Out building Wifi extension non-wired

washo

washo

washo

Associate
Joined
22 Jun 2009
Posts
140
I have a new outside office that I need to get network connectivity to, around 15 meters from main building. The office is fully powered, however I cannot run Ethernet to it due to logistics.

First thought was to use Devolo powerline adapters, however this would pass through 3 consumer units. Tech support have said this will work as on same electric meter, however could not confirm the loss in speed but advised it could be bad.

Wi-Fi in main building is flaky and I can just about get a signal in the outside office - so I am going to start again and install a UAP-AC-PRO (1 to start with) to improve this side of things in the main building.

What would you suggest to improve the connection to the outside office as any AP will not be Ethernet wired? Is a repeater possible? First time of using Ubiquiti equipment.

Thanks
 
Ubiquiti nanostations to provide a directional point to point wireless link. A pair will cost you about £100 from the rainforest. Next best thing to laying a cable IMO. I've had disastrous results with powerline to outbuildings.

If you purchase a regular AP like the model you suggest, if placed very close to the edge of your main building it'll probably reach as far as the outbuilding so worth a shot. I had an LR model positioned in my attic and horizontally facing the garden and it reached 15m through the roof, but since it was only ever low bandwidth I needed I never measured the performance which might be important to you. Obviously this solution will be cheaper too.
 
100% agree with BigT.

Buy the UAP-AC-PRO and test with positioning to see how well it can service the outside building.

If needs be the Nanostations look like great bits of kit, was thinking of buying them myself for another project.
 
That's great, thanks for the recommendations.

I want to install the UAP-AC-Pro regardless, so would I still need 2 nanostations if signal strength is still too low? Not seen them before reading a few postings earlier so not sure how they work.
 
washo;30482977 said:
I want to install the UAP-AC-Pro regardless, so would I still need 2 nanostations if signal strength is still too low? Not seen them before reading a few postings earlier so not sure how they work.
Click to expand...

If you're getting one anyway then that's great as you can test it in a few locations.

If the signal is too low to connect and transfer at the speeds you want then yes you will need to find an alternative solution, the nanostations being one approach. Conceptually you can think of them like replacing an ethernet cable with a wireless link. You run an ethernet cable from your router to one nanostation, point it at the outbuilding, specifically at where you mount the second one. From the second one you run an ethernet cable into your outbuilding and say into a switch. You'll then need an access point in the outbuilding to serve the whole building with wifi. The nanostations are only replacing a piece of cable conceptually remember so they do not provide a hotspot for other devices to connect to.

Reading the installation manual gives you a good idea of how they'd work in your situation:

http://dl.ubnt.com/guides/NanoStation_M/NanoStation_M_Loco_M_QSG.pdf
 
Powerline to outbuildings hasn't been great in my experience - in one case it worked with so-so speeds for about 6 months then for no apparent reason (no changes we can see) stopped working entirely and refuses to work again heh.

Point to point WiFi extension is probably the best option but depending on usage 4G might not be terrible as an alternative - there are some not too expensive data plans these days (unless you leave something going and it eats 100s of GB) and in a half decent area can easily get into the 10s of mbit down and reasonably low latency.
 
Thanks guys. Great advice. Unfortunately 4G is as bad in my area so not an option.

2 Pro's being delivered tomorrow so fingers crossed. Very exciting and even the wife shared in my enthusiasm with a roll of the eyes!

If not strong enough signal then will invest in the Nanostations as well. Would you be able to say what model I would need? The distance is only 15/20 meters max.
 
Why did you get two UAP-AC-PROs? The idea was to get one in the main building as the range is probably enough to reach the outbuilding interior. (Unless I'm misunderstanding.)
 
Is running a cable really out of the question?

I'm a big fan of ubiqui nanostation, but only when running a cable is truly implausible.
 
Router is currently BT Homehub6 (installed for better Wi-Fi but not so).
Have a few TP-Link TL-WA801ND APs scattered about and a BT wifi extender.

Also have an unopened Netgear Nighthawk R7000 and DrayTek 2832n. Not sure if anything would be better to coexist with the UAP-AC-PROs...
 
washo;30486938 said:
Router is currently BT Homehub6 (installed for better Wi-Fi but not so).
Have a few TP-Link TL-WA801ND APs scattered about and a BT wifi extender.

Also have an unopened Netgear Nighthawk R7000 and DrayTek 2832n. Not sure if anything would be better to coexist with the UAP-AC-PROs...
Click to expand...

Do you have lead lined walls ?

I have a single Asus in a 3 floor detached stone walled (18in) house - no problems anywhere
 
dmsims;30486985 said:
Do you have lead lined walls ?

I have a single Asus in a 3 floor detached stone walled (18in) house - no problems anywhere
Click to expand...

I know :) walls look pretty standard but just always had wifi connectivity issues dropping in and out. I cannot work it out hence all the equipment tried over the years.



Regarding the R7000 - was never sure what modem to use.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom