Losing Wi-Fi Connection in Shed

LSusanLB on 28/09/2021 - 11:08
Last edited 28/09/2021 - 13:18 by 2 other users

First time for me here.

We have a Telstra NBN connection in a new house we have built.in Shepparton, country Victoria.

We have a colourbond shed that is about 20 meters away from the Telstra smart modem that is installed in the house. We have a portable ring camera installed in the shed that needs a wifi connection to operate properly & also a Hydrawise automatic sprinkler box that is a wifi connected box. Both of this products pick up the Telstra Network but drop out all the time.

We have a Netgear wifi extender that we use at the opposite end of the house for smart tv connections. We have tried to put the wifi extender in the shed with no luck, so also tried it in the double garage which is about 3 metres away from the shed. It only works intermittently. We bought a Netgear plug in type extender but it didn’t work much better either in shed next to wifi sprinkler box or in garage close by.

We previously bought a 3 pack nest wifi extenders off Amazon & they were hopeless, luckily we bought from Amazon so we were able to return

Wondering if anybody has any suggestion how we can get these two appliances to work on our home NBN connection.

We didn’t realize that sprinkler box was only a wifi connected box so have to find some way of getting the NBN to it in a more consistent basis without having to dig up newly installed concrete paths between shed & house.

Thank you In anticipation of some help.

Another comment we are not a young couple but I am quite up to date with simple modern technology but this has me beat

Internet Broadband nbn

Comments

  • SBOB on 28/09/2021 - 11:15
    +1

    Would have suggested better wifi networking gear, such as a mesh wifi (disabling the one in the telstra NBN modem and using a separate wifi hardware instead), but you have said you already tried the nest mesh wifi 3 pack?

    Did you disable your existing wifi in the telstra NBN modem, and try and just utilise the nest mesh wifi when you attempted to utilise that?

    • SusanLB on 28/09/2021 - 11:21

      Didn’t realise that I had do that with the nest 3 pack, but has gone back anyway. Seems like the problem mainly is the colourbond shed material, that the wifi just won’t transmit through the walls. It’s funny even our phones drop back to 4G whilst in the shed

      • bdl on 28/09/2021 - 11:22
        +1

        Combination of metal shed + weak wifi signal

      • jv on 28/09/2021 - 12:09
        +4

        Put a window in the shed facing in the direction of your main router.
        Place your wifi device next to the window…

  • bdl on 28/09/2021 - 11:21
    +1

    https://www.amazon.com.au/TP-Link-Range-Wireless-Outdoor-Acc… stick one of these on the outside of your house (it will need to be wired to your telstra modem). Set up a separate wireless network on it for your ring camera and sprinkler box. If you can't run cable under house, run one through ceiling and drop it from eaves.

    Added bonus - you can also connect your phones/ipads to this second wifi network if you're outside in the garden and need wifi and your original wifi signal doesn't reach.

    (They also sell a model that is faster, but for a ring camera and a spinkler box you probably don't need the speed: https://www.amazon.com.au/TP-Link-Wireless-MU-MIMO-Gigabit-E…)

    Job done. (plus it's from Amazon so if job not done, you can return).

    • McOzbargainer on 29/09/2021 - 07:59

      Or even better, buy 2 of them and have the same name and password and your device will automatically switch to the strongest one.

  • SusanLB on 28/09/2021 - 11:27

    Thankyou so much for your help, that looks very interesting. I will check it out. Funny none of the tech people we have spoke to have suggested or told us about one of those. I think sometimes they assume by your age that you dont know what your doing,& as I said I’ve tried to stay up to date but this had me beat Cheers

    • bdl on 28/09/2021 - 11:28
      +1

      Basically your signal is trying to get from your Telstra router/white box out to the shed and there's too much in the way. This uses a network cable to bring the signal closer to your shed by transmitting it to the TP link unit (via the wire) and then the TP link unit will re-transmit it (via wireless). You can always test it prior to wiring it up by connecting the TP link unit and then pointing it from a windows pointing towards your shed to see if wifi in the shed improves.

