Wifi repeater

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512Stroker

512Stroker

We are all here because we are not all there.
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Freedom, MO
I am looking for a Wifi repeater system that will deliver my current Wifi network signal into my metal shop building.
I can currently connect to my home router standing right outside my shop, good strong signal, the second I step in side the shop building I lose my Wifi.
Need a repeater system with a outdoor antenna that can repeat the signal to a spare router that I have that I will place inside the shop.
I barely know enough about this stuff to be dangerous.
Have any of you Techy types actually have a repeater system up and running that works and will not break the $ bank.
Thanks in advance
 
Can ya dig a small ditch and run some cat 5 or 6 to the shop? May be the most reliable way to do it.
 
How close is your shop to router? I use a hawking outdoor repeater for nice service to my garage & shed. No need for another router as service range is just extended from home unit.
 
Oldschoolcuda said:
How close is your shop to router? I use a hawking outdoor repeater for nice service to my garage & shed. No need for another router as service range is just extended from home unit.
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Shop is roughly 75 ft from my home router and I have a good strong signal outside the shop building.
Do you have a link or contact info for the repeater system you have?
Thanks for the come back
 
abodyjoe said:
Can ya dig a small ditch and run some cat 5 or 6 to the shop? May be the most reliable way to do it.
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I thought about running a cable but I have concrete drive between the two buildings. Could not come up with a way to do it.
Thanks
 
Omni round 360 degree antenna mounted outside your building on the house side. Cable that into the building into a USB wifi adapter and plug that into a laptop or desktop computer.

That will get you online for one computer in the garage. Like a big catcher's mitt catching the wifi signal from the house.

Want to wifi the whole garage for phones and wifi capable laptops, that's going to take some more technical doing.

Trenching in the underground Cat 6 cable into the garage and plugging that into another wifi router in the garage will give you full wifi in the garage. 325 feet maximum distance between house router that is the source and the garage router that will be re-broadcasting the signal.

Yes they make repeaters, but lots more technical and you are trying to push the wifi through the metal building.

Can look up DD-WRT linksys converted wifi routers that have the Linux Firrmware upgrade and aftermarket cooling heat sink built into them for the added broacast power, are adjustable and can crank them up to 250 . . .

These are some of my favorite routers, you can push signals with larger antennas and catch the signals with larger antennas. Takes soneone that knows how to set up the standard routers with wifi security SSID, your signal name.

Kind of a pet peeve to see how far we could push a signal. Pushed a line of sight signal 5 miles with special send and recieve antennas. Also used some of the same to send wifi though a small town, can get a little spotty getting zeroed in on the signal. Did this all with the DD-WRT routers.

Like I say it gets more and more technically challenging the more distance you try and push, and reliability goes down the farther away from the source you get.
 
DD-WRT router piggybacked onto existing DSL internet service router, can give you more push out of the house. Especially if you move it near a window on the garage side of the house.

Would be good if you had a window in the steel garage to catch the signal through too, instead of trying to wifi through the steel siding. 75 foot push is within range.

20190710_153209.jpg
 
George Jets said:
DD-WRT router piggybacked onto existing DSL internet service router, can give you more push out of the house. Especially if you move it near a window on the garage side of the house.

Would be good if you had a window in the steel garage to catch the signal through too, instead of trying to wifi through the steel siding. 75 foot push is within range.

View attachment 1715361614
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Unfortunately no windows in the shop for security reasons.
 
George Jets said:
OK
I am guessing you are talking getting service on your hand held phone in the garage and the actual computers . . not so much ??? Or Both ??
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Phone and laptop
Something simple I can get from one supplier
Plug and play for a non Techno old guy
 
512Stroker said:
Unfortunately no windows in the shop for security reasons.
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Same for me & my setup is about 60 feet from house. Actually get service from home router without repeater but it is sporadic. Was cutting in and out. Now i have even added a small smart tv to garage. lol
 
Wish this was all simpler for you guys.

1st reasonable step, get as much push as you can out of positioning your house router pointing to your garages and try to drive whatever signal you have into your garages with no additional equipment.

