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Question

Extend WiFi to outside Building through Walls/Trees

Nov 7, 2018 1:15PM PST

I’m looking for some help to determine what product will fit our needs. My parents have Wi-Fi in their house and want to extend it 150 yards (through trees and walls) to my dad’s shop (which is covered in metal). I’ve read some information on Wi-Fi extenders and satellites but don’t know what is our best option. There is not a direct line of sight between the modem and the shop (two walls, some trees, and metal siding of shop). I’m not very comfortable with the jargon used in this arena and need someone to dumb it down for me. The ultimate goal would be to have the Wi-Fi extended to the shop so that a Google Home could be utilized. Which products (in combination) would be most useful to accomplish this task/what exactly am I looking for?

I have read other posts on similar topics but 1) they are older so I'm not sure if more technology is available and 2) I'm not techy so I don't understand half of it.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Because of the metal siding. There is no tech to penetrate.
Nov 7, 2018 1:38PM PST

That's a killer item in your list. While 150 yards is a stretch, that final metal wall meant nope. Don't pay anyone to try this. It's just money down the drain.

To fix this you have to get a signal to just outside the shed then snake a line through the wall to the gear that needs it.

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Yep, read about "Faraday Cage"
Nov 7, 2018 3:36PM PST

Need to run a cable to it, maybe bury under a foot or half foot of soil. An old style sidewalk edger works great to cut a ground groove to do that, but most now use weed wackers which won't.

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Just to note more physics.
Nov 7, 2018 3:44PM PST

What size holes in the Faraday cage to block 2.4GHz? About 100mm or just under 4 inches. So a metal clad building is perfect for blocking most RF.

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Answer
Bi-directional Wifi Antenna
Nov 8, 2018 8:10AM PST

You can try using a bi-directional Wifi antenna. Wifi would be going from external antennas to a wired interface connected to the endpoints. See the following link for more information.

https://www.simplewifi.com/pages/how-it-works

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Thanks
Nov 12, 2018 7:24AM PST

Thanks everyone for your help. I'll do some digging into the bi-directional wifi antenna and also what it may take to bury a cable. Much appreciated.