Morning all,

I know this is off topic but garage WiFi is useful for many reasons.

I'd like to have a reliable connection in my garage which is a solid construction about 25m from the house. It has power from the house fuse board.

In the house we get @50mB speed from plusnet which then feeds into an Eero mesh system. I cannot get the mesh system to extend into the garage.

What solutions have people come up with?

Cheers,

Chris

I had the same challenge some time back and I used Netgear extenders. They work well. You have an extender which plugs into the BT router which in my case is local to the fuseboard. You then pair additional Netgear extenders wherever you wish. I have a combination of wifi and ethernet types.

Or drive the connection over the power lines with something like this - one end plugs into the router, the other plugs in at the garage and provides a wireless connection.

https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/42335-tp-link-tl-wpa8631p-kit/?gclid=CjwKCAjw-KipBhBtEiwAWjgwrGexgNf9Hibj7OIc90M0j0ArReEpdS5UMOf0zzY89yhJtjt8XYzmEBoCgfgQAvD_BwE

I ran an Ethernet cable through to my garage, then use a BT disc to give me the Wi-Fi out there.

Quote from: LowOil on Oct 14, 2023, 10:31 AMover the power lines

That's what I used, years ago. From Devolo. Worked a treat.
Richard

The ""WIFI extender"" method would be the cheapest and simplest, but you say you've already tried this and it didn't work. I don't know anything about Eero networking appliances, but it's a very standard thing to do and shouldn't be a blocker. Can you share what you've already tried?

Depending on the age of your house powerline networking might not be suitable so do your own research first.
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/everything-you-need-to-know-about-powerline-networking/

Done properly, read a little about networking and bury some well shielded cat6 between the house and the garage with it's own access point there.

I use TP link Ethernet over power extenders. Works well despite the garage having a separate rcd board that it has to run through

Needed to do this to my barns/office and powerline adapters would not work due to different earths etc between the buildings so I buried an ethernet cable.

If I were you that's what I'd do and once it's in you're sorted, unless you put a shovel through it at some point 

I used powerline adapters, connected to a spare router in the garage in which DHCP was turned off and given its own fixed ip address.

I ran a cat6 ethernet cable to my garage, and fitted a WiFi hotspot out there.

Chris.

I'm always too busy sorting out mechanical problems to worry about wi fi in the garage. Seems a bit pointless. I can always switch my mobile to mobile data if absolutely necessary although it would probably pick up the house wi fi.

Thanks for all the replies.

In answer to a couple of questions:
Unfortunately a cable to the garage is nigh on impossible to all intents and purposes.
I can't get the house WiFi to extend far enough as I can't get a mesh point at the back of the house to 'beam out' for a garage unit to pick it up.
Due to the shocking mobile phone signal here I can't get a signal in the garage.  EE tell me this is because we're running on 5G now it's lovely and fast but not as penetrating - doesn't sound like progress to me...

I've got a couple of ideas:
Try putting a mesh point under the eaves powered off a security light feed which might bridge the gap (I need to fit a new security light so it's not a hassle to try).
Try the powerline style adapters through the mains.

Cheers,

Chris

Aha.
This may be overkill, but it's something I (and everyone I work with) has been looking for a reason to use, forever: point to point.


If you have line of sight you're good to go, and it's usually set and forget.
It's a tad more involved than simply plugging in a wall plug and counting to ten, but doesn't need to be overly complicated or expensive.
Have a read of this and see if it fits your use case.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/08/point-to-point-wi-fi-bridging-between-buildings-the-cheap-and-easy-way/

Another vote for powerline adapters, cheap and simple to fit. On mine plug one into mains socket near router, short cable from router to adapter, then plug in one or more adapters into the sockets in rooms the normal wireless signal is weak.

When I was messing about with a Blink wireless camera a few months back I plugged an adapter into a socket in one of the barns which was fed from a fuse box fed from another fuse box fed from the main consumer unit and amazingly still got wireless in that barn!

Quote from: chipbury on Oct 14, 2023, 07:03 PMTry the powerline style adapters through the mains.

I bought my Devolo's almost 20 years ago and they're still up and running. I prefer wifi because of the wirelessness, but I still use two of my home plugs for the stereo: the CD has Airplay and internet radio facilities. They work flawless, even after 20 odd years of use. Here's a comprehensive description (from 2004) of the starter kit I bought.
Richard