Poor Wifi / router access in straw bale house

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RickZ

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#142540 16-Mar-2014 17:42

Hi Guys,
We have a straw bale house in rural Canty. The router (Dlink ADSL2 g604T, read old!) is in the office and must send a signal through two 0.5m solid plastered and wire meshed walls in order for it to reach the rest of the house. Most devices would need to receive from at least 10m from office. We have several iPads, airbook, 2 laptops and 2 PCs (one with Dlink USB stick. We also have electric fences you can hear on the phone. I'm going to change phones to uniden xdect 8055 so they don't interfere as much. My question is, should I get a grunty new router closer to center of house or two routers or extender? We do have broadband but only over copper and rurally 'end of the line'! Any ideas would be gratefully received!

Cheers, Rick

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#1006802 16-Mar-2014 17:49

With the wire mesh your house is effectively a "Faraday cage" with nearby electric fences.
Please clarify your needs:
Do you want wireless outside your house, or only inside it?
Is your problem transmission through walls within the house &/or through external walls?

Sideface

RickZ

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#1006803 16-Mar-2014 18:03

The office is attached to the house but the signal must travel across an internal corner angle of exterior wall effectively having to pass through the external wall twice, I.e. 100mm of solid plaster, 4 layers of galv mesh and over 1 m of straw.
Clear??

Coil

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#1006823 16-Mar-2014 18:52

Those are like the perfect WiFi repelling walls.
Maybe centralize the modem or WiFi AP.

PJ48

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#1006824 16-Mar-2014 18:53

If you want to achieve solid internet access both in the office and in your house for all your iDevices, the only realistic way you will get this is to run ethernet cable between the 2 locations, so you can have your modem in one place and an ethernet connected wifi access point in the other. The wifi needs to be within the "faraday cage" you have constructed rather than trying to go through it.

Can you trench some conduit between the office and house, and lay some ethernet cable through it. Bit of work up front but the final solution will work without any hassle.

cheers

Peter

PJ48

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#1006826 16-Mar-2014 18:58

while you are about it, get a master splitter installed. I have fitted a master splitter to my farming in-laws houses. They both were a fair distance from the cabinet and got a lot of electric fence interference. The house that was nearest to the cabinet went from a sync rate of 6000 kbps to 11000 kbps, the second house that was over 3 km from the cabinet went from 1500 kbps to 5500 kbps.

Massive improvement!!

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#1006828 16-Mar-2014 19:00

RickZ: The office is attached to the house but the signal must travel across an internal corner angle of exterior wall effectively having to pass through the external wall twice, I.e. 100mm of solid plaster, 4 layers of galv mesh and over 1 m of straw.
Clear??

Wireless-proof - don't even try - run ethernet cable :)

Sideface

RickZ

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#1006829 16-Mar-2014 19:02

Can go over the ceiling. Any experience with a power line adaptor instead?

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Shop now on AliExpress (affiliate link).

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#1006834 16-Mar-2014 19:14

RickZ: Can go over the ceiling. Any experience with a power line adaptor instead?

You are at the wrong end of a rural ADSL connection. You need all the help you can get.
Bite the bullet - get a master splitter/filter and run cable though the ceiling if that is an option.
Power line adapters may work but would be a second-best option - you would still need a master filter.

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Coil

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#1006835 16-Mar-2014 19:19

Sideface:
RickZ: Can go over the ceiling. Any experience with a power line adaptor instead?

You are at the wrong end of a rural ADSL connection. You need all the help you can get.
Bite the bullet - get a master splitter/filter and run cable though the ceiling if that is an option.
Power line adapters may work but would be a second-best option - you would still need a master filter.

For the money spent on an alternative technology get a master filter and pay the slight amount more, Plus it will probably make your DSL faster.

webwat

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#1006982 17-Mar-2014 00:27

Sideface:
RickZ: Can go over the ceiling. Any experience with a power line adaptor instead?

You are at the wrong end of a rural ADSL connection. You need all the help you can get.
Bite the bullet - get a master splitter/filter and run cable though the ceiling if that is an option.
Power line adapters may work but would be a second-best option - you would still need a master filter.

Why do powerline adapters if you can do it properly through the ceiling?

Time to find a new industry!

Coil

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#1006984 17-Mar-2014 00:33

webwat:
Sideface:
RickZ: Can go over the ceiling. Any experience with a power line adaptor instead?

You are at the wrong end of a rural ADSL connection. You need all the help you can get.
Bite the bullet - get a master splitter/filter and run cable though the ceiling if that is an option.
Power line adapters may work but would be a second-best option - you would still need a master filter.

Why do powerline adapters if you can do it properly through the ceiling?

Ahh yes, The lovely 200ms ping over the powerline and 6Mbp/s throughput.

hashbrown

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#1007015 17-Mar-2014 08:32

TimA: Ahh yes, The lovely 200ms ping over the powerline and 6Mbp/s throughput.

That's a bit of an extreme case. I get 40-50Mb/s and no noticeable increase in ping latency using powerline.

deadlyllama

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#1007151 17-Mar-2014 11:00

hashbrown:
TimA: Ahh yes, The lovely 200ms ping over the powerline and 6Mbp/s throughput.

That's a bit of an extreme case. I get 40-50Mb/s and no noticeable increase in ping latency using powerline.

It's pretty variable. I've had OK powerline setups, and setups where the network stopped working every hour until I turned the powerline boxes off and on again.

Ethernet cables are cheap. If you install them yourself, no more expensive than powerline boxes and much more reliable.

trig42

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#1007157 17-Mar-2014 11:04

If you can run cables through the ceiling, can you put the APs up there too?

robjg63

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#1007186 17-Mar-2014 11:43

To Rickz
The D-Link router you mention is one of the freebie ones that telcos used to hand out - they normally crapped out after a couple of years and were a bit flaky.
Changing to a newer one would probably help your internet connection I should think.
Maybe the advice on a master filter is worth a look - try a new router and see if the speed is better first.

As for the Wifi - others have mentioned why this would be an issue for you and so one really powerful wifi hotspot is probably not the answer. I understand that the power line adaptors work well over newer wiring (older houses can have issues), So if running ethernet cable all over your house is logistically difficult then they may be worth checking out.

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

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