      Things like wifi extenders need to "hear" the original signal before yelling it out again - if they can't "hear" it very well to begin with, then can't yell it out very well.

      The plug in extenders transmit internet over the power cables in the house. They are dependent on how the electrical wiring is connected in your house - they work well in some circumstances but sometimes don't. It was definitely worth trying those.

  • SusanLB on 28/09/2021 - 11:30

    Can’t Thankyou enough

  • geek001 on 28/09/2021 - 11:30
    +6

    I am guessing your metal shed is acting like a Faraday cage. You could either try sticking the extender outside your house as bdl has mentioned, or you may need a repeater with an external antenna that you can put inside your shed but run the antenna to outside your shed to catch the wifi signal. That's what I would try if I were in your situation. Good luck.

  • Summoner on 28/09/2021 - 11:34

    Floor Plan or drawing of your curreny set-up would be nice to see the situation. 20m should not be a problem unless there are a few solid object between them cutting the signal strength. Are you using 2.4GHz or 5GHz? If you have them on 5GHz, try using 2.4GHz?

    • Ramrunner on 29/09/2021 - 14:45

      It's a SHED made of metal. No signal will penetrate that nicely. I had to put 4 wide range wireless access points in a glasshouse recently - exact same problem.

      A mirror can screw up the signal
      A fish tank can screw up the signal
      A microwave can screw up the signal (on 2.4Ghz)

      20m can absolutely be a problem - I can make a signal fail at 10m with a few mirrors between. Really easy.

      • Summoner on 29/09/2021 - 15:02

        Thank god you have already been to OP's home and tested it. I haven't been there, so i had to comment based on the assumption.

        I understand the metal shed can be the issue, but can't be sure of it before seeing the OP's setup.

        I quote MS Paint's comment below:

        I pick up 2.4ghz wifi from my house inside a colorbond shed 50m away (1 sometimes 2 bars). Router is near a window in the house and has LOS to the shed.
        I cannot pick up 5ghz as would be expected

        And i am pretty sure i wrote:

        20m should not be a problem unless there are a few solid object between them cutting the signal strength.

        • Ramrunner on 29/09/2021 - 16:09
          +1

          Yeah sure, but my point is the shed itself will be the main problem. MS Paint is very lucky, none of my customers have had much luck penetrating a WiFi signal inside a metal shed, as it will act like a Faraday cage.

          As other have mentioned, if on the same power circuit, the quickest and easiest solution is Powerline ethernet. Some come with an Access point at the other end such as D-Link AV2 1000.

          If not on the same circuit it gets more expensive. I'd probably set up a Ubiquiti wireless bridge then have a separate Access Point in the shed itself. That should work flawlessly.

          Of course NOTHING beats pulling a couple of ethernet cables to the shed when you're building it and pulling power to it anyway, but a lot of sheds were erected before WiFi became mainstream and with the newer ones people simply don't think of it unfortunately.

          With the glasshouse example there are 3 glass compartments (with all steel holding it all together) and 1 big, big shed. On the glass compartments we do get a little WiFi overlap (there is some penetration beyond each compartment), but the Access Point inside the shed we cannot see unless we actually enter the shed. And these are Ubiquiti long range ones rated for 183m out in the open.

          Unfortunately metal is one of the worst building materials to try to penetrate with WiFi…..

  • randomusername2017 on 28/09/2021 - 11:45

    wifi extender that we use at the opposite end of the house

    Massive house or not so smart Telstra modem?

    • pass through NBN connection to a better wifi router

    • external wifi booster cabled to WAP inside the shed

    +1 ms paint suggestion

  • Gaz1 on 28/09/2021 - 11:50
    +2

    I would suggest this product:
    https://www.tp-link.com/au/home-networking/powerline/tl-wpa4…

    This communicates via your power wires & will create a new wifi access point in the shed that doesn't rely on wifi to communicate to the house.
    The receiver also has an ethernet socket so you could plug the TV in directly too.

