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?thankswarren

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?

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.

I have a wave link extender at the house which has a strong signal outside the metal building. But the NETGEAR extender is on the inside of the building so it can’t get the signal, if I move the NETGEAR outside or open the door there’s a strong signal.i need a way to get the signal into the building

Tried texting one of the antennas from the NETGEAR extender to the outside and that helped on the 5gh signal, but did nothing for the 2.4gh signal

Metal building wifi | NETGEAR Communities

40 Replies

CrimpOn
Guru - Experienced User
Feb 17, 2026
another image:
CrimpOn
Guru - Experienced User
Feb 17, 2026
another
plemans
Guru - Experienced User
Feb 18, 2026
An extender by its very nature cuts throughput by 50% because it uses the same chip to go router---->extender and then extender----devices. And it can't do both at once. Plus you have to factor in distance/obstruction. Because of those its usually 30-45% that most people see for speed. So you won't see that 900+ speed out of any extender setup. The router that CrimpOn posted will be your best bet and provide a solid connection. maybe not as good as a point to point system but it should be "good enough". Good enough means that streaming 4k only takes 25-50mbps. You should hit that without issue with what your plan is.
Warren57
Aspirant
Feb 19, 2026
Well that was a failed experiment. Got everything connected and the signal got worse! But it was worth trying.
guess I will be trying to figure out a Ethernet cable from the house out there this spring.
plemans
Guru - Experienced User
Feb 19, 2026
What device did you end up getting?
And you placed it outdoors?

What speed did you get connected directly to the outdoor AP?

And then you ran an ethernet wire indoors to the Netgear AP?

Did you re-run the install on the Netgear ex6200 to place it in access point mode? (or it'll still be running as an extender)
Warren57
Aspirant
Feb 20, 2026
Just an update after resetting and reloading every piece at lest 6 times, adjusting settings, etc. I finally got it all working. Have the house wifi network, the wavlink AC3000 access point getting signal across the acreage, the wavlink AC600 as an access point at the metal building, with an Ethernet cable going to the netgear EX6200.
have a pretty good signal in the building now .
thanks for everyone’s thoughts.

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Metal building wifi