Advice on extending internet connectivity to annex office conversion, boost wifi or powerline kit?

EvilRobot

EvilRobot

EvilRobot

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19 Feb 2015
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14
Hi

I have an outbuilding in my back yard that I want to convert into a little office and workshop. It's about ~10m/15m away from my house and ~25m away from my router. As it stands the wifi signal doesn't reach that far, not really anyway. The outbuilding has electricity via a submains which I assume is connected somehow to the house's main electricity; I am not an electrition so lack a great deal of knowledge on such matters.

I'd like to avoid drilling holes and stretching wires through my garden and as such am contimplating 2 options; either:

1) I set up a series of wireless routers in an attempt to boost the signal out there, not sure how successful that is. I've seen it work in a very large house but that was in another country and they have WIMAX and their connection was no where near the speeds of mine, maybe ~10Mbps. Also, I am reluctant to shrowed my entire street with my signal.

2) Buy a pair of powerline networking kits and use the mains to send the signal accross, that is on the assumption that such a thing will work in this case.

If option 2 is feasable, I hear they are quite good these days with a 500Mbps kit maintaining ~100Mbps connection (source techradar) is this pluasable or fantasy?

I was looking at the TP link or Devolo starter kits. I have a (up to) 50Mbps fiber optic broadband connection so surely a consitant 100Mbps speed is enough, or am I getting confused here?

Has anyone had any experience with such devices or any of these options, maybe you can advise me on a better way or what you think is the best way. Any help is very much appreciated.
 
Could you run some plastic drain pipe, then run RJ45 cable inside of this? Of course seal the ends of pipe to keep the RJ45 cable water proof.
 
JasonM said:
Could you run some plastic drain pipe, then run RJ45 cable inside of this? Of course seal the ends of pipe to keep the RJ45 cable water proof.
Click to expand...

Steveocee said:
3) Ubiquiti NSM5 fixed wireless link, should give up to 300Mb throughput and requires very minimal setting up.
Click to expand...

Thank's for your input, I should perhaps shed a little more light to my quandary. My broadband connection and wireless router is in my livingroom situated at the front of my house. To get to my back yard and thus the outbuilding I have to first go trough a kitchen and then a conservatory. Feeding an rj45 cable from the living room, through the kitchen, the conservatory and then outside is not feasable. I'd really like to try and solve this without drilling holes and feeding wires all over the place. In the outbuilding drilling and holes is no problem, the main house; well lets just say the lady of the house WILL end me.

I'm sensing the powerline kits not a great option. I'm, hoping to find a solution that totally limits the need for drilling holes and feeding long cables if possible.

So i've done a little bit of research now that I know there is such a thing as "wireless access bridges" and I'd very much appreciate your opinions on some of my thoughts.

As I said my broadband connection and wireless router is in my living room at the front of my house, to get outside I have to walk through the kitchen then the conservitory so feeding a cable from the living room through the kitchen and then outside is really not feasable.

What if I connected a wireless access point/extender inside my kitchen, toward the back wall and then a third wireless access point or some such like device within the outbuilding itself, eliminating the need to drill any holes, would that be possible? so it would kind of look like

[wireless router in living room]<~~~~~~~~~~~~>[wireless access point in kitchen]<~~~~~~~~~~>[wireless access point in outbuilding]<-----(wired connection)------>[switch]------> out to devices

Or, if totally wireless isn't possible, place a wireless access point in my kitchen, on top of my kitchen cabinat by a section of wall that leads to my back yard, drill a hole in the wall and feed an rj45 cable through and maybe see if I can lay it to reach the out building, so the connection will look like this:

[wireless router in living room]<~~~~~~(wireless)~~~~~~~>[wireless access point in kitchen]<--------(wire through wall)-------------------->[outbuillding]

This option may be challenging, but as long as the cable is not really visible indoors or overly vissible outdoors and I don't have to drill multiple holes through the house I may be able to get away with it.

Or if I can't extend a wire trough my garden is the following an option: as per my second suggestion, stick a wireless access point in the kitchen, feed a rj45 cable connected to said access point through the back wall and down the side of my conservitory wall and connect it to one of the Wireless Bridge/Access Point devices you suggested mounted on the back of my house poitnting to it's compliment on the outbuilding, thus eliminating the need for feeding cable through the garden or is this just an unecesserily convaluted way of achieving the first thing I said?

Thank you for your input btw, I really appreciate the help.
 
Just go out of the house from the living room and wrap around it externally. A single neat black cat5 is barely noticeable on the outside of a house. You have 100m to play with before signal levels drop significantly.
 
