Looking to extend my wireless network

B

born2ride

Getting the hang of it
Mar 9, 2014
380
10
New Jersey
As title says i would like to extend my wireless network about 500ft in all direction.

Main router for house is Asus RT- n66u
2nd router in an older wrt54g in garage hardwired to house. About two hundred feet off house.

My goal is to have a wireless network where i can have kids use wireless devices seamlessly with in 500 ft off garage in all directions.

I have 3 other linksys wrt54g laying around , can i utilize them? as 3 and 5 router? or wireless access points?

The problem i run into is the barns are metal and the signal does not reach opposite sides. I have tried moving router different points in build,did not help. Thinking it may just be better to put them outside on each end of barn,
I listen to Pandora on the mower and it cuts out i seem to know where the dead spots are , just not sure the best way to set it up.
 
born2ride said:
As title says i would like to extend my wireless network about 500ft in all direction.

Main router for house is Asus RT- n66u
2nd router in an older wrt54g in garage hardwired to house. About two hundred feet off house.

My goal is to have a wireless network where i can have kids use wireless devices seamlessly with in 500 ft off garage in all directions.

I have 3 other linksys wrt54g laying around , can i utilize them? as 3 and 5 router? or wireless access points?

The problem i run into is the barns are metal and the signal does not reach opposite sides. I have tried moving router different points in build,did not help. Thinking it may just be better to put them outside on each end of barn,
I listen to Pandora on the mower and it cuts out i seem to know where the dead spots are , just not sure the best way to set it up.
Click to expand...

If you want to use your wrt54g, you'd set them up as APs and your Asus as router.
For example, you can set your SSID to: HomeWiFi on all wrt54g(I would install dd-wrt if possible). Run Cat5 to all wrt54g to wire them to your network, use a WIFI analyzer to spread them out to overlap each other.

I have pfsense as my router/firewall, a 24 port POE switch and 3 APs, I can use my network within about 200ft from my house(small lot in the suburbs).

Keep in mind the theoretical max cable run is about 100 meter(328 ft).

Draw back is, the wrt54g are not POE, so you would have to source power and they are not outdoor Access Points.

Another option is something like this (https://goo.gl/qJGUGb). They claim 150 meters outdoor range.

Good luck with your project.
 
500ft is asking for alot.. the weakest radio on a link determines the distance and bandwidth your going to see, your tablets/phones/laptops when operating off battery have very low powered radios..

lets say you have an access point that outputs 1W of power, you'r tablet will see the access point for a very long distance.. however, communications are a 2 way street.. while your tablet can see the access point, the access point cant see the tablet because its only 0.25W of power.

this also prevents roaming from working correctly, if you have several high power access points on your property your phone will be unable to determine which one is the closest because they all output a very powerfull signal.. with a nice wireless network you end up running all your access points at low power and then your phone will see the access point in the same room as full quality, and the one out in the garage at half quality.. and it'll correctly roam from the garage to the living room.. when both appear at the same signal levels then your device has no hope of knowing which one is closest and going to give it the better connection.. it will hold onto the farthest away access point and never roam if you run them all at high power and dont do any actual tuning and testing.

Ubiquiti UniFi devices are the best for this kind of environment, they have a feature called Minimum RSSI.. when you have multiple access points in your house you setup a 'minimum signal strength' the access point requires.. if it drops below this it asks the client to reconnect, and this forces your tablet/phone to roam to a better access point if its being stubborn or stupid.. I noted a marked improvement in all devices battery runtime because they run at lowest possible power and still have a good wifi signal.. my phone sitting on my desk would never make it all day without being charged when running off living room access point, but now that I put an access point a few feet away in my office it'll go well over a day sitting on my desk before needing recharged.

I have 3 UniFi AC Access points in my 1200sq ft split level house, I get >100Mbit anywhere on my property and rarely have any issues with HD video.. any device that can support it stays on the 5GHz band without a problem, unless you go outside then it switches to 2.4 so my wife can facebook from the hammock in the back yard. One is on the celling in my living and dining room, the other is on the wall in the hallway right outside all the bedrooms, and the other is on the wall above my monitors in my basement office.. one on each level in direct line of sight of locations are most likely to need it.
 
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Ubiquiti also make the Unifi AC Long Range Series which give you a little more distance. If you want outside coverage they make a number of outdoor AP's as well. One of their solutions will probably fit your needs however it is worth being aware that they are not as user friendly as consumer grade Wifi gear but there are excellent forums where you can get assistance if you need it.
 
Thank you for the input ,Not sure on what i am going to do yet , will post back after
 
If you are able, you can install dd-wrt on your wrt54g's. Then you can set them as a bridge network and crank up the transmit power. Just be sure to add extra cooling to the wrt54g's if you want them to last. I have done this over 100ft with the stock antennas and a modest power boost between two wrt54g. You could even add bigger directional antennas, for more distance.

http://www.howtogeek.com/56810/how-to-extend-your-wireless-network-with-dd-wrt/
 
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