Having a router in your living room trying to push the signal through the Kitchen and appliances like the refrigerator and microwave does not work very well. You get it, positioning the router in a good line of sight spot is key to good signal strength.

Good luck with you quest, always enjoy understanding how wifi works and the good things you can do with it, once you get the good connection.

Pictured is one of my Large recieving antennas that I use when I am trying to grab a weak signal with my laptop.

Find it all real interesting . . .

20190710_163429.jpg
 
since you have a good signal at the outside of the bldg, whatever you get, try hanging it on the outside wall and punch a 4in hole next to it, covered with some nylon window screen, to let the signal bleed through
 
My wifi goes 270 feet to my shop. Wood structure. In house is a tp link wifi router and in shop is an amped wireless wifi router. Its ok for the most part,but not always. Yesterday it wouldnt work at all. Heavy rain.
Today its been fine.
I used to just grab the signal with a wireless dongle an a satellite dish to capture the signal from the house. Worked fine for the desktop but no wifi.
There are outdoor extenders that you just plug in the wall, if you have an outdoor plug on shop, theres a chance it may work.
 
Install a very small window 7 or so feet up.
 
Your metal building is basically a faraday cage. You'll need an antenna outside of it, ran to a wifi client device inside. From there into a switch for wired devices, or an access point for wireless.
Cable underground would be best, but I see that's not an option for you due to the concrete. By the way, if any of you do this, get shielded cable, and ground it.. a lightning strike that hits that wet ground will give you a bad day if you don't. I have a cable run to my garage this way.
Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer since '99.
 
Yeah, that lightening and hard wired connections, a lightening strike is always looking for good ground . . right through your computer . . Not good, been there done that.

Big advantage to wifi, lightening can't jump it and ruin your equipment.
 
Don't have much time right now to get in depth with this. But, when I said 'antenna' I didn't really mean a big bucks roof mounted thing. If you have good wifi to your phone, on the side of your building facing where the signal is coming from, those 4 inch antennas on the home routers mounted outside would be ok. Just need a cable from that to the device inside. Low buck redneck way, punch a couple holes in the wall for power and network cable (or just through the door), set it on the ground outside. Unplug it and put it back in the garage when you go back in.
I'll have more time tomorrow.
 
George Jets said:
Yeah, that lightening and hard wired connections, a lightening strike is always looking for good ground . . right through your computer . . Not good, been there done that.

Big advantage to wifi, lightening can't jump it and ruin your equipment.
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I've seen that more than once, lol. Back in the day of dial up, my brothers phone blew across the room and put a hole in his wall. The modem in his PC was just a black charred glob.
 
Yes you would think the electricity of a lightening strike would come in through your power panel. But I have seen 9 times out of 10 with DSL internet service that comes in over the copper telephone line. The lightening strikes the ground and jumps right on to your incoming copper telephone line, right though your internet router, directly on though the hard wired ethernet cables to your hard wired computer. There the electricity is looking for ground, so it shorts though the power source, across the mother board, over the hard drive, toasting them all, and finally back to the ground circuit of your power cord and out the power panel to ground , , .

Another advantage to have household computers on the wifi for the internet, electricity does not jump across the wifi.

Like RSie says, I too have seen telephone parts blown all over the interior of homes from the lightening strikes, charred black.
 
Pretty much had the same problems as most, here is a very nice web site that you can buy complete kits or antennas, routers, or cable as you see fit. Here is a picture of the antenna I am using, house from metal pole building is over 100 foot, works great. The web site is called, "Simple WiFi".
Solutions

IMG_3561.JPG
 
Dicer said:
Pretty much had the same problems as most, here is a very nice web site that you can buy complete kits or antennas, routers, or cable as you see fit. Here is a picture of the antenna I am using, house from metal pole building is over 100 foot, works great. The web site is called, "Simple WiFi".
Solutions

View attachment 1715361914
Click to expand...

That looks like the right idea there Dicer. Catch the signal outside and bring it inside.

Looks Good . . .
 
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