Extending Wifi connection to shed

Hi guys,

I was wondering if any of you have had experience in trying to get wifi signal into your outside shed?

Our shed is probably about 20 meters away from our current wireless modem. The current signal strength seems to loose sign near the shed. I?m not sure because it is out of range or possibly too many line of site obstacles (metal shed, trees etc).

We have a covered verandah between the house and the shed and I was thinking of putting some sort of wifi booster / extender to boost signal in the shed.

Have any of you had any experience in doing something like this?

Cheers,
Robbie
 
One way to go would be to buy an apple airport. It has a few different modes, one of them is well suited to receiving wifi signal from your existing and repeating it back out.
 
So does an apple airport replace an existing wireless route or just connect to the existing one?

Would it be able to extend wifi to the shed, about 20meter away?
 
Most tech stores will sell wifi repeaters, which you can then plug into via a cable, or simply use the wifi. We use one in our office, it was easier than laying down cable between each room.
 
Have a look at one of the NetComm Powerline products - creates a network signal over your existing electrical circuits inside your house. There are a variety of products, but you can use their WiFi kit to create a new WiFi hotspot somewhere else in your house.

I do this at my place with a second WiFi hotspot at the other end of the house linked via powerline networking.

http://www.netcommwireless.com/product/powerline/np508

There are two parts - one which plugs into a powerpoint near your router and connects to your router/switch via ethernet cable. The second part plugs into a powerpoint somewhere else and creates its own WiFi hotspot with powerline network back to the other unit near your router.

The main caveat to be careful of is that I believe these things don't go across power circuits, so if your shed is on a separate circuit to the rest of the house, you might not get powerline networking to work ... in which case a WiFi repeater like DT mentioned might be your only option.
 
Thanks guys!

I guess the easiest way to test if the shed is on the same circuit as the house is to switch the mains switch off and see if the shed still has power?
 
Most tech stores will sell wifi repeaters, which you can then plug into via a cable, or simply use the wifi. We use one in our office, it was easier than laying down cable between each room.

+ for this.

We extended the WiFi out to our back shed as well.

The prices range from $50 - $400 at JB Hifi - initially we got a mid-range one
that worked fine for me. However our teenager did not get the speeed that
he needed for gaming - so we replaced it with the top of the line model.

Works perfectly for him and is about 40 metres from our main wireless point.

Actually we now all connect to the extender because in the house it works better than the main unit.
 
Thanks guys!

I guess the easiest way to test if the shed is on the same circuit as the house is to switch the mains switch off and see if the shed still has power?

You maybe have 3 phases supply which is also a problem shed and house must be on same phase.
If you only have a single phase supply you'll have no problems.
 
+ for this.

We extended the WiFi out to our back shed as well.

The prices range from $50 - $400 at JB Hifi - initially we got a mid-range one
that worked fine for me. However our teenager did not get the speeed that
he needed for gaming - so we replaced it with the top of the line model.

Works perfectly for him and is about 40 metres from our main wireless point.

Actually we now all connect to the extender because in the house it works better than the main unit.

Do you know what mid-range model you got? My teenager son isnt really into gaming, perhaps listening to music, watching youtube, browsing etc.

I was looking at something like this:

Netgear EX6100 AC750 WiFi Range Extender

The idea is to put something like this on our verandah, which will have a clear view to the existing wireless router, then the extender would have clear view to our main room (which is also a black spot) and the shed.
 
It was a Netgear model but not sure which one - as is the one we replaced it with.

This is the model we have now.

https://www.jbhifi.com.au/computers...-ac3200-tri-band-gigabit-wi-fi-router/601818/

Most of the stores are pretty good if you want to upgrade after a short trial.

I'm sure you could find this much cheaper online somewhere as well.

Our back "shed" has two rooms - one for study and one for entertainment -
we also download movies etc back there, not sure we would have gone this
pricey just for the gaming.
 
Hi guys,

I was wondering if any of you have had experience in trying to get wifi signal into your outside shed?

Our shed is probably about 20 meters away from our current wireless modem. The current signal strength seems to loose sign near the shed. I?m not sure because it is out of range or possibly too many line of site obstacles (metal shed, trees etc).

We have a covered verandah between the house and the shed and I was thinking of putting some sort of wifi booster / extender to boost signal in the shed.

Have any of you had any experience in doing something like this?

Cheers,
Robbie
BS...you really want to do this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSZQ3Tx6epY

;):D
 
Thanks guys!

Hi guys,

With regards to using the powerline option, I did some tests on power supply / circuit of the shed?

My electricity board had a few switches Mains, air con, and a few switches labelled power. One of the switches labelled power provided power to a portion of my kitchen (power outlet for microwave etc) as well as provide power for the shed, so it looks like the shed appears to be on the same circuit as a portion of my kitchen. The kitchen is the closest room to the shed.

Does this my the internet over power lines would work?

Cheers,
Robbie
 
Does this my the internet over power lines would work?

Only if you can put the ethernet device on that same circuit (in the kitchen?) and connect it via ethernet cable to your router/switch.

If your router/switch is in a different part of the house, you won't be able to make it work unless you can find another powerpoint nearby which is on the same circuit as the shed.

Alternatively - would it be good enough to put the powerline WiFi hotspot in the verandah area (outdoors is not ideal - but perhaps on a powerpoint just inside ?) ... would this give you enough range for the shed?

I have my hotspot in my dining room, which is in the middle of the house - I can still get a pretty good WiFi signal out in the backyard - but not the whole yard though, so YMMV.
 
Yup, i just found out that EOP doesnt work over different circuit breakers. As my lounge is on a different breaker to the kitchen, it wouldnt work.

My main concern with my wifi for my shed is not the distance (only 15m) or line of site (both verandah and kitchen have clear line of site to shed), but more the wifi being able to penetrate the metal shed.

I have bought a 30meter Ethernet cable, so i am going to put my wireless modem outside the shed to see if it can penetrate the shed. If it does, ill move the modem further back towards the house and see if i can find a "sweet spot", and use this location for a wifi extender (indoor or outdoors)
 
you might not get powerline networking to work ... in which case a WiFi repeater like DT mentioned might be your only option.

What would be the benefit of using a powerline product compared to a repeater ? Must admit that I did zero research before getting a repeater.
 
What would be the benefit of using a powerline product compared to a repeater ? Must admit that I did zero research before getting a repeater.

WiFi speed and reliability degrades with distance - a repeater relies on having a good enough signal to be able to "repeat" it to extend the range. In most cases this isn't a problem - and typically if you are only using it for surfing the net, your (degraded) WiFi speed will still be significantly higher than your internet connection.

Repeaters are still subject to the usual WiFi limitations regarding walls and other interference.

Powerline gives you usually reliable networking to the access point, thus eliminating any transient problems which might affect getting the original WiFi signal.

My powerline hotspot has been operating for literally years without any attention on my part - even if it gets unplugged from the powerpoint because someone wants to do something silly like plug in a vacuum cleaner (priorities please!), once you plug it back in, it just starts working again.

Either way, which is the better option really depends on the nature of where you're trying to get your WiFi to work - the layout of the building, building materials, location of your source WiFi point, where you are trying to access it from, etc.

If your repeater is working well for you, there's no real need to look at a different solution.
 
I am a soldier in Afghanistan where I live in a tent. The nearest internet hotspot is about 120 meters away behind a 1 foot thick concrete blast wall. Before I purchased this relatively inexpensive 'high-gain' antenna I had to leave my tent and walk outdoors towards a signal to connect to the internet.
Now, not only am I able to connect, but I have twice as many choices of networks to connect to. This little gadget is awesome! The upload and download speeds are good enough for SKYPE. It is one of the best devices I've purchased since I've been here. Only $15.

http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-WN822N-Wireless-External-Antennas/dp/B00416Q5KI
 
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