

Ordered...
Two Gigabit Ethernet Multi-Mode LC Fiber Media Converter (SFP SX Transceivers Included), up to 550M, MMF, 10/100/1000Base-Tx to 1000Base-SX
Arriving today.

Now need to find/decide on an AP.

Of note... since it was debated here, water in conduit etc.
LANshack video.

Skip to 2:45.