[Closed] Garage wifi problem

They are pretty resilient at working, even through extension leads - just won't get the max possible speed

What sort of distance are you talking? If it is long how about a cable from home hub to garage (easy UTP Cat5/6 job, from experience put it inside a pipe so you don't put a spade through it, yes I did!) and then plug a wifi hub in at that end?

Guarantees a good signal to home that way, my experience of extenders has not been so good but may just me / my house etc

James

Homeplugs/powerline adaptors work well but things like if the garage is on a different ring main, or plugging then into extension sockets won't help at all.

Is your garage seperate from the house? How far is your main router from the garage? If it's just a case of distance being the issue, have a look at enterprise WiFi access points like the Ubiquiti UniFi AC LR AP which has up to a 600ft range - you'll need PoE which your router may not support but you can either get a cheap 4 port PoE enabled switch or a PoE injector. You'd use this as your main wireless access point for all devices instead of your main router WiFi, they're about £100 (make sure you get the latest version which is the AC model). We spec these (not the LR version, just the normal one) in office network environments, I work for a managed service provider.

The garage is only about 20ft from the back of the house and i guess another 20ft to my router. I havent checked the wiring but almost certainly power to the garage has been added much later so i guess it could be on a different circuit. I have a feeling the powerline stuff might not work and i think running a cable there is going to be night on impossible due to obstacles.

I've got a similar issue with wi-fi in the garage, although haven't been using the neighbours.

I used to use a TP-Link wireless extender, which was always a bit hit and miss.

I then borrowed some powerline adaptors from a mate at work. Our garage is on a separate loop with it's own consumer unit & the powerline adaptors worked OK to start with, but then I started finding the signal would suddenly drop-out and struggle to re-establish.

I never managed to establish whether it was the powerline adaptors themselves, the laptop or Zwift itself. I am not convinced it was the powerline adaptors at fault, because even swapping to my phone's wi-fi hotspot wouldn't resolve the issue.
Eventually, I tried the TP-Link extender again and in the meantime had swapped to Plusnet. Their router must be much better than the really old netgear one I had been using because now the TP-Link extender works pretty much flawlessly. I don't think I have had one drop-out since using it.

Bit of a rambling post, but basically I think it might be a bit suck it and see. The powerline adaptors I used didn't seem to mind that the garage was on a different circuit; they generally connected immediately, but then the connection was lost after a while. Like I say, I never got to the bottom of what was actually causing that.

The wireless extender seems more reliable now, so I am sticking with that. If you got a wireless extender & plugged it in, as equi-distant between the router & the garage as you can, I suspect that would work OK. You don't need a massive data rate, just a reliable signal. Probably worth spending a bit more than the really budget ones to get something with a bit more oomph.

Admit it your watching porn....

The garage is only about 20ft from the back of the house and i guess another 20ft to my router. I havent checked the wiring but almost certainly power to the garage has been added much later so i guess it could be on a different circuit. I have a feeling the powerline stuff might not work and i think running a cable there is going to be night on impossible due to obstacles.

40ft, so 12m - in that case just get a Unifi AC LR AP, see this youtube review as an example of how much better the range is than a normal consumer router with wifi, 6:30 in - 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ubiquiti-Networks-UAP-AC-LR-802-11ac-Dual-Radio/dp/B016K5A06C  £95 with a PoE injector included. As above your router may have PoE but many don't, so you'll just need to run an Ethernet cable to the PoE injector which will be plugged in to the mains, then another Ethernet cable to the AP.

If you wanted to get the best range, you could run 2 powerline adaptors, one by the main router, then another to a central point somewhere in the house, then mount the AP there. But TBH you'll probably get a very very good signal putting it by the main router.

https://www.cables2u.co.uk/long-cat6-gigabit-shielded-network-ethernet-cable-p-588.html

Here is an £8 solution

Yes I have the Unifi APs and they are really good. They do an outdoor version too so you could just poke a cat-5 sized hole in the wall and mount the AP outside. Good for wifi at your BBQ too 🙂

I use these to send my wifi to the garage.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01LXOZ4EN/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

My garage is on a separate breaker in the main fuse board and has a mini board in the garage.

The main sender unit is plugged in to the router in the living room the receiver is in the garage.

Works perfectly.

I get as fast speeds in the garage as I do in the house.

I bought through amazon because their returns are no hassle if it didn't work.

 in that case just get a Unifi AC LR AP, see this youtube review as an example of how much better the range is than a normal consumer router with wifi, 6:30 in – 

The LR routers aren't that long range in the UK - we're restricted to a lower power output here than in the US. However a 20ft gap doesn't sound far so I'd expect a decent AP to work.

Worth trying Powerline to see if it will connect to the garage - so the link from nwmlarge and send back to Amazon if it doesn't work.

If it doesn't work and you're spending money on APs maybe get some BT Whole Home mesh APs rather than Ubiquiti UAPs. Expensive but easy to set up and I'm sure would bridge to the garage. Again try from Amazon and send back if they don't do the trick.

Ok i have done a rough measurement and its max 50ft from socket (and router) to socket and as i only have one consumer unit i guess that means everthing is on the same circuit. So is it ok if i plug the main powerline adaptor that connects to my router in to an extension socket?

Tallpaul - your idea is now my plan b as that looks like it should be ok so thank you for that its much appreciated.

Unifi WAP generally come with injectors, but they're a bit messy unless you can tuck them away somewhere.

LR devices are probably a bit over-kill for your need, but they're not much more to buy.

It's worth asking yourself how tech-savvy you are, Unifi stuff isn't really designed for consumer use, they're not tricky to use, in fact they're great, but they're not plug-and-play.