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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
I would like to post a sketch but it doesn’t seem to let me
Ran speed test on the wave link unit at the house. 938 download, 119 upload.
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
If you plan on using an EX6200, test its speeds
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
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
Any way you could email me so I can attach some pictures?
warrenhardman@comcast.net
You can send them via PM if you want. But its just to give you an idea of what speeds you'd be getting
Just started raining and high winds, so won’t be able to test for a little while. But I’ll post as soon as I can.
Ok have lots of numbers to analyze…
signal in building before netgear box 86.3/63.7
signal in building out of netgear box 60.8/8.85
signal outside before netgear box. 904/119
signal outside out of netgear box 5G. 112
signal “. “. “. “. “. 2.4G. 50.1
the signal inside isn’t to bad today. At times it’s much slower.
so, looks like this netgear box isn’t a very good option.
any thoughts on how to get more of the 904/119 signal from outside to the inside?
signal in building before netgear box 86.3/63.7Are you measuring this at the spot where you have the Netgear extender installed?
What speeds are you getting w/o the netgear extender in various places in the building?
the signal inside isn’t too bad today. At times it’s much slower.
I am wondering what equipment is in the shop. Electric motors can generate a lot of wifi interference, which could be the main cause of your performance problem.
any thoughts on how to get more of the 904/119 signal from outside to the inside?
The shop looks fairly close to the house. Another path is to run an ethernet cable to the shop (easiest done overhead), and then set up the extender in AP mode. Standard ethernet cable can carry gigabit 100 meters (328 feet).
