Blanket Wifi Throughout 'Big' House (and Granny Flat)

[Vini]

I've been tasked with blanketing a house in Wifi signals and also, the adjoining "granny flat".

The Granny Flat does not have a phone line, nor does it have network cables running to it. It is approximately 10m away from the nearest room in the main house.

I can only think of Bridging Wifi from the room nearest to this outhouse. But am concerned about the distance, the interference from bad weather aswell as all the other issues tied to Wifi.

Not only do I need to extend the Wifi to this outhouse, but I also need to provide better coverage throughout the main residence, which is quite large!

Say those problems regarding weather, range, etc... dont exist, what options does an ADSL user have?

I'd like to go with 802.11n, but Netgears DG834N has been discontinued, and doesn't appear to have been superceded, though if it has, it's not with a WDS compatible router

The only other option I can see, is the Draytek 2820n, which is more than upto the job. But quite expensive. Especially if I was needing 4! (Does WDS require the same hardware?)

Another option would be "generic" router, "generic" AP+Bridge... Say DG834GT (Example) and a handful of WRT54GL's... Do the WRT54GL's operate in AP+Bridge mode?


Can anyone think of any other solutions?

[mikerr]

Mains powerline networking to bridge the distance, with wifi routers attached to those.

[Vini]

Mains powerline networking to bridge the distance, with wifi routers attached to those.

It's not on the same grid

[peterb]

is the land between the house and the granny annex owned by the property owners? If so , running cat5e between the two may be a better option, either surface mounted using exterior grade cable, or standard cable run in conduit, or standard/exterior grade run in something like hosepipe and buried in the ground.

You could use the Draytek 2710 - I think it is a lower cost alternative to the 2820. Netgear to an AP with an external antenna designed for wide area coverage

http://www.netgear.co.uk/wireless_ac...nts_WN802T.php

but I have no direct experience with them.

[jimbouk]

You could get a couple of directional antennas (or make your own) for the jump from one house to the other - just make sure you have a access point/extender with 2 antenna sockets and have one for general wifi and one for the link.

If it is going to be a permanent link then just invest in a good drill for the walls and run a cable though.

[abaxas]

I have similar issues. Ie 3 foot thick stone walls!

I use directional antennas with a cisco 877w and remote 1210s.

Works like a charm apart from throughput is not as good when on repeater. More than enough for me to play online with my ps3, surf etc etc.

[Vini]

is the land between the house and the granny annex owned by the property owners? If so , running cat5e between the two may be a better option, either surface mounted using exterior grade cable, or standard cable run in conduit, or standard/exterior grade run in something like hosepipe and buried in the ground.

You could use the Draytek 2710 - I think it is a lower cost alternative to the 2820. Netgear to an AP with an external antenna designed for wide area coverage

http://www.netgear.co.uk/wireless_ac...nts_WN802T.php

but I have no direct experience with them.

Hindsight's a wonderful thing, unfortunately, they've finished digging their land up... I've just been landed this 'mission' after all the works been done, the walls plastered and the paint dry. As you do!

Given the property's worth probably close to £2m, these aint your standard walls or grounds, so little old me suggesting we dig it all up again, or sling an ethernet cable from Window to Window won't go down too well.

Unfortunately, I think the only solution will be Wifi bridges. I was thinking of a 2820n with a few WRT54GL's.

[peterb]

Is there any ducting where the services go from the main building to the annex? (Clutching at straws now!!)

[gss03]

Hindsight's a wonderful thing, unfortunately, they've finished digging their land up... I've just been landed this 'mission' after all the works been done, the walls plastered and the paint dry. As you do!

Given the property's worth probably close to £2m, these aint your standard walls or grounds, so little old me suggesting we dig it all up again, or sling an ethernet cable from Window to Window won't go down too well.

Unfortunately, I think the only solution will be Wifi bridges. I was thinking of a 2820n with a few WRT54GL's.

I'd use the Draytek and then also get some Draytek WP700 (I think that's the model) access points.
They can also be used with PoE switches from memory.
Take a look at seg.co.uk as it'll list the prices for the access points.

[malfunction]

What devices are they intending to use on the WLAN? If they just want to be able to use a laptop anywhere why not suggest a 3G card (assuming they have appropriate signal)? If not you pretty much have to use directional antenna (probably outdoor ones if the walls are thick). Scan have a few:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Index.aspx?NT=1-0-49-62-0

They aren't cheap but if someone can afford a mansion...

[Michael]

Catenary wire high level? Basically a tensioned steel wire fixed between the two buildings which you can attach a cat5 cable to with cable ties.

We've used that solution for exactly this purpose on a farm house before now.

[scaryjim]

I used to live in a community in North Yorkshire. My cottage was about 180 - 200m from the main buildings. In the main buildings we used consumer-grade (D-Link, from memory) 54G WAPs with consumer-grade high gain antennae (so nothing fancy like outdoor / directional antennae). I could, fairly reliably, pick up the wireless network from the main house in my cottage, as long as I sat by the window! If there are facing windows between the main house and the granny flat you should be able to set up wireless bridging with consumer-grade WAPs without too much difficulty. AFAIK most consumer grade WAPs will support bridging and WDS as long as you pair them with the same model of WAP: for instance this cheapish Edimax does...

[Agent]

I've used a couple of WRT54's with Tomato via the WDS method. Very easy to set up and worked well

[Vini]

Catenary wire high level? Basically a tensioned steel wire fixed between the two buildings which you can attach a cat5 cable to with cable ties.

We've used that solution for exactly this purpose on a farm house before now.

We specialise in Catenaries, but hadn't thought about that. Unfortunately the distance and variation in land level means this isn't really a feasable option.

I paid a visit yesterday, and to say I had slightly underestimated the size of the house and thickness of the walls. Would be a massive understatement!

They would need about 4 repeaters to do what they're wanting to do, inside. To send the wireless to this granny flat, you'd need a set of well place antennas.

In the end, we've decided to run a cable from building A to building B, which is going to be by far the best solution. Just a shame it wasn't run underground when the renovation was being done.

[Vini]

Oh, and they have 5 power circuits, so Powerline Adaptors were useless