What's a good way to get an access point to my detached garage?

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rcfant89

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I've got a garage that's on a second lot (maybe 50/75 yards away from my house?) that I need to get wifi to. Presently, I can *almost* surf the web from the AP in my house but the signal is just low enough to drop out frequently and make for a maddening time. I'm thinking the easiest way to get wifi to this would be to use a point to point wifi bridge.

Preferably, I'd like a cable from my switch to connect to a point, then wireless to the second point in my garage and then have an ethernet cable from that point to a small 5 port switch. That way I can plug in an AP, phone, TV, etc. etc. in my garage.

Is there a good solution for this? Preferably something I can get today from Walmart or Lowes so I don't have to wait a couple days?

Short of trenching a new run for cable/ethernet/etc, what would the best solution be? Then what would the best solution be that I could pick up from a store today? Thanks.
 
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If you have the option of putting in ethernet that is always your best option and using conduit as you mention is always best for problems or upgrades.

That type of distance is only possible on top of large towers. There are issue with reflection from the ground interfering if you put it too low when you go long distance. It is unlikely it will work well at maximum distance things like fog and rain make no difference at short distances but have more impact when you go very long.

The beam between the devices is pretty narrow so someone would have to be directly inline to detect the signals. It is easily absorbed by trees and buildings so it does not work well if they are not directly in the beam. People post here all the time...
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kanewolf

kanewolf

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If you have a clear line of sight then a pair of outdoor wireless bridges will do just what you want. You put one on the outside of the main house facing the garage and one on the outside of the garage facing the house. If you live in a residential area with a lot of 2.4Ghz WIFI, then you should use a pair of 5Ghz units. Something like this for 5Ghz -- https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833168116 or this for 2.4Ghz -- https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833168115 The look and act the same. They are about the size of a paperback novel.
 
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rcfant89

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I want to plug an ethernet cable (which is connected to a POE switch so I don't have to add power cables) to a wireless transmitter and then mount a wireless receiver on the outside of my garage. I want to plug an ethernet cable into the receiver and run that inside my garage to an AP.

What's the best product for this? (Just need the wireless transmitter and reciever, already have the POE switch and APs)
 
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kanewolf

kanewolf

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You might be able to get away with one. If you attempt that, get the 2.4Ghz version of the device you linked. You would mount that device on the outside of the main building pointing at the garage. That might be enough. Otherwise you would mount another one on the outside of the garage pointing at the first unit. That creates a wireless bridge.
The description you provided with an ethernet cable from the primary network to an outdoor unit, then wireless to a second unit with another wire into the garage is exactly how you implement this.
 
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bill001g

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If your goal is to use a POE switch read the fine print very carefully. Many including the units you link do not actually use industry standard PoE which is better called 802.3af or 802.3at. Everything else is some proprietary things with no guarantee of compatibility between equipment vendors. Almost all switches that call themselves PoE though follow the standard for 802.3af or 802.3at.

 
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rcfant89

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So two of these: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004EHSV4W/ref=psdc_1194486_t3_B004EGI3CI ?

It says 15km+ range, that seems ludicrously long. What about something that goes only 300 meters max? I'd rather not have the whole city see my signal...

All I want is a product recommendation for the wireless equivalent of a 50-75 meter ethernet run. That's it.

I'm thinking about just renting a trench digger for 62 bucks and putting a PVC pipe down with a cat6 cable in there and calling it a day. That would give me future growth of up to 10 Gbps (or easily replace that cable by tying to it and pulling a new cat7 in a handful of years for 100 Gbps but I doubt that much speed would ever be needed).

Today it'd give me 1 Gbps easily which is way better than the wireless N technology in that device. I'd probably only get about 15 MBps real world which, if I chose to move my server out there, would be way too slow today, much less in 5 years.
 
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bill001g

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If you have the option of putting in ethernet that is always your best option and using conduit as you mention is always best for problems or upgrades.

That type of distance is only possible on top of large towers. There are issue with reflection from the ground interfering if you put it too low when you go long distance. It is unlikely it will work well at maximum distance things like fog and rain make no difference at short distances but have more impact when you go very long.

The beam between the devices is pretty narrow so someone would have to be directly inline to detect the signals. It is easily absorbed by trees and buildings so it does not work well if they are not directly in the beam. People post here all the time complaining that they can't make one of these work to get the signal from a free hotspot near their house and they do not have clear line of sight.
 
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rcfant89

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I gotcha. I'm going to trench it though since, with a trench digger, it should be pretty easy, is pretty close by, and having a pipe there I can add coax, and maybe something else I might need in the future. Thanks.
 
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