Page 1 of 4 1234 LastLast
Results 1 to 15 of 51

Thread: Getting WiFi to shop

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    Cockeysville, Md
    Posts
    1,805

    Getting WiFi to shop

    Hey Yall

    Trying to get WiFi out to my shop which is a separate building about 60' from the house and 90' from my Fios router. Running a cable would be the best idea but It would need to pass under 2 sidewalks, down and under a 4' retaining wall, under 25' of driveway and up 16' into the shop. The biggest issue with the shop is the insulation. I got a killer deal on 2" thick foam board insulation with foil attached to one side. $4 a sheet. I used this on all the walls which are covered with 1/2" OSB and also in the ceiling with the foil facing in as a light reflector. There are no windows facing the house. I can get 2 local radio stations in the shop and little to cell phone reception. Kinda like being in a beer can.

    I'm guessing I need to run cable from the router to the end of the house nearest the shop and then setup some outside transmitter/receiver between the house and the shop. Does this sound right? Is there a reliable solution for this?

    TIA
    Brian
    The significant problems we encounter cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.

    The penalty for inaccuracy is more work

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Location
    Medina Ohio
    Posts
    4,514
    why not try a powerline network

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    Cockeysville, Md
    Posts
    1,805
    Never looked into that..... How long a run can they make?
    The significant problems we encounter cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.

    The penalty for inaccuracy is more work

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    In the foothills of the Sandia Mountains
    Posts
    16,619
    From what I have read this is supposed to work well: http://www.amazon.com/EZ-Bridge-Lite.../dp/B002K683V0
    Please help support the Creek.


    "It's paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn't appeal to anyone."
    Andy Rooney



  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    Mountainburg, AR
    Posts
    3,031
    Blog Entries
    2
    Quote Originally Posted by Jerome Stanek View Post
    why not try a powerline network
    This would only work if the shop and the house are on the same service line. My detached shop is on a meter of its own, so it would not work. How about yours, Brian?
    However I was able to to run a cat5 cable in a sealed buried conduit from the house to the shop. It has worked out pretty well, even though I have had numerous friends that tell me I am playing with fire having 2 separately grounded electrical systems connected. But hey, I like living on the edge! I always try to disconnect the cable before a thunder storm. I have only had one incident where I fried some electronics in over 10 years.
    Larry J Browning
    There are 10 kinds of people in this world; Those who understand binary and those who don't.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    Monroe, MI
    Posts
    11,896
    Larry APC makes an RJ45 surge protector. No guarantee it will work but it can't hurt. And yes you are playing with fire

    Brian, I did this successfully for a number of years before I ran fiber out to my shop when a contractor was going to be trenching for gas anyway. I used DD-WRT on 2 Linksys WRT54G routers back then, with ebay-sourced antennas. If G is fast enough you could source all the parts on Ebay in the $100-200 range. The one in the house acted as an access point while the one in the shop was in bridge mode which turned the wireless signal back into wired so I could connect my shop desktop and a backup drive.

    I know X10's powerline stuff wouldn't reach my shop even though both were on the same service. No idea how that technology compares other than they both run over power lines.


  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jun 2013
    Location
    Neither here nor there
    Posts
    3,831
    Blog Entries
    6
    You can get a wifi repeater that will extend your network by bouncing off the signal and retransmitting it. You could do this as long as you have a place for the repeater that can have line of sight to the shop.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    Mountainburg, AR
    Posts
    3,031
    Blog Entries
    2
    Quote Originally Posted by Matt Meiser View Post
    Larry APC makes an RJ45 surge protector. No guarantee it will work but it can't hurt. And yes you are playing with fire
    Matt,
    You and just about everybody I know tells me the same thing. But, I can tell you that in over 10 years of having this setup I have had only one incident where I lost equipment. Let's see I fried 2 or 3 network cards that cost me less than $30 for all three to replace, I lost a NAS, which really was a network card, but there was no way of replacing just the card cause it was built into the NAS, but I was able to salvage the hard drive in it, I did not replace it, but did put the drive in a different computer that I already had, so that was actually $0 to replace. It did fry a small book shelf stereo, but I replace that with one that a friend was going to toss. So , even though I lost several things, I was able to recover pretty well with a small cost. I might not be so lucky next time, but, hey, it makes life interesting!
    Larry J Browning
    There are 10 kinds of people in this world; Those who understand binary and those who don't.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    West Lafayette, IN
    Posts
    6,529
    I tried a couple of the wifi repeaters in our house and none seemed to do a darn thing. I ended up changing the channel of the router and my router worked better, probably interference from other networks and our baby monitor.
    Sorry, no help to the OP, but I would consider renting a concrete saw and running a hardline.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    Boston
    Posts
    1,740
    Have you looked into router with a longer range?
    Don

  11. #11
    Most reliable in my book, would be to run a Cat 5/6 from the FIOS router in a conduit into your shop, then configure a new wifi access point in your shop, the new router can be configured to turn off DHCP and reside on the same IP network as the FIOS router, as a additional tip configure the new access point on a different wifi channel than the primary access point..

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Sep 2013
    Location
    Wayland, MA
    Posts
    3,655
    How about a high gain antenna http://www.amazon.com/Alfa-AWUS036NH...xp_grid_pt_0_1 that can be mounted on the outside of the wall and fed to your router inside? I haven't tried it, but a high tech industry geek neighbor showed me how he could pick up hundreds of wifi networks up to 2-3 miles away using his homemade antennas.

    I ran cat 6 wire in a conduit to a hub and WAP in the shop and it works perfectly over the 200 ft distance from the house. For the phone I put a Panasonic repeater http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 in the front window of the house and keep the phone near the window in the front door of the shop. Signal is weak but seems to work well nevertheless.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    Mountainburg, AR
    Posts
    3,031
    Blog Entries
    2
    Quote Originally Posted by Robert LaPlaca View Post
    Most reliable in my book, would be to run a Cat 5/6 from the FIOS router in a conduit into your shop, then configure a new wifi access point in your shop, the new router can be configured to turn off DHCP and reside on the same IP network as the FIOS router, as a additional tip configure the new access point on a different wifi channel than the primary access point..
    OP has said it was going to be a big problem to run a conduit from the house to the shop. Plus, if (as in my case) the electrical system of the shop is separately grounded, he will run a very high risk of shorting out (frying) the electronics that are connected via the network cable. I think he is looking for an acceptable alternative to hard wiring.
    Larry J Browning
    There are 10 kinds of people in this world; Those who understand binary and those who don't.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Larry Browning View Post
    OP has said it was going to be a big problem to run a conduit from the house to the shop. Plus, if (as in my case) the electrical system of the shop is separately grounded, he will run a very high risk of shorting out (frying) the electronics that are connected via the network cable. I think he is looking for an acceptable alternative to hard wiring.
    Larry, OP said that was looking for a reliable solution, plus the exterior building sounds like it is insulated such that the building insulation effectively shields RF, so it sounds like a RF based solution might be problematic. The UTP should be in a separate conduit. When does the high risk happen of shorting out equipment?

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    Monroe, MI
    Posts
    11,896
    There's a high risk of lightning damage. That's why fiber is commonly used between buildings.


Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •