Internet to an outbuilding

CrouchingPeeky

CrouchingPeeky

CrouchingPeeky

Associate
Joined
16 Aug 2011
Posts
5
So as the title suggests, I need internet to an out building - well two to be precise. I have a summer house which I am turning into an office and an annexe at the bottom of the garden where my mother in law lives. As part of the electrical work to get power to the summer house/office I am getting the electrician to install cat 6 external cable from the main house to both out buildings. I very naively thought I could have a face plate on the wall and connect a router so I can get wifi in both. I gather it really isn't that simple. If I have internet hard wired to both buildings, is it possible to place wireless access points in each building? I have to say I've only just read about WAP so don't fully understand how they work and whether they are suitable.
For full disclosure, the summer house/office is 10 metres from the house and the annexe is about 50 metres. The reason I went straight to hard-wiring the cat 6 is because I will be working in the office, plus the distance from the house of the annexe I thought it made most sense for a reliable connection. My internet provider currently is Sky, so have their router but potentially moving to Zen soon if that matters

Thanks again
 
Last edited:
Are both buildings going to be wired back to the main house? Or House -> Summer House -> Annex?

If you're using the Summer House as the "hub" to connect the house and the annex together, then you could use a router in the summer house in "wireless access point" mode, so that it gives off both wireless and has ethernet ports to connect onwards. I have a TP-Link AX5400 which I can rave about, it's great for exactly that purpose.
And then add a wireless access point in the annex, or another router in AP mode, depending on requirements.

WAP's are great when they're the "end of the line", but when you have to connect onwards to another building I'd just use a router in AP mode (or a switch, but then you wont have wireless and would need a WAP ontop of that.)
 
 
CrouchingPeeky said:
Both are going back to the main house and into the back of the router. Each will have their own port in the router
Click to expand...
Terminate to a module and then look at TP-Link or Ubiquiti for wireless access points. Some WAP's, like the TP-LINK EAP235, do have a few additional ethernet ports on them but if you need additional ethernet ports in one of the buildings then you can always throw in a decent (1Gbit) switch inline, ie - out-building > switch > WAP.
Given distances you may be lucky to get away with a single WAP in one of the buildings.

FYI - a lot of WAP's are PoE powered, power is via the ethernet connection rather than an external power brick, which you can do either by using a PoE injector, typically for single PoE device, or a PoE switch for multiple PoE devices.
 
This sounds like a job for Ubiquiti UniFi In-Wall access points. You get excellent WiFi and 4 network ports, one of which is a PoE pass-thru port. They’re relatively inexpensive and they manage themselves really. You can get them in WiFi 5, 6 or 6E flavours (7 coming soon) and they’re just excellent for this sort of application.

And you’ll need a router - I would suggest the Ubiquiti UniFi Express plus one of their small PoE switches - USW-Ultra-60W although you might get away with the USW-Ultra-42W if you didn’t need the pass-through on the PoE on the In-wall access points.

That might look pricey as a system but it will last a good while and you can use the RJ45 ports on the access points for TV, X-box, printers, Sonos, surveillance cameras - all sorts.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Kol
visibleman said:
OP has a (i assume) Sky hub acting as the router, so out of curiosity why do they need another? I thought most of the UniFi AP's can be setup without the need for other Ubiquiti products?
Click to expand...

For a single access point, yes, you can do it from the app. For multiple access points you really need the controller and the simplest way to do that is the UniFi Express router/AP/controller. Plus it’s MUCH easier to control everything in UniFi if UniFi is doing the routing and firewall as well as everything else. Sky will need Option 61 but Zen will just be PPPoE details. The OP could also use the Zen provided Fritzbox satellites as wired access points.
 
WJA96 said:
For a single access point, yes, you can do it from the app. For multiple access points you really need the controller...
Click to expand...
That makes sense with Ubiquiti, although i always assumed UniFi WAP's can be managed individually (in small setups) albeit you lose some functionality (reporting etc)? :confused: It just seems a BIG expense (£5/600) if the OP just needs some WiFi in one (or both) of the buildings.
But at least the OP has been given a few options and they can decide on what they want to do.
 
visibleman said:
That makes sense with Ubiquiti, although i always assumed UniFi WAP's can be managed individually (in small setups) albeit you lose some functionality (reporting etc)? :confused: It just seems a BIG expense (£5/600) if the OP just needs some WiFi in one (or both) of the buildings.
But at least the OP has been given a few options and they can decide on what they want to do.
Click to expand...

Totally valid point, you can manage them individually but it’s clunky as a very clunky thing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom