Wireless from house to detached garage

Hi everybody, I'm new here, please bear w/me. The search for relevant
information is overwhelming and I'm hoping that you guys can help me w/
a simple, inexpensive solution.

Situation:
Verizon FIOS internet service, both wired and wireless in the main
house. About 40 feet away, is a detached garage w/a room above it;
it is in this structure that I'd like wireless internet w/o paying for
a whole other connection from Verizon (obviously).

On the side of the main house that is FURTHEST away from the garage is
the Verizon ActionTec, M1424WR, wireless router thing :-) This router
is hard-wired to a PC that is on the side of the house that is closest
to the garage. This router also provides wireless internet service
thru the main house for my laptop when I have it at home. (Now I
admit, I haven't taken the laptop to the garage and tried to get a
signal, it's pretty weak just on the opposite side of the house).

What I would like to know is how to bounce/repeat/send/whatever the
wireless signal from the main house to the garage.
What I've checked out:

I looked into the parabolic DIY wok-fi style antennas and they seem to
operate only by disabling the laptops built in wi-fi and then you have
to be tethered to the wok-fi antenna, right? USB wifi dongle plugged
into your laptop's USB port?

I also looked into external antennas to try and relay the signal, but
there is so much information out there it's gets confusing and they
seem like an expensive solution.

I looked at things like Pringles antenna and coffee can antenna and,
I'm sorry, I'm not really handy so I don't know if I could build one.
guess I could try.

Is it possible to get a couple of wireless routers that have repeater
functions and simply plug one into the network jack in the house (on
the side of the house closest to the garage) and then plug the other
one into an outlet in the garage and hope the signal is strong enough
to make the garage a "hot spot", or will that not work and I'd have to
have a wireless router/repeater plugged DIRECTLY into a port on the
ActionTech, then have another repeater in the house and yet another in
the garage to pick it up?

Any tips, hints, points to links, etc., would be greatly appreciated
Thank you!!!!!

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> On the side of the main house that is FURTHEST away from the garage is
> the Verizon ActionTec, M1424WR, wireless router thing :-) This router
....
> signal, it's pretty weak just on the opposite side of the house).

If you have some signal, a simple reflector on the router might make things
very good. You could also use a USB client adapter in the garage that has
a directional antenna included, or has an antenna where you could put
another reflector.

http://www.freeantennas.com EZ-12, printed on photo paper for thick stock,
with aluminum foil glued to the sail, provides a substantial boost in
signal. http://www.rahul.net/dold/clarence/EZ12-windsurfer.jpg
http://www.rahul.net/dold/clarence/w...fer-dining.JPG The netstumbler
trace shows solid signal as I walked back to the router, a dropout as I
blocked the router, taking off the reflector, and then the lower signal
without the reflector, reduced, and fluctuating in level.

Make the tabs longer than the template drawing, for easier assembly.

--
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5

At 40 ft wouldn't it be fairly easy just to run a CAT5 cable and plug it
into a 5 port switch.


<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:fm0ntf$pd9$(E-Mail Removed)...
> (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>> On the side of the main house that is FURTHEST away from the garage is
>> the Verizon ActionTec, M1424WR, wireless router thing :-) This router
> ...
>> signal, it's pretty weak just on the opposite side of the house).
>
> If you have some signal, a simple reflector on the router might make
> things
> very good. You could also use a USB client adapter in the garage that has
> a directional antenna included, or has an antenna where you could put
> another reflector.
>
> http://www.freeantennas.com EZ-12, printed on photo paper for thick stock,
> with aluminum foil glued to the sail, provides a substantial boost in
> signal. http://www.rahul.net/dold/clarence/EZ12-windsurfer.jpg
> http://www.rahul.net/dold/clarence/w...fer-dining.JPG The netstumbler
> trace shows solid signal as I walked back to the router, a dropout as I
> blocked the router, taking off the reflector, and then the lower signal
> without the reflector, reduced, and fluctuating in level.
>
> Make the tabs longer than the template drawing, for easier assembly.
>
> --
> Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5

> At 40 ft wouldn't it be fairly easy just to run a CAT5 cable and plug it
> into a 5 port switch.

I can think of plenty of situations where that would be a whole lot of
trouble. Big patch of concrete patio would be one of many obstacles that'd
make it quite difficult to 'just run a wire'.

Bill,

You could be right, but installing an external antenna may present the same
problem. If the room is over the garage there should be easy access
someplace. I ran into a similar problem in that the cable modem and router
is on the 2nd floor and my office is in the basement. Poor wireless
connection so I ran CAT5 down the outside of the house and into the basement
and used a 5 port switch which supports 2 computers and 2 VoIP phones.


"Bill Kearney" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:a6-(E-Mail Removed)...
>> At 40 ft wouldn't it be fairly easy just to run a CAT5 cable and plug it
>> into a 5 port switch.
>
> I can think of plenty of situations where that would be a whole lot of
> trouble. Big patch of concrete patio would be one of many obstacles
> that'd make it quite difficult to 'just run a wire'.
>
>
>

There's also the electrical damage risks, lightning mainly. Best to NOT run
copper CAT5 ethernet between buildings. Use fiber instead.

If he want to have wifi in the outbuilding here's one way to do it.

Setup an access point in the house. Put a highly directional antenna on it.
Wire it into the existing network. Point said antenna at the outbuilding.
Go to the outbuilding and see if there's decent coverage, if so, DONE!

If not then put a 2nd access point acting as a client out there. Put a
directional antenna on it and point it at the one in the house. Connect a
PC to the wired ethernet port and you're done. If you want actual wifi in
the outbuilding then put ANOTHER access point on a wired connection.

This way you'd go from wifi laptop in the outbuilding to the access point.
The wired to the client, connecting wirelessly to the house. From the house
access point on into the wired network. That's a a fair bit of equipment
but access points are relatively cheap these days.

What you're doing here is running three wireless networks. An existing one
in the house, leave it alone if it's working. The second network is just
between the house and the outbuilding. It does nothing but provide a
point-to-point link. This allows controlling the antenna placement so as to
get the best possible performance. This also means the existing in-house
wifi won't get screwed up trying to rejigger then antennae on it. The third
wifi network just covers the outbuilding itself. This also allows the
antenna placement to be arranged to best cover the building without screwing
up the point-to-point link.

It sounds like a lot, and running a wire or fiber would CERTAINLY be less
equipment, possible cheaper too.

I have a setup like this on our boat. Two access points, one to make a
connection to shore and another to provide an on-boat wifi network. Works
great. I use Linksys WRT54G (pre version 5) routers running DD-WRT for it.

-Bill Kearney


> You could be right, but installing an external antenna may present the
> same problem. If the room is over the garage there should be easy access
> someplace. I ran into a similar problem in that the cable modem and
> router is on the 2nd floor and my office is in the basement. Poor
> wireless connection so I ran CAT5 down the outside of the house and into
> the basement and used a 5 port switch which supports 2 computers and 2
> VoIP phones.
>
>
> "Bill Kearney" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:a6-(E-Mail Removed)...
>>> At 40 ft wouldn't it be fairly easy just to run a CAT5 cable and plug it
>>> into a 5 port switch.
>>
>> I can think of plenty of situations where that would be a whole lot of
>> trouble. Big patch of concrete patio would be one of many obstacles
>> that'd make it quite difficult to 'just run a wire'.
>>
>>
>>
>

Bill Kearney <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> If he want to have wifi in the outbuilding here's one way to do it.

40 feet for a personal connection? You are over-engineering the solution.

It's farther than that from my router to the places that I sit with my
laptop in and around my house. The signal passes through two outside
walls, a distance of 60 feet, to get to a spot where I had minimal to no
coverage before putting a free reflector on my router.

I used to see dropouts as I was typing, with the WiFi card on the side of
the laptop opposite the router. Sometimes the connection would recover,
sometimes I would lose my ssh connection. Now it's solid.

The best thing about the reflectors is, as pointed out by the author on the
freeantennas web page is that they are free and cause no damage to the
equipment. If it works, you are done. If it almost works, you have a clue
of how much additional gain you might need to make the connection. If it
doesn't work at all, you have some serious work to do, like adding access
points or bridges... and with hose, you are back to testing the
improvements offered by free reflectors.

--
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5

On Jan 8, 1:06 pm, myadm...@verizon.net wrote:
> Hi everybody, I'm new here, please bear w/me. The search for relevant
> information is overwhelming and I'm hoping that you guys can help me w/
> a simple, inexpensive solution.
>
> Situation:
> Verizon FIOS internet service, both wired and wireless in the main
> house. About 40 feet away, is a detached garage w/a room above it;
> it is in this structure that I'd like wireless internet w/o paying for
> a whole other connection from Verizon (obviously).
>
> On the side of the main house that is FURTHEST away from the garage is
> the Verizon ActionTec, M1424WR, wireless router thing :-) This router
> is hard-wired to a PC that is on the side of the house that is closest
> to the garage. This router also provides wireless internet service
> thru the main house for my laptop when I have it at home. (Now I
> admit, I haven't taken the laptop to the garage and tried to get a
> signal, it's pretty weak just on the opposite side of the house).
>
> What I would like to know is how to bounce/repeat/send/whatever the
> wireless signal from the main house to the garage.
> What I've checked out:
>
> I looked into the parabolic DIY wok-fi style antennas and they seem to
> operate only by disabling the laptops built in wi-fi and then you have
> to be tethered to the wok-fi antenna, right? USB wifi dongle plugged
> into your laptop's USB port?
>
> I also looked into external antennas to try and relay the signal, but
> there is so much information out there it's gets confusing and they
> seem like an expensive solution.
>
> I looked at things like Pringles antenna and coffee can antenna and,
> I'm sorry, I'm not really handy so I don't know if I could build one.
> guess I could try.
>
> Is it possible to get a couple of wireless routers that have repeater
> functions and simply plug one into the network jack in the house (on
> the side of the house closest to the garage) and then plug the other
> one into an outlet in the garage and hope the signal is strong enough
> to make the garage a "hot spot", or will that not work and I'd have to
> have a wireless router/repeater plugged DIRECTLY into a port on the
> ActionTech, then have another repeater in the house and yet another in
> the garage to pick it up?
>
> Any tips, hints, points to links, etc., would be greatly appreciated
> Thank you!!!!!

A directional antenna or reflector at your router just might work.
Try the reflector Clarence mentioned - they work and it's free!

Another very simple option is to use Powerline Networking. You plug
an adapter into the your router and then into the wall. As long as
your garage has a socket is on the same leg of the transformer, you
can plug in another adapter there for either ethernet or local wifi.
Plug directly into the wall, no power strips.

http://www.netgear.com/Products/Powe...etworking.aspx

Within the netgear line, go with the XE not the HD series - from what
I've read, the HDs have electrical interference problems.

I've been buying the older Netgear ones (XE102) on ebay or Amazon
fairly cheaply. They also have a version that gives wifi wherever
you plug it in, but it gets quite hot and is reported to have a high
failure rate. I have one that has not failed, but I try to keep it
cool. Perhaps it's more reliable to use a pair of straight ethernet
adapters with a cheap wireless router cabled to the remote one.


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...sr=8-3&seller=

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...3VY98HDY4Y0GTS


Steve

On Jan 8, 7:50 pm, "Don Harvey" <dhar...@kc.rr.com> wrote:
> At 40 ft wouldn't it be fairly easy just to run a CAT5 cable and plug it
> into a 5 port switch.
>

I thought I replied to this, but don't see it, so here goes again ....
wouldn't I have to bury a conduit for this? I can't imagine stringing
a cable that far and having it look halfway decent ??

If I did bury a conduit, any rules on how deep? I'm near Boston, it
gets cold, ground freezes, etc.

Thanks.

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:

>
> Any tips, hints, points to links, etc., would be greatly appreciated
> Thank you!!!!!

Hows the outbuilding get it's electric? From the house, or a seperate
feed/meter?

If the same feed/one meter, I've had great sucess with powerline networking,
one unit in the house by the modem, and then a second unit with a wap/router
whereever I want both wired and wireless..
Powerline networking under $140, spare wap/routers are under $50... Have the
combo on power strips, and just plug em in wherever I want more coverage
(garage, back yard, patio, gazebo, other end of the house where the Tivo's
live/etc)
if your answer is the outbuilding gets it's power from the house (or anyone
lurking here wants em), I'd be glad to post the links for you....

Heck, why do two posts when one will do... here the link for the netgear
powerline stuff
http://www.netgear.com/Products/Powe...tAdapters.aspx

and the wap routers are from walmart Linksys wrt54g (for $49.17)
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=2470125

Fraid you are on your own for power strips, but you can usually find them
for $2-$3 each.....