Wireless Ideas for this situation

djd80

Hi All,

I have a broadband Wireless network at home and need to extend it to a building slightly away from the house.

I know there are loads of ways to do this which involve cabling, CAT6 or powerline etc but I am looking for different suggestions.

In the second building it will pick up the main signal but not at great strength. What I am looking for is to see if anyone has heard of a device which I can place in the second building which will connect to the main WiFi , Wirelessly, and then use that to boost it around the building.

I know within buildings WiFi extenders and powerlines would do the job but I dont want to run a cable to the second building.


There is probably something easy but I can't find it so all suggestions would be greatly apreciated.

Cheers

djd80

Looks like I have found the answer to this....A Wireless Repeater.

Basically from what I can see, a Wireless Router with a "Client Mode"

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002LITI7K/?&tag=ttr_wifi_booster-20

PogMoThoin

You have found the wrong answer, if you barely get a signal how is this supposed to receive it's signal. How much distance is there between the buildings?

djd80

Hey,

There is about 15m between them.

PogMoThoin

A cable is the best solution, but you're ruling that out. The next best option is to get 2 of these and make a point to point link from building to building. This will require running a cable to each of them, they will need line of sight between each other. Then you would need to add a wireless access point in the other building to give coverage inside that building

heroics

If the distance between the 2 buildings is only 15 meters then a wireless repeater should do the trick. Make sure you get one that you can replace the antenna on. You can then just add a better antenna if there is a signal problem.

PogMoThoin

Adding a repeater will half the throughput of your existing network and add latency giving you a terribly slow and laggy network. Wireless is shared bandwidth and is half duplex. You only have one frequency that you must transmit and receive on (unlike a wired connection that has separate paths dedicated for transmit and receive). This means you can't be sending and receiving at the same time on wireless. So if you were to use a repeater on the same frequency it will indeed cut your bandwidth in half. It is actually much worse since there is no way to prevent two devices from talking at the same time, only a method to correct it after it happens.

Best advise I can give is to avoid them like the plague.

heroics

It depends on what the OP needs in the second building/how much they wish to spend etc. If they are just looking for basic web access on their laptop/tablet etc then a repeater will do the job and they will only have to purchase a single device. If the signal is a problem between the repeater and the router they can just purchase 2 better antennas this will still come in cheaper than buying 2 devices for the p2p link and an additional wireless access point.

The OP also does not seem to want to run any cabling. In the case of the nanostation they would need to run a cable to the nanostation from their existing router and mount it to the external wall to provide the line of sight required.

If it was me I would buy an Access point/repeater and test it. If this does not provide the access required then they could purchase the devices required for the point 2 point link. They would not have wasted any money because with the point to point they would need to purchase an addition access point anyway.

If they want to use games consoles/gaming PC in the other building then they would be better off with the point to point link but to be honest if they are using it for gaming they should really be using a cable.

PogMoThoin

You're missing the point, a repeater is never a good option. It will slow the existing wireless just by being there. This makes no sense in the present day with everyone moving to wireless "n" devices for more speed

Capt'n Midnight

if you have an android phone get something like Wifi analzer and see what you see from the other building , it could be something as simple as being on the same channel as a neighbours wifi


Put the existing access point at a window or wooden door - so the signal isn't blocked by concrete etc.