Steveocee said:
Just go out of the house from the living room and wrap around it externally. A single neat black cat5 is barely noticeable on the outside of a house. You have 100m to play with before signal levels drop significantly.
Click to expand...

Danny091 said:
Could you not go outside with the cable straight from the livingroom then tack the cable on the wall outside around the house?
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I'm a an awkward bugger I'm sorry, I live in a semi detahced house, my livingroom and thus broadband connection is on the side ajoining my neighbour, I don't think my neighbour would appreciate me going through her house; spoil sport! My outbuilding is also on the same side,so to go out the front I'd have to go around the front of the house, down the side; not a huge problem; then across the garden and drive way to get to the outbuilding. I'd have to measure such a route as I can't be sure of the total distance, maybe ~70m. I was hoping to avoid that, is buying netwrok cable that long easy? Forgive my ignorance.

JasonM said:
How about a WiFi extender? You would have to place the extender near a house window overlooking your garden . WiFi signals go very far providing they are not obstructed , glass windows do not really effect them either.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-122-TP

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-157-TP&groupid=46&catid=1837
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Thanks for the suggestion, something like this would be ideal but, the signal would have to go through the ground floor to the frist floor then once it goes outside it would need to go through solid brick walls, the outbuilding is solid brick, so isn't this going to cause an obstruction?

I tested the electrics to see if the outbuilding mainboard is linked to the house. I turned off all the fuses in the house and it shut off the electrics in the outbuilding, lights and plugs. I was then able to pin point the fuse that feeds the outbuilding. I'm pretty confident this means te electrics out there are connected to the house mains; I don't know if that makes the powerline kits a feasable option now.

Would a single wireless bridge between the kitchen and the livingroom not be able to maintain an (up to) 50Mbps connection at least? if a series of wireless bridges is a bad idea, I may be able to drill and feed an rj45 wire back trough the back of the kitchen connected to a single wireless bridge hidden atop one of the kitchen cabinets. The distance the wire then needs to travel will only be ~20m.

I really wanted a second connection but while virgin were more than happy to sell me another package the installer flat out refused, probably a good omen in the end, was made redundant recently so am on a DIY mission lol.

I will measure a route around the front of the house tomorrow and save that as a last resort.

I'm going to keep saying it, thank you all for your input and helpful suggestions.
 
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Wireless extenders probably wont work that well, powerlines will probably be flaky at best, you could direct cable into the outhouse, cable isn't that expensive and is easy to buy in reels up to 500m or you could use a fixed wireless bridge like what was mentioned above.

You can only work within the limitations you have so its a case of making the best of whats there.
 
So based on everyone's suggestions, I am going to rule out the powerline kits. I shall measure a route via the front of my house tomorrow and hope the distance is far less than 100m, I think I may have to take this option.

I had a look and I can create a wireless bridge to ethernet connection using a couple Linksys WAP300N Wireless N Access Points or a couple of TP-LINK TL-WA901ND Advanced 300Mbps Wireless N Access Points. However, I will be looking at a minimum spend of ~£80 + cat5 or 6 ethernet cable though the back and looking at the polarised reviews reliability isn't guaranteed.

Thanks for the help everyone, at least now I have a better idea of what my options are and what they entail.
 
100m cat5e external grade is £43 or £95 for 305m... I would get the bigger role really if its more than 50m and run two lengths that way if one of the cable dies you have another one already run. Much easier to run two at the same time :)

cat6 is £61 for 100m £150 for 305M

Then you can pick up 4 of these cheap on the bay 2 for each run (each end) £7 for 4

http://imgur.com/eqYq2x7
http://i.imgur.com/5QDMURj.jpg
 
Danny091 said:
100m cat5e external grade is £43 or £95 for 305m... I would get the bigger role really if its more than 50m and run two lengths that way if one of the cable dies you have another one already run. Much easier to run two at the same time :)

cat6 is £61 for 100m £150 for 305M

Then you can pick up 4 of these cheap on the bay 2 for each run (each end) £7 for 4

http://imgur.com/eqYq2x7
http://i.imgur.com/5QDMURj.jpg
Click to expand...
So based on my research if it is less than 100m then I only really need cat5 if it's just over 100m I should get cat6, is this correct?

What do you mean run 2 at the same time? I assume you mean run them in parallel so I have 2 connection ports.

Do you have a name for those rj45 sockets? I'm looking on ebay and there are lots on offer, I'm guessing there isn't much between them.
 
