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WIFI Connection to a Steel outbuilding

markdice
Aspirant

WIFI Connection to a Steel outbuilding

I am trying to get WIFI into my workshop. It is a all steel insulated building about 150' from my house. Our router is in the bedroom on the end of the house closest to the workshop but the wall on the main floor is frame with brick exterior. The second floor above the bedroom has cedar siding on it.

Will the rbs50y (mounted on the outside of the steel building) give me wifi inside the workshop?

Will I need a Orbi router with a satelite (in the upstairs bedroom) to get signal to the outdoor satelite?

Model: RBS50Y|High Performance AC3000 Outdoor WiFi Mesh Extender and Add-on Satellite
Message 1 of 4
CrimpOn
Guru

Re: WIFI Connection to a Steel outbuilding

Steel building is going to drastically reduce WiFi penetration from something mounted outside.  Yes, putting a satellite in the second floor where is has to penetrate only cedar siding is better than going "through a brick wall".

 

My guess is that this is not going to work, and you would be better off investigating a solution to "bridge the gap" between buildings.  Forum members have posted about using several brands of wireless products to get a signal from one building to another.  All of them involve an exterior mounted module which is powered by Power over Ethernet (PoE).  Each building has a 1/2" hole to pass the PoE cable through.  On the house end, it would be connected to a LAN port on the router.  On the workshop building, it would be connected to a LAN port on an Orbi satellite (or really any WiFi access point).

 

Almost every vendor sells products similar to this from Ubiquiti: https://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-LocoM2-2-PACK-PRE-CONFIGURED-Nanostation/dp/B06XH4Z9SK/ref=sr_1_4?ke... Take a look at the first user reviews.  Sounds a lot like your situation.

TP-Link sells them as well: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00N2RO63U/ref=psdc_1194486_t5_B06XH4Z9SK?th=1 (Be careful to note whether the price is for one only, or for the two that are required to make the connection.)

Message 2 of 4
markdice
Aspirant

Re: WIFI Connection to a Steel outbuilding

Thanks for the help.

Does netgear make a point to point wifi product?

Message 3 of 4
CrimpOn
Guru

Re: WIFI Connection to a Steel outbuilding

Netgear has a huge product line, but I have seen only one product that is "outdoor" rated, the RBS50Y.  It's the ethernet PoE cable that allows the signal to get through brick and metal walls and the WiFi antennas need to be outside.  When I read the user comments on both the Ubiquiti (and they make several similar products at various price points) and the TP-Link user comments, many of them seem to mention situations identical to yours.

 

(Caveat: I, myself, have no outbuilding and have not personally installed any product like this.)

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