Outside wireless hardware?

goldy6660 · 5 Jun 2020 at 20:26

Hi folks,

My father in law wants to be able to get WiFi outside currently loses signal if he walks a few meters away from the patio. Is there anything out there that could go on a mast outside as an ariel and the box inside or just a router outside? Had a Google and can't find much.

Thanks in advance

Mcnumpty2323 · 5 Jun 2020 at 20:30

Depends how far he wants it to reach
If he doesn't want it to cover a whole garden
Then something as cheap and simple as a WiFi extender/repeater in the plug closest to the rear of the property might
Be fine
Anything on a mast is going to cost a lot
More and may be overkill for what is needed

goldy6660 · 5 Jun 2020 at 20:50

Mcnumpty2323 said:
Depends how far he wants it to reach
If he doesn't want it to cover a whole garden
Then something as cheap and simple as a WiFi extender/repeater in the plug closest to the rear of the property might
Be fine
Anything on a mast is going to cost a lot
More and may be overkill for what is needed

Thanks for replying. Yeah his garden is probably a bit bigger than most, (house is in a 1acre plot and he wants signal up to 50m from the house) had suggested a extender but not overly sure on the range of them, shall take a proper look and suggest again. Thanks

Mcnumpty2323 · 5 Jun 2020 at 20:53

If a simple extender won't do it
Some one like @Avalon will be of more use to you than me

BigT · 5 Jun 2020 at 21:49

If you can run an Ethernet cable from his router to a pole outdoors then what he wants is an outdoor or Weather proof access point. This is an example of what he wants but there’s plenty of other options: https://www.ui.com/unifi/unifi-ap-outdoor/

Avalon · 6 Jun 2020 at 03:55

Cheap Ubiquiti Nanostation M2/M5 would be my first thought - they're external rated, powered by PoE and can link over several Km with a clear LoS (not with your average tablet/phone, but another Nanostation for example), but check the coverage angle as they are directional. The Bullet however isn't directional when equipped with an omni (popular in ship to shore setup's on boats/yachts), they work well enough if you want/need to have (potentially) 360 degree coverage, but again it depends on the mounting point and what gets in the way, nothing wrong with an external AP either. I quite like the Unifi kit, that said TP Link and even Mikrotik can be competitive on price, I have never got on that well with Mikrotik AP's, but it's personal preference and Ubiquiti tends to cause me relatively few issues, for example I put a used bullet+omni on the rear wall of my parents property 5?+ years ago, it's been faultless and is pretty unobtrusive, it's roughly 3/4 of an acre, but it's even good in the neighbours gardens that back onto it, I honestly can't recall ever having an issue with it, that's probably about as good an endorsement as I can give on any networking equipment i've ever owned/installed in the last 3 decades.

goldy6660 · 7 Jun 2020 at 09:46

Thanks guys gone with one of these. Shall let you know how we get on.

BigT said:
If you can run an Ethernet cable from his router to a pole outdoors then what he wants is an outdoor or Weather proof access point. This is an example of what he wants but there’s plenty of other options: https://www.ui.com/unifi/unifi-ap-outdoor/

ANDARIAL · 7 Jun 2020 at 10:42

It looks like the outdoor model is 5 ghz only ,if that is of any interest
What devices will he be connecting?

goldy6660 · 7 Jun 2020 at 11:33

I'll find out the brand and model he went for but similar concept and the one he's gone for is the dual model with both 2.4 and 5ghz. He's mainly using phones and probably a laptop on the network should be ok.

WJA96 · 7 Jun 2020 at 11:46

UniFi AP-AC-Mesh is the lowest cost proper option.

The UAP-Outdoor is a deprecated product.

Phil2008 · 7 Jun 2020 at 12:03

We have a large garden too and our wifi is not great, my idea was to buy a unifi in-wall access point, seal in a bag so its kind of waterproof, and 3d print a bracket thing so it could be hung on the outside wall of the house, jobs a gooden...

I think the in-wall access points are wireless, so you would only need the power, but you need a unifi access point for the in-wall one to connect to as they wont connect to any other signal.

neil_g · 7 Jun 2020 at 12:29

Phil2008 said:
seal in a bag so its kind of waterproof

honestly I wouldn't, but its your money. try as you might the bag will end up with some moisture inside which will condensate and ingress the AP and/or corrode the RJ45 connection.

WJA96 · 7 Jun 2020 at 12:45

Phil2008 said:
We have a large garden too and our wifi is not great, my idea was to buy a unifi in-wall access point, seal in a bag so its kind of waterproof, and 3d print a bracket thing so it could be hung on the outside wall of the house, jobs a gooden... I think the in-wall access points are wireless, so you would only need the power, but you need a unifi access point for the in-wall one to connect to as they wont connect to any other signal.

The AP-AC-Mesh is basically the AP-AC-IW in a waterproof box. And it comes with a bracket already. So just buy one of those instead...

WJA96 · 7 Jun 2020 at 12:50

And the only way to power a UniFi Access point is over PoE so even if you’re using a PoE injector you’ll still need to run a cable.