Extending wifi to garden room (and a network problem I forgot I had)

Doozergirl

I'm not even going to pretend that I know what I'm talking about here.  

If the doors to both the house and garden room are open, we can pick up wifi. It's October now and so that isn't
happening anymore so I need to know what the solutions are.  We have power with plenty of sockets out in the garden room.  

I've heard that there are things that you can plug in and they turn your electrical

circuits into extensions of the wifi.  Is that correct?  Are some better than others?  

We probably will end up running cable
out at some point, but I don't even know what I connect to the end of that cable.  In fact, I think we have several network points in the house run next to the TVs but I don't know what to do with them either. I didn't ask for network cables, I just have them.  Thinking back, we have FTTP and the electrician ran regular copper to the middle of the house where the router was supposed to be so the BT guy said it was far better to leave the router where the cable comes in.  

There is a CAT6 cable nearby as that was supposed to run to the TV from the router.  Can we use that cable that runs back to the supposed hub, to run the internet over there and then spur off that? 

I've no idea what I'm talking about.  Our electrician does a good job but speaks in tongues.  We've been here nearly a year, I should probably do something about it.  

"TLDR your waffle, Doozer":
1) Can I plug something in the garden room that extends our wifi?  

2) How do we set up the network in my
house when the cooper cable run to where the hub is supposed to be will reduce the quality of broadband we're receiving?  Can we use a nearby CAT6?

FreeBear

A wifi extender next to a window may give you coverage in the garden and out to the garden room.

Yes, there are gadgets that you can plug in to the sockets that convert the mains wiring in to networked cables. But... the speed isn't great and they could be a security risk. Personally, I wouldn't bother with them.

A CAT5/6 cable out to the garden room would be the best option in my opinion. Plug one end into your hub, and the other end in to a second hub outside. You can't spur off an existing cable without a little black box (a four port hub/switch). You also need to make sure any network cables are well away from mains cables - A minimum of 50mm separation.

Doozergirl

Okay, thanks!  Bear with me being thick here. 

This is a hub/switch? https://www.argos.co.uk/product/8495459?clickSR=slp:term:hub%20switch:2:583:1

There's another question coming after this... 

frankersBri

I have one of these:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01LXOZ4EN/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Wifi in one of the upstairs rooms was so poor as basically on a diagonal from the Wifi router, going through too many walls/floors! It essentially (in my non technical terms!) turns the electricty circuit into something to transmit the internet. You plug one thing into the main router then put the wifi extender into a plug socket on the same circuit (Not sure specifics on what "same circuit" means though..). It makes a new wifi network, but you can rename it to the same as your main one so devices can use both easily.

Not sure if that compeltely makes sense, but has worked well for me!

FreeBear

Doozergirl said: This is a hub/switch? https://www.argos.co.uk/product/8495459?clickSR=slp:term:hub%20switch:2:583:1

There's another question coming after this...

Yup. That is the sort of box I had in mind. Just one minor detail to add to the confusion - The cable between your existing hub and this switch needs to be a "cross over" cable. It is wired up slightly different to regular cables and you may need to shop around to find one. Pretty sure you'll have small local independent computer shops in your area.

Next question <gulp>

onomatopoeia99

Doozergirl said:

Okay, thanks!  Bear with me being thick here. 

This is a hub/switch? https://www.argos.co.uk/product/8495459?clickSR=slp:term:hub%20switch:2:583:1

Yes, it's a network switch.  Hubs aren't made any more, as switches are an improvement on them for reasons I won't go into (as they aren't relevant here).

With the thing you linked or any other network switch, anything plugged in to one of the sockets can talk to anything plugged in to all of the others.

I agree with FreeBear about ethernet over mains devices (aka "powerline"), they are dreadful and best avoided.  Twin and earth with a noisy 240V AC on it is a bleedin' awful link layer.

fezster

There's a few options, depending on how much you have to spend / how seamless you want it:

1. Buy a range extender - these work by picking up your wifi signal and then creating a new SSID with _EXT appended. Your devices then need to switch between the 2 SSID's.

2. If you have an old wifi router and have a cable at the target location connected to your existing router, you can plug the cable in, put the router into "bridge" mode, and it'll basically create a second SSID you can use to access your network / internet.

3. Buy a wifi access point (AP) specifically designed for this purpose - eg. Ubiquiti brand. These have the added benefit of using PoE to power the device and provide data using a single cable. They can be setup in one of 2 ways:

a) If you have a cable at the target location, plug it in and it'll create a wifi network. You can add multiple AP's and they'll work in conjunction with a single SSID.

b) If you dont have a network cable, they can work wirelessly to create a mesh which will also achieve the same result. You'll still need to provide power to the AP.

There's other mesh like systems available. I'd suggest 1 or 2 as a quick and cheap solution, but 3 if you want a more seamless and robust setup.

neilmcl

If you're going to connect a switch to a router then you don't need a crossover cable.

Is the garden office on a separate electrical circuit to the one into he main house, if not you could get away with using powerline adapters. Ultimately it'll be best to hardwire via ethernet but that would mean running Cat6 (preferably Cat6A) to the garden office. I wouldn't use Cat5e, particularly as you running a good distance outside and you also on a high speed FTTP connection.

Doozergirl

Thanks people.  

The next question was figuring out where to put it all. 

So FTTP comes in to the house.  It's underneath a TV with a CAT 6 cable.  This probably deserves a diagram as it's what I always ask for, but I'm in the bath, so it will have to wait! 

Is my router a network switch too?  But one that gives off wifi?   

So can I have the master socket in the lounge then a network switch with CAT6 cables going to
-the garden room to an ethernet socket? 
-the lounge TV which can plug directly into the back of it?  
-steal the existing big CAT6 from behind the TV to run to the centre of the house. 

Then I need another wifi router in the garden room? 
The original wifi router in the middle of the house where all the other cables meet in a cupboard to run out to the other TVs?  

Sorry.  Thank you 🙏 

neilmcl

Doozergirl said:

Thanks people.  

The next question was figuring out where to put it all. 

So FTTP comes in to the house.  It's underneath a TV with a CAT 6 cable.  This probably deserves a diagram as it's what I always ask for, but I'm in the bath, so it will have to wait! 

Is my router a network switch too?  But one that gives off wifi?   

So can I have the master socket in the lounge then a network switch with CAT6 cables going to
-the garden room to an ethernet socket? 
-the lounge TV which can plug directly into the back of it?  
-steal the existing big CAT6 from behind the TV to run to the centre of the house. 

Then I need another wifi router in the garden room? 
The original wifi router in the middle of the house where all the other cables meet in a cupboard to run out to the other TVs?  

Sorry.  Thank you 🙏 

A pic would be nice too. If you're on FTTP then the fibre comes in and terminates at a wall mounted ONT and then you have an ethernet connection to your router. Presumably this is what is under your TV?

You mention a master socket, if you truly have FTTP then you won't be connected to the master socket for broadband.

joe90mitch

I'm surprised people are slamming powerline, from our experience it's been great and reasonably priced to get the basic package with 1 unit you plug the router into and 1 transmitter you plug in elsewhere. Would be interested to know what the security risk is.

From a speed point of view, we get around 30-40Mb/s when on the main network in the same room as the router, then in rooms near the powerline we get 20-30Mb/s on that different network - still more than good enough for video calls/netflix etc.

They're on the same circuit though, which is apparently better. Not sure what the dropoff would be if your garden room is on another circuit (which I would imagine it is?)