Spread wifi over power

[EngIntoHW]

Hi,
Hope I assign the thread to the right forum.
I got a few mini-houses 30m far from the main-house, where the router is, and I want to get them wifi connected.
All I found online was packages sold with one main unit, connected to the router, and one secondary unit, plugged in the far mini-house, while I need more than one secondary unit.

Do you have a solution for that?

I shall add, I don't want one mini-house to be dependent on having the secondary unit plugged in the other mini-house, they should only be dependent on the main unit.

Thanks

 

[sagor1]

If you mean Ethernet over Power lines, there are units where you can buy more secondary units. It all depends on vendor. You just have to shop around, Google it a bit more. But, 30M may be a bit too far for those units to work. Also, the power to each house has to be from the same house panel (main electrical feed). Also, if you have a split phase, like in North America (120V-0-120V) the units should be on the same phase to work properly.
If the houses have separate electrical panels, separate feeds from main electrical service, those units will not work.

 

[rjenkinsgb]

Can you not just run Ethernet cables to them?
30m in nothing for Ethernet; it's guaranteed to a minimum of 100m cable at each device-to-device connection, eg. switch to switch or switch to AP etc.

You could then add another switch (for wired devices) and dual-band access point in each house.

Note that 2.4GHz varies from erratic to unusable in many towns and cities, so be sure any WiFi also has 5GHz capability, hence dual band.

 

[EngIntoHW]

Thanks a lot guys.
I haven't found what Sagor mentioned online.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

In my experience PLA's rarely work anyway - why not just use an external long range WiFi dish?

Something like this:

airMAX PowerBeam 5AC - Ubiquiti Store

High-performance 5 GHz Point-to-Point (PtP) bridge with integrated dish reflector.

store.ui.com

Although I couldn't see any 2.4GHz ones at a quick glance (although there's one on my roof just above my head which used to provide my Internet from 4.5 miles away, and would also connect to the companies main facility 8+ miles away. You can configure them in a large number of ways. They are connected to your router via a POE adaptor, and external grade CAT5/6 cable.

I also have a 5GHz dish I 'acquired' , sat in a box about 8 feet away from me.

 

[Dr_Doggy]

they are called ethernet powerline adapters but sketchy devices as mentioned. and I have found wifi extending to not be the best either.

if you are doing this for customers do it right and run a conduit and cat and give each unit its own wifi router.
I feel the other routes will leave you hanging with unhappy customers.

the dishes would work , but super expensive for only a 30m run

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

they are called ethernet powerline adapters but sketchy devices as mentioned. and I have found wifi extending to not be the best either.

My suggestion wasn't 'extending', it's an Ethernet connection to the dish and a simple WiFi access point at the other end. Reliability is the same as any other WiFi you use.

if you are doing this for customers do it right and run a conduit and cat and give each unit its own wifi router.
I feel the other routes will leave you hanging with unhappy customers.

the dishes would work , but super expensive for only a 30m run

Yes pretty pricey, although you could probably find cheaper makes? - but it does give you the bonus of flooding that direction with WiFi Another bonus is it's easy and faster to do - slightly more expensive hardware, but a LOT less work.

I've seen numerous types used, often for holiday accommodation on farms, where they have converted barns and other buildings used, so simply squirt the WiFi to them all in one go.

 

[sagor1]

Nigel's solution may be the best if using multiple buildings. There are wireless repeaters that have one Master and many Clients. With 5Ghz gear, you can easily get full bandwidth. While the cost of these repeaters may be relatively high, it may be cheaper in the long run than trying to bury Ethernet cables (require conduit or special cables). On the down side, it takes a bit more knowledge to set up the wireless repeaters (sometimes called transparent bridges). But vendors do have support for the "better" name brand devices.

 

[rjenkinsgb]

If cable is impossible, these work very well:

TP-Link CPE510 Pharos Outdoor 5Ghz 13dBi WiFi 4 Point-to-Point PtP Link Kit (300Mbps N)

www.broadbandbuyer.com

 

[Dr_Doggy]

My suggestion wasn't 'extending', it's an Ethernet connection to the dish and a simple WiFi access point at the other end. Reliability is the same as any other WiFi you use.

sorry for the confusion,. i was not referring to a dish or semi dish system when i mentioned extending, but i wonder about the return data from the user end without a dish,

regardless, i have found just pitching signal to the other end of my yard is difficult, i have used 500$ 5g mesh as well as extenders. in that way 5g is outta the question, and 2.5 works but also any lag in the wifi impacts all other connected devices on said wifi router, infact i run 2 wifi networks on 2 routers, so one is for the home, and the other to support the yard, which can then lag all it wants.

as a former field residential support tech for the cable co, ya extending is ok for a larger home, but when shooting out the yard ya we can make it work , but not well

and maybe tech has gotten better recently,...

anyway, my opinion remains that you just cant beat cat.

 

[ronsimpson]

I have a "MESH" network that turned out to not be real MESH. My TP-Link system has a master and all slaves must be with in talking distance of it. A real MESH network will allow all slave to talk to salve or master. So be careful what MESH system you get.

For 22 years I got my WiFi over 2.4ghz 5 miles away. With real good antennas. The 2.4 will not work if there is rain. When I switched to 5ghz it is not affected by rain. This is point to point. The antennas probably have a 10 to 15 degree angle they talk over. Two of these will work "line of sight" for miles.

There are some good antennas that talk over 360 degrees. I have some that say "12db or 15db gain". Two of the 12db antennas reach out much better than the normal antenna.
Here is a picture of a 9db antenna. Note it is 3x longer than normal.