Re: Looking for mesh setup to connect home and detatched garage

cybergrrl · ‎2020-06-30

I'm working from home and my office is in the DETACHED garage, 110' away from the router in the house. I currently have a Linksys EA8500 AC2600 router in the house and a Netgear Nighthawk X6S Extender in the garage. The connection is unreliable and I need to upgrade my modem and router anyway.

The best spot for the extender is either inside the house at the back door, 42' from the router and 40' from the garage or in the garage, 20' from my office upstairs and 82' from the router in the house (in other words, there's no way to run a cable or put any type of booster/extender in the 40' of backyard that separates the house and the garage).

I started posting in the Nighthawk router board but received a recommendation to go with an Orbi mesh instead, which I've decided to do (and sell the X6S) so I moved the discussion to this board to get your suggestions. This is what I'm considering and I'm looking for your feedback as to whether this seems feasible:

CM1000 for the modem inside the house

RBK50 for the router in the house (I have a 3rd floor where this might come in handy)

RBS50Y at the side of the garage

and sell the X6S to recoup some $$

Thanks,

Becky

CrimpOn · ‎2020-06-30

Leaving aside the math (40+42 does not add up to 110), it would help to know the composition of the external and internal walls of these buildings.

First: have you tried relocating the X6S extender to near the back door rather than in the garage? 110ft is just too far.

The general concensus is that Orbi devices can be moved apart until they no longer have a "strong" connection between them. In a typical house, this is somewhere between 30 and 40 ft. but depends to a large extent on how many (and what kind of) walls are in the path. So, it is entirely possible that a satellite 40-odd ft. from the router will make a good connection. There is also a good chance that an outdoor satellite placed on the garage will make a good connection to the satellite by the back door, and also be able to provide service inside the garage as long as the garage walls are not something unfriendly to WiFi, such as several layers of brick or metal.

Mounting the RBS50Y outdoors poses all sorts of practical issues regarding the electrical supply. And, the RBS50Y is frightfully expensive ($350 at Best Buy. Not even sold by Amazon - only 3rd parties.)

My initial recommendation was going to be to purchase an Orbi RBK53 package (one router, two satellites) and attempt to locate the 2nd satellite inside the garage. You would know within minutes if it would get a good signal. I bought that package from Amazon in August 2019 for $380. (Just a few dollars more than the outdoor satellite and no electrial issues.) Alas, when I search now, nobody seems to be selling the RBK53. Either the pandemic has disrupted the supply chain, or Netgear has stopped producing them in favor of the new "AX" products.

Another possibility is to locate another WiFi extender by the back door.

Sorry not to be much help.

plemans · ‎2020-06-30

I'm the poor sap who recommended trying orbi.

the distance might be attainable with a satellite in the garage and one in the detached. Its still a far distance to reach and might not be possible to function decently as 110ft is quite far.

Your best option might be running an underground cable, powerline, or running a point to point system (like netgear airbridge) but it might cover with orbi.

That'd be better than trying to do it with extenders in my opinion.

FURRYe38 · ‎2020-06-30

That distance is a bit too far for most Orbi or any extender and router configurations.

You may want to check into NGs Airbridge system to get signal out to the remote area:

https://www.netgear.com/support/product/wbc502.aspx

Or best would be a CAT6A buried cable between the house and remote building.

@cybergrrl wrote:
I'm working from home and my office is in the DETACHED garage, 110' away from the router in the house. I currently have a Linksys EA8500 AC2600 router in the house and a Netgear Nighthawk X6S Extender in the garage. The connection is unreliable and I need to upgrade my modem and router anyway.

The best spot for the extender is either inside the house at the back door, 42' from the router and 40' from the garage or in the garage, 20' from my office upstairs and 82' from the router in the house (in other words, there's no way to run a cable or put any type of booster/extender in the 40' of backyard that separates the house and the garage).

I started posting in the Nighthawk router board but received a recommendation to go with an Orbi mesh instead, which I've decided to do (and sell the X6S) so I moved the discussion to this board to get your suggestions. This is what I'm considering and I'm looking for your feedback as to whether this seems feasible:

CM1000 for the modem inside the house
RBK50 for the router in the house (I have a 3rd floor where this might come in handy)
RBS50Y at the side of the garage
and sell the X6S to recoup some $$

Thanks,
Becky

cybergrrl · ‎2020-07-02

Thanks to everyone for your replies. I guess I was hoping for that elusive answer of "here's exactly what you need" that would solve everything. I had seriously thought about running an underground cable from the house to the garage because I'd really prefer a hardwired solution or purchasing a seperate Xfinity account just for the garage but looking at less costly options first.

In all honesty, I can get at least 40Mbps around 75-80% of the time with my current set up so perhaps what I should just focus on is replacing the inside router which has a known problem of randomly dropping the connection and be happy. Oh, and to respond to @CrimpOn , the 40+42 just goes to the outside of the garage, it's another 20'+ upstairs to my office, but you're right, there are several walls between the router and the office, and although the exterior is not brick, it's hardyplank.

You've been very helpful - I'll be back if I have problems with a router!

FURRYe38 · ‎2020-07-02

You can review this product as well:

https://www.netgear.com/support/product/wbc502.aspx

Good Luck.

CrimpOn · ‎2020-07-02

I agree that the #1 solution is to bury outdoor rated ethernet cable from the house to the garage. Highest performance. Allows total flexibility about what networking equipment to use. Alas, while direct burial outdoor cable is not costly, placing the cable can be a nightmare:

Trenching and placing conduit is disruptive and will cost more than the cable
Cable has to get up out of the ground and "into the building" on both ends.

There is another alternative which is less ethestically pleasing, but vastly easier: string cable through the air from the eave of the house up to the eave of the garage. Still have to penetrate both building walls, but there is a lot of flexibility over where to make the penetration.

Check out this product:

https://www.amazon.com/Dripstone-Aerial-Telephone-Messenger-Outdoor/dp/B078C5X9G9/ref=pd_lpo_328_t_1...

cybergrrl · ‎2020-07-03

Unfortunately, working through the red tape of the home owners assoc and historic neighborhood committee to install a visible above ground cable would probably be more painful than the cost or effort of a buried cable so I think I'll just upgrade my router and cable and leave it at that. Maybe repositioning the extender closer to the back door and adding another wall plug extender upstairs if needed will improve things further.

Do you have a recommendation for a good router in this situation? I was looking at the Nighthawk R8000.

Thanks.