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martyyn

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#127272 5-Aug-2013 09:27
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I'll try to explain this as best I can so please bear with me.

A friend has recently 'moved back home' and is trying to sort out wifi access to a garage in the garden. The existing wifi is in the corner of the house and the garage is no more than 5/6 metres away in a straight line (the two buildings slightly being offset - if you see what I mean). The corners have direct line of sight and are close enough for you to immediately say 'oh that will be fine'.

The wifi coverage in the house is what you would expect from a standard Vodafone install, quite reasonable. Its a restored 1920's villa so wood construction everywhere. The shed however is clad in corrugated iron, nice and thick :(

So we had a play over the weekend just with some simple wifi apps on our phones, the desktop, a laptop and two different modem/routers. Around the house its great, the same distance (outside the house) but in the other direction is great, but to the garage, nothing.

In the corner of the garage I saw the power 'fuse-box/switch box' and wondered where the power was coming from. The box is directly above his PC and it turns out it comes from under the house corner and runs underground, in a direct line to the corner of his shed.

So can I assume this is the problem ? I know the basics of not running network cables next to power lines so am assuming this is the same. The moment we leave the house (maybe 2m from the router) the signal drops to 40% and after a couple of steps its gone altogether.

So I looked under the house and the power cables are there, with a couple of metres wound round in a loop before shooting under ground.

If we're correct are we right in thinking there is little we can do other than dig a trench to bury a network cable to the other side of the shed and wire it up from there ?

Thanks in advance for any idea's.

Cheers




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Batman
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  #871843 5-Aug-2013 09:41
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wifi signal isn't a sphere it is more like 2 pieces of naan bread as mirror images.

1) it is possible that your garage direction is in the middle of the two naan breads hence there is a void of signal
- try putting your router vertical
- then try rotating it
- try hanging it up
- etc

2) your router is no good

3) your device wifi is no good

4) there is too much inteference try a different channel

good luck



ubergeeknz
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  #871848 5-Aug-2013 09:50
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Try the above.  But keep in mind that iron is going to absorb a lot of signal.  At the end of the day a buried ethernet cable may be your best bet, or stick a USB Wi-Fi dongle in a window facing the house (if one exists) - or just outside but reasonably sheltered - for the PC in the garage.

linw
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  #871852 5-Aug-2013 09:55
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You're barking up the wrong tree with the power cable thing. If they were a problem , how would wireless work in houses?



timmmay
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  #871853 5-Aug-2013 09:56
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Powerline networking sounds ideal for this situation. Consider this or this (picked at random from brands I think are decent).



sbiddle
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  #871877 5-Aug-2013 10:22
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Buy 2 Powerline adapters and a cheap TP-Link AP.


jtbthatsme
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  #871896 5-Aug-2013 10:45
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Having read this thread I'm now curious as to how these work or should I say how it connects.

Is it literally just a case of plugging the two PLC power points in to normal wall sockets (can it be a multiplug or does it have to be a wall socket specifically) and then does it conect to your modem / router via wireless or plug in a ethernet cable into one or both or either wireless or via ethernet.

Obviously if wirelessly you'd just hook it up with a wifi adaptor but if via ethernet cable does that mean you'd need to plug a ethernet cable back into the other end (as in your pc / laptop)???

timmmay
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  #871901 5-Aug-2013 10:53
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Just plug it into the wall, preferably not a multibox but they often work. Plug it into the main router for internet, connect a router/wireless router or PC at the other end and it'll work like magic.

I had one a few years ago, they didn't work that well in my old house with old wiring. It connected, and SD content was fine, but 720p was impossible.

 
 
 

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jtbthatsme
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  #871907 5-Aug-2013 11:01
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Wow wish I known about this years ago lol. Of course tech getting better the way it does this would have worked a treat at my old appartment as we often struggled to connect from the lounge to my brothers room so we could game (via pc oddly xbox always worked well).

Cheers

martyyn

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  #872001 5-Aug-2013 13:22
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Thanks for that. I was looking at TP-link's months ago, cant think why I didn't remember them for this !

Cheers


jtbthatsme
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  #872172 5-Aug-2013 17:00
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Yeah for me I'll add a pair of these things to the list of things I need...Video Card, PSU (needed to run basically any GFX card upgrade), More HD Space...

scampbell
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  #875061 10-Aug-2013 13:40
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One word if warning on power line adapters. They do not work to well across RCD's so make sure you can return them if it does not work.

If you can pull a screened cat5 through the ducting is one other suggestion.

You could also put something like a MikroTik Sxt2g outside the house to service the garage ?

1101
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  #882649 22-Aug-2013 10:48
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Powerline adaptors dont allways work from house to external blding .
You wont know untill you try. You can buy wifi arials that are mounted outside the house, that may help.

If youre going to run a underground ethernet cable to the garage, be carefull with earth loops/differentials .

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