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Warren57's avatar
Warren57
Follower
Feb 13, 2026

Metal building wifi

Another remote metal building question.

i live on an acreage. Added a wavlink extender to my network at the house. Works good everywhere across the acreage, good signal, except wifi signal inside metal building is bad. Great outside the building but can’t get through the steel.

so I have an older netgear ac1600 extender that I decided I would put inside the metal shop building. It gets some signal but not great. So I realize the antennas can only pick up signal that’s in the building. 
my question, can I take the antennas off and mount them outside and connect with cables? We are talking 1’ or less. NETGEAR extender on inside wall and antennas on outside. That way I would get the good wifi signal from outside and send it through the building.

if this makes sense what cable, fittings, etc would I need?

or is there a simpler way to accomplish my goal?

thanks

warren

2 Replies

  • CrimpOn's avatar
    CrimpOn
    Guru - Experienced User
    Feb 13, 2026

    What is the actual  model number?  (from the product label.  AC1600 is a marketing term regarding the maximum 'speed')

     

    Is there a window facing the main building?

  • plemans's avatar
    plemans
    Guru - Experienced User
    Feb 14, 2026

    No. But you could always do 2 extenders. 

    Put one exterior and run an ethernet cable from that interior to the other extender that you'd put inside. 

    Or depending on the distance and budget, do it right and get a point to point system that you'd mount on the house and another you'd mount on the metal building. Then you'd run an ethernet cable from the one on the metal building interior and put your access point/extender in there.