Wi-Fi boosting magic?

[Sterillium]

I have a building around 40 metres from my house, which had block and stone walls. It has power and light, but it’s very hot and miss when it comes to connecting to the Wi-Fi, much more miss that hit in fact.

What’s the simplest (I’m a technological moron) way to boost the signal, without digging things up or moving the router?

Edited by Sterillium on Sunday 27th August 19:32

[Mr E]

Ethernet over power lines to a suitable access point.

[B0bman]

Not sure, but loving your router is unlikely to assist! 😆

[JohnnyUK]

The most reliable connection is always going to be wired ethernet - so cable.

I've no idea if the house and building are separated by 40m of tarmac or 40m of earth, but if the latter, then bury this:

https://skyplastics.co.uk/catalog/product/view/id/...

whilst threading this through:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/VOIETOLT-Ethernet-Outdoor...

It's low voltage, so don't worry about shocks etc

[Sterillium]

B0bman said:

Not sure, but loving your router is unlikely to assist! ??

[bobthemonkey]

JohnnyUK said:

The most reliable connection is always going to be wired ethernet - so cable.

I've no idea if the house and building are separated by 40m of tarmac or 40m of earth, but if the latter, then bury this:

https://skyplastics.co.uk/catalog/product/view/id/...

whilst threading this through:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/VOIETOLT-Ethernet-Outdoor...

It's low voltage, so don't worry about shocks etc

OP - just do this. ^^^

While there are dedicated point to point wireless solutions out there, cable is always going to be the better option.

[Sterillium]

Tarmac, and a road that belongs to someone else means I can’t do any digging.

[JohnnyUK]

I highly recommend this brand, but this might need some expertise installing:

https://eu.store.ui.com/eu/en/pro/category/all-wif...

[JohnnyUK]

JohnnyUK said:

I highly recommend this brand, but this might need some expertise installing:

https://eu.store.ui.com/eu/en/pro/category/all-wif...

Actually, you may also have to change your router to use this - soz

[Panamax]

JohnnyUK said:

The most reliable connection is always going to be wired ethernet - so cable.

Yup.

It's not as if you need to dig a 3ft trench. Just dangle some Cat-whatever (let's call it 6) around, nail it to the fence or similar, and all will be fine. Wireless is cack unless all you're trying to do is communicate 15 ft through a stud partition.

[wyson]

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/08/point-to-p...

Point to point wifi bridging the cheap and easy way apparently.

[JohnnyUK]

Panamax said:

JohnnyUK said:

The most reliable connection is always going to be wired ethernet - so cable.

Yup.

It's not as if you need to dig a 3ft trench. Just dangle some Cat-whatever (let's call it 6) around, nail it to the fence or similar, and all will be fine. Wireless is cack unless all you're trying to do is communicate 15 ft through a stud partition.

Agreed. The external grade ethernet I bought was grease filled and pretty robust.

[Baldchap]

JohnnyUK said:

JohnnyUK said:

I highly recommend this brand, but this might need some expertise installing:

https://eu.store.ui.com/eu/en/pro/category/all-wif...

Actually, you may also have to change your router to use this - soz

These are excellent, I have a pair, but unless OP is already in the Unifi ecosystem, probably not what he needs. Mine are 100% stable at 900 Mbps though...

[Captain_Morgan]

It’s really a case of how important the connection is / speeds.

Powerline might perform okay but with lower speeds & can have some fluctuations in performance, but it’s cheap. However it only works on the same ring mains & I assume the remote building is separated?

If you use a wireless mesh then you can add a additional node & locat that to the out building with possibly relocating other zones to get coverage.

Or the last thing is point to point radio between buildings which will give you a least poor option in comparison to a wired connection.

[Magnum 475]

Sterillium said:

Tarmac, and a road that belongs to someone else means I can’t do any digging.

This leads to a question:

Is the building powered by a buried mains cable from the consumer unit in your house, or does it have its own mains supply separate from the house??

If it’s on its own supply, extending using Ethernet over Powerline isn’t going to be an option, meaning you’ll have to use one of the Point-to-point options such as the UniFi devices mentioned earlier. In all honesty, I wouldn’t expect great performance from Powerline at that distance even if it’s an option.