Outdoor WiFi Range Extender

Hello everyone!

I'd like to extend my WiFi signal to my garage. I live in a condominium and my garage, underground, in fortunately in line of sight from my balcony, which is well covered by my WiFi signal.

Since it is much easier for me to bring power outside to the balcony than to bring ethernet, I was simply thinking to get an outdoor WiFi range extender, only power it (no data cabling) and use it to connect to my WiFi and boost the signal to the garage - so possibly using a directional antenna, internal or external.

Do you have any recommendation?

Thank you!

What is the distance that needs to be covered?

20 m, give or take, of clean air and one single concrete wall.

And, I already tested an old Linksys 150N with external antennas. Signal across the concrete wall reaches very weakly. My mobile phone sees it but barely connects. My Android infotainment system in my care does not see it at all.

Among outdoor devices, I probably do not need a powerful one. But, a home WAP can't make it, apparently.

How about a pair of powerline ethernet adapters, one in the house, one in the garage, and an access point inside the garage plugged into it?

Or, maybe try a 5GHz access point, depending upon what the rest of the neighbourhood is using.

It's amazing what "clear air" does for signal range. We have been settling into our new home over the past few months, and one thing that is trouble-free thus far is wifi reception.

Just a really small, cheap AP (CAD$12), internal antenna, sitting on a table in the living room. Covers the entire house, garage, and most of the two acres of grounds. At our previous place, it barely covered the main floor of a house half the size.

But out here, with the homes spread so widely apart, there's a lot more "clear air" (less wifi pollution), so the noise floor is much much lower, enabling much better reception and range.

This is on the crowded 2.4GHz band. But a less occupied set of frequencies would result in a similar situation. So.. how's 5GHz in your neighbourhood?

When helping people (including myself) with wifi reception, I make extensive use of the Android app called "Wifi Analyzer". In your case, I would start in the garage, and see what other APs are visible from there, and see what the noise floor reading is.

Also what WiFi channels all the nearby signals are using.

Often a big part of getting WiFi to behave is selecting a channel for your own equipment that has the least amount of interference from other nearby WiFi.

2.4 Ghz is the best band for reaching distance and through obsticles but that band is also highly congested in populated areas. There are only three channels with 2.4Ghz that do not interfere at all, and often one is reduced to selecting a channel that is partway 'between' the others just to get something usable.

5Ghz is much less congested but only certain frequencies allow the full radio strength. For example in the U.S. Channel 36 is a much reduced radio power compared to say channel 148.

I use WiFi Explorer on my MacBook to map out what channels are in use and where, so I can best plan my own channel selections. Sometimes I have to talk with neighbours and request that they adjust their own WiFi settings. Typically they have no idea and I end up doing it for them.

http://www.adriangranados.com

Note that you need to understand what channels are optimal for your equipment after anaylsing both the garage and the balcony areas. A strong overlapping signal in either location can swamp your signal.

Thanks everyone.

Actually, i am already minimizing scrambling. Channel selection is OK, as far as it can be in a condominium. Floor noise is there, unfortunately. But I minimized as much as I could use xirrus wifi inspector. It's good.

5GHz is indeed an option, as that is not much used here, but please consider that the garage wall/ceiling i need to go through is thick, so 5Ghz means i will have to use a bit more power.

Power line is an excellent idea, if only I had a power socket in the condominium garage. Not one.

Which is why I was thinking of a range extender and directional antenna.

This. Get a cheap directional antenna. I used one to receive my signal roughly 20 miles from the source when I lived in Belize. (Granted, it was a 3G signal from a cellular tower, but same sort of concept). Have you looked at Ubiquiti equipment? They have a bunch of products for just this sort of thing.

No, I haven't. I'll check Ubiquiti.

Thank you John.

Also, John, was "this" supposed to be a link?

I would also suggest Ubiquiti's Unifi equipment. Generally, though, it's used to create the entire WiFi network, but I suppose it'll work fine if you just use it for one access point.

Just last week I installed this outdoor module for one of my clients who has a large home on two acres of land (he wanted to get wireless by the pool ). I was surprised to see that even with the included antennae, I was able to receive a good enough signal across an acre of land (and up a hill) to stream a Netflix movie at about 5Mbps. So that's without using a directional antenna.

The biggest issue with Unifi equipment is that if you want the latest and greatest, it's going to cost. The 802.11ac version of that AP is around $450. The non-ac stuff is pretty inexpensive, though. I use these indoor APs all the time for wired homes or small businesses.

Thank you Matt! Could that work as a WDS station?

I was also looking at this Ubiquiti, mostly for the directional antenna.

http://www.amazon.it/dp/B004EFH6L8/ref=w...=I2V4ITUJK3E47G

Do you have any experience with that?

After reading several reviews, I decided to buy the Ubiquity NanoStation M2. I'll use as a WDS station based on my Cisco WAP121. As a plan B, I'll use it as a second WAP.

Radio propagation pattern, with is horizontal and vertical angle of 60 degrees, should be ideal to send my WiFi signal down through my garage wall, to my car right behind it. I would expect to need only a fraction of the 11dB the NanoStation M2 is capable of, but you never know.

... thanks for pointing me to these directional Ubiquiti waps.

... so, it is working!

But, it was not trivial to point it precisely towards my car. Only a small rotation, and I get no signal.

And some updates here. I eventually had and electric line brought from the meter to my garage. So I decided to test some old Powerline adapters I had in a drawer since 10 years ago, and they work amazingly well. Out of the 30 Mbps I have with my FTTC data link at home, I get almost 15Mbps in the garage. I have not tested LAN performances yet, but Internet access is pretty good all considered.

These are old 85Mbps Powerline adapters. I guess newer and better adapters may even improve the already good results.

I live at floor 2 (EU, which means floor 3 in the US) in an apt building, so to reach my garage I go all the wt through floor 1, ground floor, basement, and 20 more meters to reach my garage from the meter. Performance is way better than I hoped for.

Powerline is a good way to go there. It's also the least expensive way to go, even if you get all new equipment. This is the powerline kit I've been using for certain applications where it's the best option available. Very fast and works well.

Thanks Matt. I see there's a WiFi version of it, also, which would be really nice.

Now I am just using an older Wireless Router connected to the powerline adapter (and it works great). I will eventually upgrade the new ones with integrated WiFi.

I would probably stick with the powerline adapters and get my own router to set up as an access point. Then again, I tend to dislike devices that are designed to perform multiple functions. But the wireless version should be fine. I don't have much experience with it, though.