In order of preference:

Hard-wired cable
Powerline
Wireless


My dad has a garage about 40m down his garden - well out of the way of any wireless coverage, and, with his router at the centre of his house, a difficult task to run a cable (but not impossible).

The house ring main is on one consumer unit, with a separate (direct off the meter) consumer unit in the house for the garage. In the garage itself, is a 3rd consumer unit.

I got a Powerline set, plugged it into the ring main indoors, and the other end into the ring main in the garage. And it just worked.

Granted, his internet connection is only 6mbps, and he's not doing large file transfers, however, for the £30 it cost for the kit (Linksys PLWK400), it's given him exactly what he needed - a wired connection for a PC, and wireless for phones/laptops/tablets.

If I were doing it for myself - I'd use powerline kits with more throughput, or run a cable - but the concept worked, and works well. It took about 5 minutes total to set it up, as opposed to hours of running cables.
 
Confused said:
I got a Powerline set, plugged it into the ring main indoors, and the other end into the ring main in the garage. And it just worked.

Granted, his internet connection is only 6mbps, and he's not doing large file transfers, however, for the £30 it cost for the kit (Linksys PLWK400), it's given him exactly what he needed - a wired connection for a PC, and wireless for phones/laptops/tablets.
Click to expand...

Thanks all, this is very helpful, fortunatly my neighbour is a retired builder and has agreed to help me out, he actually help build the outbuilding in my house. I have a clearer idea of what I need to do.

I found a 100m cat6 outdoor data reel for £50 on amazon with glowing reviews and my neighbour seems to be very keen to get some use out of his industrial powerdrill. A route from the front round to the back might be feasable.

I am tempted to give the powerline kits a go, the wiring in the house is fairly new and others have said that I can get 80-150mbps with a good 500mbps kit but I don't have the desposable income to take the risk and I need a much better connection that 6Mbps.

Anyway, before I get ahead of myself I need to refurb the outbuilding, plaster the cieling, redistrabute the electric sockets, paint the walls and put down laminate flooring before I worry about getting an internet connection in there..... now to find out what size electrical wire I need for sockets, apparetnly it might be 10mm, but that's for another thread.
 
EvilRobot said:
So based on my research if it is less than 100m then I only really need cat5 if it's just over 100m I should get cat6, is this correct?

What do you mean run 2 at the same time? I assume you mean run them in parallel so I have 2 connection ports.

Do you have a name for those rj45 sockets? I'm looking on ebay and there are lots on offer, I'm guessing there isn't much between them.
Click to expand...

No i ment if the run is more than 50m you should buy 100m so you have enough for two runs :) Ethernet cables no matter what cat should not be over 100m (it will most likely work but its not recommended). I did mean run 2 at the same time :) Or even 3 or 4 depends how much cable you have on the reel. This way you have room for expansion / cables to break without having to drill walls again.

Cat5e vs cat6 is something you need to decide on your own really. Cat5e is rated at gigabit and is more flexible and workable generally than cat6 however cat6 has a better chance at doing 10gbit over shorter runs that cat5e

"4 x CAT5e 1-PORT SURFACE MOUNT OUTLET BOX WITH FACE PLATE" is what they are called on ebay. I ordered some the other day they are coming on friday so ill let you know what they are like if you want. Remember you will also need a punch down tool to use them.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Network-E...686?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item33797ca7ee

also these come in handy to check all the wires are working. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ethernet-...395?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item1c542a4813 (needs a square battery)

EvilRobot said:
Thanks all, this is very helpful, fortunatly my neighbour is a retired builder and has agreed to help me out, he actually help build the outbuilding in my house. I have a clearer idea of what I need to do.

and my neighbour seems to be very keen to get some use out of his industrial powerdrill. A route from the front round to the back might be feasable.

I am tempted to give the powerline kits a go, the wiring in the house is fairly new and others have said that I can get 80-150mbps with a good 500mbps kit but I don't have the desposable income to take the risk and I need a much better connection that 6Mbps.

Anyway, before I get ahead of myself I need to refurb the outbuilding, plaster the cieling, redistrabute the electric sockets, paint the walls and put down laminate flooring before I worry about getting an internet connection in there..... now to find out what size electrical wire I need for sockets, apparetnly it might be 10mm, but that's for another thread.
Click to expand...

You could pick up some powerlines from like argos and take them back if they are no good.
 
buy some powerlines and see if they work, if not return. If they work they are by far the easiest solution to your current problem and it doesn't sound like there is any reason for them not to. I have them in my house without issue (modern wiring) and have also setup an pair at my parents house (properly dodgy ancient wiring) without any problems.
 
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