How to extend Wi-Fi to drivewayt

[pioneer2000]

I have an ASUS AC68U router that serves all Wi-Fi duties in my house.

Reception is fine in all rooms but I now require reception on my driveway, where reception on the 5Ghz band is nonexistent and the 2.4Ghz band is barely on 1 bar (approx 30mb/s transfer speed I believe).

What’s the most efficient way I can extend the network (2.4Ghz is fine really)?

 

[Avalon]

2.4Ghz obviously has better penetration than 5Ghz. Your obvious options are to move the current router or install an AP, again something directional if you have a stupidly long drive may be better. Realistically a solid 30mb/s covers HD streaming and pretty much anything else, what are you doing that required more and based on that what sort of speeds are you hoping to achieve?

 

[WJA96]

For an external access point, the Unifi AP-AC-Mesh is pretty good and not too expensive. The Mikrotik SXT SQ5ac is even cheaper and doesn't need the Unifi controller to run it. If you use the Mikrotik quick mount with 4 rubber suckers you can mount the Access point on the outside of a window and run a flat CAT5 cable through the window frame (most windows I've seen have allowed the window to shut with a flat CAT5 cable in the gap.

 

[labcoattech]

All depends on the what you need to achieve?

What device are you trying to connect to your Wi-Fi?

I had the same issue with an Android car stereo that had 2.4Ghz wi-fi, it would detect the wifi but fail to get an IP, it didn't help that the wifi antenna was behind the headunit. In this situation I found I got faster download speeds when connected to my mobile data via hotspot.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Some cars e.g. Tesla need WiFi for the OTA update.

 

[WJA96]

We have Blackvue drive cameras in all our cars and they sync their recordings over WLAN to a NAS while they’re in the garage or parked in front of the office. I have a pair of AP-AC-Mesh’s installed for that purpose.

It’s surprisingly common for people to want WLAN in the garden or on their driveway. I have one customer that we installed a fibre from his home network to the front gate over 1km away so he could see his visitors arrive and every 100m there is an Access Point so they have WLAN all the way to the house. On one hand, clearly mental. On the other - cool as a very cool thing.

 

[labcoattech]

Easiest option would be to get a Powerline Ethernet Adapater and then plug in an access point as close to the front of the house.

If however your looking for reliability then I would wire a Cat 5e / 6 cable from the router towards the front of the house and connect an access point, if you don't have a power socket near the front for the access point then I would advise looking for an access point that supports PoE.