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Forum Discussion
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
40 Replies
It is currently set up with 2.4G and 5G seperately so test both of them?
2.4ghz will be much slower but it broadcasts futher. 5ghz will be faster if its in range. I'd test them both just for realistic expectations. But you can set the extender to just use the 5ghz for backhaul if you'd like (using fastlane). It doesn't give you a failover if you select only use 5ghz for bakchaul
So take the ex6200outside wher it can pick up a signal and test that?
Put it by the metal building where you're planning on placing it (or if you're getting a different extender). Put it there, even if you have to run an extension cord, so you get what actual speeds you'll get after distance/interference. Don't put it in the building as thats what were working on fixing. Just in the location where the AP/Extender will be once we have that setup
If you plan on using an EX6200, test its speeds
test it connected to the extender you plan on using on the building. You want to test what speeds you'll be getting off the extender
Ran speed test on the wave link unit at the house. 938 download, 119 upload.
I would like to post a sketch but it doesn’t seem to let me
Before ordering stuff, do some speed testing. Daisy chaining extenders drops speeds a lot and adds a lot of latency. (usually over 50% reduction each hop with standard single/dual band extenders). Take your extender and run an extension cord outside to use it, then test the speeds on the device connected to it. See what speeds you get and if they're usable for what you want it for. If so, great, use that option. If not, then we'd need to try something else.
Bear with me please, I have and xfinity gateway in the house. I added a wavlink wifi accesses point to it and that access point is delivering signal everywhere on the acreage. Then I put an old netgear extender I had that I used in the past. That extender is wifi and has no cable. I can take it outside the shop and it has a great signal. We were suggesting adding another wifi access point and connect it to the net gear in the shop.
So, I’m confused on what you suggest I take outside?
Then I put an old netgear extender I had that I used in the past. That extender is wifi and has no cable.
The EX6200 has five ethernet ports on the back. Are you sure you have that model? There is a picture here:
- https://support.netgear.com/support/product/ex6200
Thanks for your help. Ordered the parts, now see what happens!
Also, I down loaded the complete manual frother EX6200 and found the page you referenced. Looks like I just change a few settings to make it work.
Also the manual I have only has 20 pages?
Also the manual I have only has 20 pages?
I think you found the "do more" booklet, not the full manual. Googling EX6200 support site:netgear.com will get you to all the docs. Here's a direct link to the user manual:
- https://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/EX6200/EX6200_UM_EN.pdf
