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rhco

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#323730 8-Jan-2026 16:57
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I'm looking to get networking out to the garage. Unfortunately there's a ~2m wide solid-concrete walkway in between, so simply burying cable is not an option.

 

There is a conduit running from the house -> garage (see photo), but it contains the garage's electrical supply, is corrugated, and seems to have a lot of tight bends.

 

So, I think it leaves me with a few options:

 

     

  1. Powerline adapters. The consensus online is that these are crap and possibly not worth the effort.
  2. A very short-distance PTP Wireless setup (~2m...) or a mesh setup. Seems expensive, possibly bad latency?
  3. Run some fiber through the conduit. No electrical risk and good speed, but possibly expensive/difficult?

 

Does anyone have experience with a similar setup - what did you go for, and how did it work out? I'd really love some help weighing the pros/cons.

 

As some background: I'm wanting to install a PoE WAP (really for the camera on the 3D printer), some PoE cameras, and a small backup server in the garage. It seems like putting a small PoE switch in the roof space (or somewhere else in the garage) would be the best bet, considering those devices are all fairly low-bandwidth

 

Here are a few photos showing the area:

 

 

The concrete walkway

 

 

Where the conduit starts (on the house side - it's accessible from the crawl space). It's the smaller corrugated one beneath the smooth pipe.

 

 

Where the conduit ends (on the garage side)

 

 

Another view of the garage side (not sure what the pipe on the right is?)


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backfiah
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  #3450789 8-Jan-2026 17:02
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Powerline is pretty decent these days assuming that the garage is on the same phase (likely unless you're rural) and as long as you don't daisy chain it into powerboards. Most of the complaints are people not getting the advertised gigabit speeds, but if you're realistic about it then you'll have plenty of Mbs for those usages.




richms
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  #3450790 8-Jan-2026 17:03
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I would take the tape off the top of the other pipe, it might be the one coming up to the T on the house below the ETP or the one going into the ETP since when these things are installed they are done by people with no real idea what they are doing.

 

You will probably not be able to get a pre-terminated fibre thru with the power, and you dont want to be putting armoured ones with a metal jacket thru with power.





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antoniosk
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  #3450793 8-Jan-2026 17:12
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I've had good success with Ethernet over Power, but there's a few things to consider:

 

1/ try and map the same power circuit from the garage plug to the other end coming into your house. Easy when you have purchased the EOP kit, but that implies you're committed. The closest point is not where you may think it is - and of course the plug in the house will have to connect to your router/switch

 

2/ the advertised EOP speeds are NOT the speeds you will get for real-world use. The TP-Link 'we get 2Gbps' connection works out at about 1.5gbps in real world great conditions. This converts to about 350mbps to your switch/router - which for your description sounds pretty good.

 

3/ Be wary of the deep freeze motor and anything else you have in the garage, as these will sap your speeds ;-)





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rhco

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  #3450802 8-Jan-2026 17:42
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@backfiah and antoniosk: Sounds like a Powerline adapter might actually be workable. I might see if a friend can loan me their so I can test. Thank you for the feedback!

 

richms:

 

I would take the tape off the top of the other pipe, it might be the one coming up to the T on the house below the ETP or the one going into the ETP since when these things are installed they are done by people with no real idea what they are doing.

 

You will probably not be able to get a pre-terminated fibre thru with the power, and you dont want to be putting armoured ones with a metal jacket thru with power.

 

 

Interesting, I hadn't considered that. I did pop open the box (pic below), looks like some Coax stuff?

 

 

But more importantly, the pipe on the left isn't attached, and seems to be empty. Maybe that goes to the garage?

 


Jase2985
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  #3450804 8-Jan-2026 18:17
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There is nothing wrong with mesh setups these days, they are all low latency and pretty high speed. I doubt you would notice that you were even on a mesh link, noting what you are doing out there.

 

There is also the bonus of giving you Wi-Fi out there at the same time, and you can even run the same equipment throughout your house to give you a cohesive Wi-Fi network.

 

 

 

 


RunningMan
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  #3450867 8-Jan-2026 19:02
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rhco:

 

But more importantly, the pipe on the left isn't attached, and seems to be empty. Maybe that goes to the garage?

 

 

Worth checking. Connect your vacuum cleaner to one end and seek if it's connected to that other conduit.


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rhco

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  #3450883 8-Jan-2026 21:47
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Okay, quick update. I tried a vacuum on the outdoor end, and ended up with a vacuum full of water. Looks like it's fine but I might need to pick up a cheapo shop vac before continuing with that.

 

I tried pushing some Ethernet through the previously-duct-taped pipe in the garage. It gets stuck about 25cm in.

 

I did manage to get a pic but I can't make out what's down there. Another black pipe?

 


aj6828
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  #3450908 8-Jan-2026 23:57
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get two 1000m media converters off Ali Express and a fibre cable for it ..you can get gigabit speeds for less than 80$ if you can run a fibre thats the best method you might be able to run it through those existing pipes .. i have done that in my house ..20m of sc fibre cable is about 15$ media converts are less than 50$ one thing to check they go by distance for example you would have 25km and 3km options .. if you buy the 25km one the lasers will burn out ... 





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trig42
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  #3450936 9-Jan-2026 09:19
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What's that thin red cable in the corrugated power duct?

 

Draw wire?


rhco

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  #3450950 9-Jan-2026 09:34
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trig42:

 

What's that thin red cable in the corrugated power duct?

 

Draw wire?

 

 

That was a draw wire that we tried to suck through with a vacuum. We got probably 10-12m of wire in, but nothing ever came out the other end unfortunately.


robjg63
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  #3450951 9-Jan-2026 09:42
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Couldn't you wiggle some shielded ethernet cable through the conduit?

 

(Oh - Just saw you tried that and found something blocking - That looks like a corrugated black plastic pipe running past the end of the other pipe)

 

 





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MadEngineer
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  #3451318 9-Jan-2026 15:28
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Is that a full height and framed gate?

 

 

 

I'm thinking you could do this with a length of conduit overhead:

 





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raytaylor
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  #3452773 14-Jan-2026 00:00
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Where are you? 
City/Suburb?

 

If those coax cables are running between the house and the garage, i'd look at Moca

 

Second option is powerline - TL-WPA4220 Kit works well. However if you want to spring for the new g.hn protocol powerline kit then you will get faster speeds than homeplug / HomePNA

 

Whats the blue cat5 doing?

 

Its too close for p2p wireless unless you can move the antennas further apart or put one inside the building to not overload the receivers and damage them over time. 

 

That red string looks like it is perfect for pulling a single fiber patch cable through. 





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