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WIFI Extended to Garden Shed

Masterhalifax
Member

Good Morning,

 

i have a large garden with a shed at the bottom, my wifi doesnt register down there. Approx 80 meteres away from my router.

 

is there anything i can buy to help me get signal down at the bottom of the garden!

 

i do have power down there but it does not run on the same circuit as the house.

 

this is the router i have>>>>

 

6 REPLIES 6

andyt22
Power User

I had a similar problem with no coverage in a brick-built workshop at the bottom of my garden so I ran an Ethernet cable from the BT Hub 3 down to a wireless access point (WAP) in the workshop, using exterior grade (black sheathed) cat 5e cable.

 

But a quick solution would be to get a Cisco 1230 or 1240 series WAP and connect that to your BT hub's EThernet connection and site it in the house near a window overlooking the garden. These WAPs can provide a rock solid connection over extended distances of several hundred metres - the 1230 will do up to 11 Mbit/s while the 1240 series can provide up to 54 Mbit/s connectivity. You can get them quite cheaply on eBay but do make sure you don't get the LWAP (light-wieght AP) version as these are useless for home applications (they use a central configuration server and won't work in stand-alone mode as you can't configure them locally).

 

Andy

Masterhalifax
Member

thanks for the quick responce.

 

so is the below link the correct thing im wanting and i presume they are easy to install, not the best with technology!

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cisco-Wirelless-acess-Point-AIR-AP1242AG-E-K9-Aironet-1240-AG-Plus-Bracket...

andyt22
Power User

I've looked at the one you've mentioned on eBay and it looks like it's the 'full Monty' kit with both the two standard 2.4 Ghz and and the optional 5 Ghz antennae as well. They're very complex devices with lots of features you'd probably never use but they do have a good web-based GUI with a simple 'express setup' mode that you can use to set it up quickly for normal purposes.

 

One word of warning: the Cisco web interface only works properly when accessed through Internet Explorer - if you use any other browser, some parts of the GUI are greyed out, are invisible or settings simply don't 'stick' and you can't fully configure the device (unless you learn to use the Cisco comamnd line interface which is a right pain for most people). I keep an old Win XP laptop just for accessing the Cisco WAPs here (we're a UNIX/Linux shop).

 

Hope this helps,

 

Andy

Masterhalifax
Member

ok, well i run everything Apple!

 

i have a Mac and and iPhone that i wanted to run off this.... is this a problem?

 

 

andyt22
Power User

Safari might work OK with the Cisco web set-up system, I don't know. Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Konqueror definitely don't work properly with it, or at least not with my version of the Cisco firmware. You might be able to borrow a WIndows laptop to do this?

Incidentally, other makes of WAP may work well for you - I can connect reliably over 80 metres with a Netgear WG602 unit and this unit's web-based admin system works with any browser. I only mentioned the Cisco units because they are know to work well over several hundred metres in open terrain, between two farms for example or between my house and a school 2 blocks away.

 

Andy

 

valhassall
Member

@Masterhalifax wrote:

Good Morning,

 

i have a large garden with a shed at the bottom, my wifi doesnt register down there. Approx 80 meteres away from my router.

 

is there anything i can buy to help me get signal down at the bottom of the garden!

 

i do have power down there but it does not run on the same circuit as the house.

 

this is the router i have>>>>