Outdoor Wifi

[danman2k]

Hi Guys

We are having some landscaping work done at the top of our garden and having a summer house built up there.
Would like to have WiFi up there and currently our TP Link AP just reaches up there but the strength is very poor, it takes a couple of minutes just to open a web page on the tablet.
It is roughly 40 - 50 metres away from the house.

would something like this do the job for me
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-139-TP&groupid=46&catid=2899

would mount it near the roof of our house facing directly down the garden.

I have looked at running some direct burial ethernet cable up the garden but this is not really an option.

Thanks Dan

 

[paradisiac]

if your current router/AP has a removable antenna I would look at something like the TP LINK WLAN Antenna 2.4 GHz 9dBi Outdoor Yagi N-Connector

 

[Caged]

That TP-Link is designed as a point-to-point radio (and an Ubiquiti NanoStation Loco M5 will be a much better option) to be used in pairs.

Do you want an AP to cover your garden, or do you want to create a wireless link to your summer house and then deploy a network inside the summer house? My preferred option would be a point-to-point link with 2x Ubiquiti radios and then an AP of your choice inside the summer house as well as a switch for wired access.

 

[danman2k]

yes the AP does have removable antenna. Will look at that option

Didnt realise is was point to point, thought you could use one on its own as an access point/repeater

Will take a look at the Ubiquiti radios,

Might take another look at running a cable also?

 

[Caged]

You can use them as just an AP, but they aren't designed for that as their primary function. If you're going 50m to a device like a smartphone then you need to be sure that the smartphone has enough power to be able to talk back to the AP.

If you can bury an armoured Cat6 then that would be my preferred option.

 

[danman2k]

I think I may go with the burial of some armoured direct burial cable, all the top end of the garden is been dug up anyway so getting the cable there will be no problem

What is the best type of cable for this, seen some direct burial stuff on the rain forest doesn't seem that expensive, 20 quid for 50 metres

 

[Amp34]

You don't necessarily need to bury the cable the whole way, you could always run it along a fence?

 

[akua]

has been bookmark, this seems like a very interesting thread

 

[FatRakoon]

I too have been doing some weird trials.
I had originally plopped a Laptop in one of the sheds for the kids to play but that was some time ago.

I had also tried the repeater way with 2 routers, and Im not sure if that was the best idea because while I had a good connection between the routers, the speed was fairly horrible, but this could be due to a number of things.

In the end, I simply used a cable, and stuffed an old router in the shed. It just seemed to be the easiest solution and it gave me full gigabit speeds.

I have to say that the distance for me, has luckily not been an issue... When I adapted my attic into a PC room, the cable that goes from my router to the switch in the attic, is following the corner of the room, through the living room, the hallway, up the stairs, along the top hallway up the wall and over into the attic trap door, then along the attic and around to the far end where I had installed the junction box, and then anhother cable to the switch, its about 85 feet in total, and I did that about 14 years ago as a quick fix until I got round to doing it properly, but its been so perfect, that I have not bothered to touch it. It has been the same with the garden. the cable is a 50m length and about 12m is coiled up into a loop and stuffed in the corner of the shed and so far, its been 100% stable.

Go cablr. forget rubbish wireless.

 

[Caged]

If you use wireless gear designed for the job instead of trying to do it with whatever you have lying around then there is no reason why wireless should be unreliable.

I have an Ubiquiti link set up at a mates business where they have two units opposite sides of a industrial estate about 80m away from each other, they push 120Mbps of real throughput and have an uptime of around 700 days (the time since they were installed). They've never dropped the connection.

 

[Steveocee]

I'll echo Caged.

A wireless link with the correct kit and set up correctly is a brilliant solution and very feasible on a modest budget. The threads you see on here about how people can't get a reliable connection between 2 consumer routers give an impression wireless is rubbish.

A nice Ubiquiti nanostation link with a bullet ap at the far end would murder the job.

 

[FatRakoon]

The threads you see on here about how people can't get a reliable connection between 2 consumer routers give an impression wireless is rubbish.

I will happily accept that saying Wireless is rubbish, is in itself a rubbish thing to say, however, 50m of ethernet cable will cost a fraction of the price of any wireless setup, and be many many times faster and without pulling numbers from deep up there, but its going to be hundreds of times more reliable than a wireless option.

now, that said, I will accept that a good wireless solution, if all you need is basic internet access, and you dont want to mess about with hiding cables then sure go for it, but for me, I would rather have a wired setup, because wireless is simply nowhere near fast enough.

 

[MissChief]

But then if it's only for internet browsing it doesn't really matter if he's using Wireless or Wired if he can only get 4 Meg? Sure if he's on Virgin or Hyperoptic or something but for DSL I'd say it will be fine.

 

[Steveocee]

I will happily accept that saying Wireless is rubbish, is in itself a rubbish thing to say, however, 50m of ethernet cable will cost a fraction of the price of any wireless setup, and be many many times faster and without pulling numbers from deep up there, but its going to be hundreds of times more reliable than a wireless option.

now, that said, I will accept that a good wireless solution, if all you need is basic internet access, and you dont want to mess about with hiding cables then sure go for it, but for me, I would rather have a wired setup, because wireless is simply nowhere near fast enough.

Even cheap wireless bridges can now burst at 300Mb with a throughput of 100Mb. That's plenty fast enough for most internet services.

 

[danman2k]

Just to add guys I only get 8mb internet.
No fibre for me, we live in the middle of the countryside, so speed of the network isn't really an issue.
This will only be used for tablets and laptops browsing etc

 

[danman2k]

Right guys

Cat6 cable will be laid up the garden now

please see the below thread for more info
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18686152