Friday, February 24, 2012

Extending wifi to garden office


An interesting piece on Premitel looks at the thorny issue of using wifi in your garden office when there is a wireless router in the main home but the signal is not strong enough to reach the shedworking space. Essentially, they suggest HomePlug:
"In recent years HomePlug devices have increased the speed and range over which they operate so that they can support data intensive services such as video streaming and gaming. They can also operate over mains electrical systems that have more than a single phase. Homeplug will never be able to beat the speed or security of a direct cable connection or the convenience of a standard wireless connection. However, in home or office premises where there are wireless coverage black-spots and installing cabling would be too expensive HomePlug should be considered as a viable and cost-effective alternative."
The details are not too appallingly technical so it's well worth nipping along for more information if this is a problem you're facing.
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6 comments:

  1. Alex

    The homeplug solution is good and certainly works. I have recommended and or setup this method many times, on one occasion 150m+ from the home router. This particular client regularly uses skype (quite demanding on bandwidth) and the solution works well. My preferred brand of this bridgeing device is "netgear" but the technology is the same. These are available at maplin stores anywhere. At maplin there is an advantage in that their guys are usualy quite helpful.

    The best most reliable solution remains the standard cat 5 cable running from the home router to a "range extender" (the brand I prefer is edimax again available with help from maplin) located in the garden office. I can confirm that this solution is cheaper, faster and just as easy if you can find a way to run the cable.

    I wish to make this final point very clear --- THERE IS NO NEED TO WASTE MONEY DIGGING TRENCHES --- for either the electric cable or the cat 5 cable or a telephone cable.

    Sorry if this sounds like a bit of a rant or an advert for maplin but our clients and your visitors should have access to qualified information which is proven by experience over time and perfectly / absolutely safe.

    I set up my first LAN in 1988 and have experience of too many to mention - THIS WORKS

    Richard - aarco.co.uk

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  2. It's a very cool idea!

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  3. I was advised that the plug in system would not work for me as the home office is fed off our main fuse board in the house, but also has a secondary fuse board before serving the home office and there were doubts it could work across the fuse boards. I have a netgear router, and use a netgear 'wireless extender' plugged in to the electric socket in the house closest to the home office - seems to work a treat and still means no trenches, it also means I have wireless in our other outbuildings as well.

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  4. Chris L2:51 PM

    @ Richard Grace,

    If you're in the UK then you absolutely will need to dig an appropriately deep trench for mains wiring in order to be Part P regulation compliant.

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  5. Anonymous9:37 AM

    You may as well put a duct in to carry cat5, telephone and alarm cables. Do it you won't regret it, the grass will soon grow over again.

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  6. I think you can attach the cables to walls above floor level along your route, instead of burying them. Not great aesthetically but much cheaper and less effort than trenches!

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