    • randomusername2017 on 28/09/2021 - 11:56

      Relies on both devices communicating over the same power circuit.

      • Gaz1 on 28/09/2021 - 12:01

        Yes, that is true - in multi-phase installations they must be on the same phase too.
        A lot of times this is hard to determine so it is worthwhile buying from somewhere that offers easy returns (eg Officeworks) to enable you to test at low risk.

      • Waltervp on 29/09/2021 - 08:23
        +1

        I don't think it has to be the same power circuit, just the same phase in case you have 3 phase power. Works great in my house to get the internet to my security cameras dvr on the diagonally other side of the house on a different fuse….

        Given you want internet inside a Faraday cage this is one option you must try. Also means you aren't broadcasting your signal to the neighbours…

        • ESEMCE on 29/09/2021 - 08:51

          Same power circuit performs way better. In my mother's home, Single Phase only, EoP doesn't work from one end of the house to the other.

        • OZBargainer in SA on 29/09/2021 - 08:55

          I think it does need to be on the same power circuit. A surge arrestor or power meter is likely to interrupt the signal

  • ESEMCE on 28/09/2021 - 12:08
    +3

    As surprisingly few have mentioned, a metal shed is a pretty effective Faraday Cage.
    Increasing signal strength from outside the shed is going to do very little.

    In order of decreasing effectiveness;
    1) Powerline ethernet to the shed and then an access point inside the shed is probably your cheapest option.
    2) WiFi Bridge affixed to the outside of the shed and another affixed to the side of the house with Wireless AP inside the shed.
    3) WiFi Extender in a - preferably not sunny - window with direct line of sight to the modem

  • thatonethere on 28/09/2021 - 13:27

    If you are lucky and you have a power outlet in the shed and a power outlet in the house which share the same circuit you can use an Ethernet over Power solution.

    Otherwise you will need to have some arrangement where you perhaps have a wireless bridge between the shed (and the antenna are external to the shed to avoid the metal shell).

    Or put in a long cable - even if you have to take a long route to avoid the paths you can go up to 100meters.

  • Muzeeb on 28/09/2021 - 15:37

    I pick up 2.4ghz wifi from my house inside a colorbond shed 50m away (1 sometimes 2 bars). Router is near a window in the house and has LOS to the shed.

    I cannot pick up 5ghz as would be expected.

    • randomusername2017 on 28/09/2021 - 16:38
      +1

      I cannot pick up 5g

      Anti vaxxer?

      • Muzeeb on 28/09/2021 - 17:04

        Can't even get 4G let alone 5G and associated government tracking where I live.

        • randomusername2017 on 28/09/2021 - 20:24

          Can't even get 4G

          Wait til after lockdown, word is Pam's saving herself for someone… 1G should be more than enough. .

    • OZBargainer in SA on 29/09/2021 - 08:57

      5GHz has better speed but poorer range than 2.4GHz. Something to do with the wavelength.

  • giftcardinspector on 29/09/2021 - 08:24
    +1

    The absolute best way is to bury a Cat6 cable to the shed and add in another Access Point there.
    https://www.execab.com.au/products/30m-cat-6-utp-uv-outdoor-…
    amazon.com.au/Ubiquiti-UAP-AC-LITE-Dual-band-AC1200-867Mbps/dp/B01DRM6MLI
    these two products will suit your needs, may not be the best prices, I just did a quick search

  • Series4Episode10 on 29/09/2021 - 09:37

    Ethernet cable with a WiFi repeater if Wifi is needed at the shed

    • Ramrunner on 29/09/2021 - 15:55

      WiFi Access point - not repeater :)

  • RecklessMonkeys on 30/09/2021 - 16:04

    Anybody every built a cantenna?

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