Orbi outdoor satellite range versus indoor satellite range

[jfishburne]

Hi,  I have a large property and I am trying to get wifi from my house out to my barn and up to my pond. I have my router in the house and 1 satellite in the pond pumphouse and 1 in the barn.  My coverage/range is not quite enough to be able to use my Arlo cameras.  I see that there is an outdoor rated satellite and I am trying to find out if that has a greater range than the indoor satellites. I see that the outdoor satellite has a range of 2,500 square feet, but I haven't been able to find out what the range is for a single indoor satellite.

[st_shaw · Accepted solution]

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@jfishburne wrote:

I have been chatting with Net Gear's Orbi support.  For me they recommended that I use the outdoor rated satellite in the middle (I happen to have power in a central location) and use it as a daisy-chain between my router and my farthest satellite which is about 650 feet from my router. I was getting 1 bar of coverage between my router and that farthest satellite and they said this should fix it. I hope that helps.

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I looked at your diagram.  If I were you I would just go move satellite 2 to the "possible" location temporarily, and see if it improves satellite 3 (or vice versa). That should give you a clue whether it will work before you buy anything.

One issue with daisy-chaining is that the user cannot control it. The system will decide whether to daisy-chain or go direct to the router, and you can't set it one way or the other.  By doing the above, you can also see if the system is stable.

[st_shaw]

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@jfishburne wrote:

Hi,  I have a large property and I am trying to get wifi from my house out to my barn and up to my pond. I have my router in the house and 1 satellite in the pond pumphouse and 1 in the barn.  My coverage/range is not quite enough to be able to use my Arlo cameras.  I see that there is an outdoor rated satellite and I am trying to find out if that has a greater range than the indoor satellites. I see that the outdoor satellite has a range of 2,500 square feet, but I haven't been able to find out what the range is for a single indoor satellite.

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The outdoor satellite provides better WiFi coverage over an outdoor area, because you can place it outside and eliminate walls between the satellite and the client devices.  The 5 GHz transmit power is actually slightly lower than the indoor Orbi satellite.  I don't think the outdoor satellite will, or is itended to, operate at a longer distance from the router.

Orbi is designed to provide coverage over a large area, not to provide a link over a long linear distance.  The best thing for that is a wireless point-to-point bridge with directional antennas on each end.

[TECman51]

Can you recommend one that will work well with the Orbi?

[tsig]

Wouldn't the outdoor unit with wired backhaul get it done?  

[jfishburne]

Thank you for the quick reply. I am close to having enough coverage so I am just looking for a way to easily boost what I have a little bit. Attached is a visual of what if looks like. I currently have 1 bar of coverage at the pond and 1 orange colored bar at the barn. So they both work, but just barely. I have power at a somewhat central location in the middle of the attached map and I was wondering if I placed an outdoor satellite there if that would help relay a stonger signal between the router and the barn satellite or if each satellite needs to directly talk to the router itself. Thanks!

[TECman51]

Quote: Orbi is designed to provide coverage over a large area, not to provide a link over a long linear distance.  The best thing for that is a wireless point-to-point bridge with directional antennas on each end.

I need to provide service to a barn about 400' away from the RBR50 or RBS50.  Does anyone have a recommendation for a directional antenna that will work well with my Orbi?

[FURRYe38]

How about digging in a buried LAN cable from the main build out to the barn?

Might do a web search for wifi directional antennas.

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@TECman51 wrote:

Quote: Orbi is designed to provide coverage over a large area, not to provide a link over a long linear distance.  The best thing for that is a wireless point-to-point bridge with directional antennas on each end.

I need to provide service to a barn about 400' away from the RBR50 or RBS50.  Does anyone have a recommendation for a directional antenna that will work well with my Orbi?

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[tsig]

Your typically limited to about 330' for cat5 cabling.  Would probably still work though.

[FURRYe38]

Cat5/6 are around 165 feet. CAT6A could go up to 330' feet. Still leaves 70'+ to deal with.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_6_cable

[tsig]

Not sure where your getting 165' for cat5/6, but that is just wrong.

1000BASE-T (also known as IEEE 802.3ab) is a standard for Gigabit Ethernet over copper wiring.

Each 1000BASE-T network segment is recommended to be a maximum length of 100 meters (330 feet) (however, the length is not a pass/fail criterion as testing the conformance to EN 50173 series standards), and must use Category 5 cable or better (including Cat 5e and Cat 6).

[FURRYe38]

Same place.

Overall, not quite enough for 400 feet which I presume we can agree on. I presume it should work with out too much degradation. It's a stretch thats for sure.

I would look into a directlional AP at the main building and recieve directional AP at the barn area. Might incure more cost this way vs try a burried cable. I would test a cable first. Run on top of the ground for a quick test. If it works then go bury it.

[st_shaw]

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@TECman51 wrote:

Quote: Orbi is designed to provide coverage over a large area, not to provide a link over a long linear distance.  The best thing for that is a wireless point-to-point bridge with directional antennas on each end.

I need to provide service to a barn about 400' away from the RBR50 or RBS50.  Does anyone have a recommendation for a directional antenna that will work well with my Orbi?

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Here are a couple options.

https://mikrotik.com/product/wireless_wire

https://www.ubnt.com/airmax/nanobeam-ac-gen2/

[jfishburne]

I have been chatting with Net Gear's Orbi support.  For me they recommended that I use the outdoor rated satellite in the middle (I happen to have power in a central location) and use it as a daisy-chain between my router and my farthest satellite which is about 650 feet from my router. I was getting 1 bar of coverage between my router and that farthest satellite and they said this should fix it. I hope that helps.

[st_shaw · Accepted solution]

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@jfishburne wrote:

I have been chatting with Net Gear's Orbi support.  For me they recommended that I use the outdoor rated satellite in the middle (I happen to have power in a central location) and use it as a daisy-chain between my router and my farthest satellite which is about 650 feet from my router. I was getting 1 bar of coverage between my router and that farthest satellite and they said this should fix it. I hope that helps.

---

I looked at your diagram.  If I were you I would just go move satellite 2 to the "possible" location temporarily, and see if it improves satellite 3 (or vice versa). That should give you a clue whether it will work before you buy anything.

One issue with daisy-chaining is that the user cannot control it. The system will decide whether to daisy-chain or go direct to the router, and you can't set it one way or the other.  By doing the above, you can also see if the system is stable.

[jfishburne]

That is great thinking.  Thank you. I hadn't thought about not being able to control whether it daisy chains or not.

[jmschnur923]

You could turn off daisy chain as an option in the router 

[st_shaw]

Yes, but that would defeat the whole point of adding a third sat in this case. When you “enable” daisy chain it does not force it. Nor can you program the kit to daisy chain one sat through a given satellite.

[loomis1975]

I'm pretty sure his barn satellite will daisy chain through a centrally located RBS50Y given the chance, but like was mentioned, can just test the theory by temporarily setting up the other satellite in the middle and let it try to daisy chain.

I have a downstairs RBS40 that Daisy chains through the RBS50Y outside on the deck attached to the upper floor instead of to the router (at the other end of the house on the upper floor) or the RBS50 literally twelve feet away in the floor above it.  This is due to something in my living room floor/ den ceiling that quite effectively kills wifi signals.