I have a 4500 SF two story home - ground floor is about 3,000 SF with the balance on the 2nd story. I have a 3000 SF shop (metal building) that is approximately 100' from the house (line-of-site). ISP is AT&T U-Verse. I'm anticipating using an Orbi router and two satellites to cover the home. I'm trying to figure out the best way (techically and commercially) to extend the network to cover the shop. I have underground electric service (with transformers and meter(s)) from a central area approximately half way between the the shop and the home. Will the Orbi satellite extend 100+' into the metal building AND provide coverage to 3000 SF (50' x 60') or should I be looking at installing another satellite between the shop and the house (at the electric service)? If so, does Netgear make an Orbi satellite for OUTDOOR installation? If so, what is the model? While researching this equipment, I'm a bit confused on the difference between the Orbi 'range extender' and the Orbi Satellite. I do a search on "Orbi outdoor satellite" and the 'range extender' comes up every time.

BRS918, you are correct that MESH will not help your garage coverage unless the garage itself needs a mesh to cover the size of it. Once you extend your house network 100 feet to the garage using either buried cable or a point-to-point link, then you can either add an access point (AP) using anouther router in AP mode, or an extender. The disadvantage of the extender is that they essentially repeat the signal from one SSID (i.e. MyWiFi) to another SSID (i.e. MyWiFi_ext) and cut the total throughput bandwidth in half doing so. Whereas another router in AP mode would be able to use your same SSID for the garage. Using mesh with another satellite in the garage however could also provide you coverage between the two buildings. That way as you "roam" from the house to the garage with a smartphone, tablet or laptop, the WiFi coverage could be maintained between the two buildings as well. Simple diagram: House Satellite <-> cable to garage <-> Garage Satellite

A metal shop building is sort of a "worst case scenario". WiFi signals do not penetrate metal walls very well. So, "no". An Orbi unit inside the house is highly unlikely to be usable inside the metal shop building. The best performing solution is to run a Cat6 ethernet cable from the house to the shop inside a PVC conduit. Cat6 supports gigabit connections up to 328 ft. (including patch cables), so the shop building is well within that limit even if the cable cannot "go in a straight line" from house to shop. While the cable itself is not expensive, the cost to create the conduit pathway can be considerable. Yes, Netgear does sell an "outdoor rated" unit, the RBS50Y. Placing it "half way" runs into the same issues with the metal building. Depending on how the house and shop are connected at the transformer/electrical panel, you might be able to use Powerline adapters. It would be an easy experiment to set up. The most convenient method of bridging such a gap is to install a pair of WiFi "bridge" units to create a point-to-point link. Every major WiFi vendor offers one or more such products. Devices on each end of the link think they are connected to a regular ethernet cable. Although most bridge units are designed for outdoor mounting, they also can be installed inside, for example stuck to a window.

Thanks. You're not telling me anything I didn't expect to hear. I considered the wireless 'bridge' but from what I can tell the speeds are considerbly slower than a Mesh Network. Since I expect to 'steam' events (football games and Nascar races) in the shop (man cave), I'm concerned about speed. Do you think connecting the house to the shop via 'wireless bridge' would be fast enough to support streaming of live events? Can the wireless bridge support a seamless network between the house and the shop or would have have to set up a seperate WiFi network in the shop?

I would recommend CrimpOns suggestion of running a buried LAN cable out to the shop, then install a RBS there on the LAN cable and run the RBS as wired satellite. This will be like a wired AP with singals available at the shop. You should have signals inside the shop however signals outside will be limited.

Another thing I neglected to mention is that the shop and the house on separate electric meters and have their own service panels. To my knowledge the first common component in the sytem is the high voltage step down transformer. I'm not certain but pretty sure using the electrcial wiring to extend the network, wouldn't work very well having to go through the panels, meters and transformer, if at all!?!?

ORBI topology? | NETGEAR Communities

12 Replies

CrimpOn
Guru - Experienced User
Jun 15, 2020
A metal shop building is sort of a "worst case scenario". WiFi signals do not penetrate metal walls very well. So, "no". An Orbi unit inside the house is highly unlikely to be usable inside the metal shop building.

The best performing solution is to run a Cat6 ethernet cable from the house to the shop inside a PVC conduit. Cat6 supports gigabit connections up to 328 ft. (including patch cables), so the shop building is well within that limit even if the cable cannot "go in a straight line" from house to shop. While the cable itself is not expensive, the cost to create the conduit pathway can be considerable.

Yes, Netgear does sell an "outdoor rated" unit, the RBS50Y. Placing it "half way" runs into the same issues with the metal building.

Depending on how the house and shop are connected at the transformer/electrical panel, you might be able to use Powerline adapters. It would be an easy experiment to set up.

The most convenient method of bridging such a gap is to install a pair of WiFi "bridge" units to create a point-to-point link. Every major WiFi vendor offers one or more such products. Devices on each end of the link think they are connected to a regular ethernet cable. Although most bridge units are designed for outdoor mounting, they also can be installed inside, for example stuck to a window.
- BRS918
  Aspirant
  Jun 15, 2020
  Thanks. You're not telling me anything I didn't expect to hear. I considered the wireless 'bridge' but from what I can tell the speeds are considerbly slower than a Mesh Network. Since I expect to 'steam' events (football games and Nascar races) in the shop (man cave), I'm concerned about speed. Do you think connecting the house to the shop via 'wireless bridge' would be fast enough to support streaming of live events? Can the wireless bridge support a seamless network between the house and the shop or would have have to set up a seperate WiFi network in the shop?
  - FURRYe38
    Guru - Experienced User
    Jun 15, 2020
    I would recommend CrimpOns suggestion of running a buried LAN cable out to the shop, then install a RBS there on the LAN cable and run the RBS as wired satellite. This will be like a wired AP with singals available at the shop. You should have signals inside the shop however signals outside will be limited.
- BRS918
  Aspirant
  Jun 15, 2020
  Another thing I neglected to mention is that the shop and the house on separate electric meters and have their own service panels. To my knowledge the first common component in the sytem is the high voltage step down transformer. I'm not certain but pretty sure using the electrcial wiring to extend the network, wouldn't work very well having to go through the panels, meters and transformer, if at all!?!?

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ORBI topology?