Can homeplug travel back down the power main?

**ladymuck** · 2 November 2019, 11:10

I never got homeplugs to work very well but that was probably due to the quality of the wiring...

I'd sling an ethernet cable down. Bury a tube nice and deep so you won't accidentally dig it up when burying the family pet/child/partner/electioneering MP and thread through a couple of cables so you have spare for any expanding needs.

**DealorNoDeal** · 2 November 2019, 12:31

Originally posted by d000hg View Post

We have a private overhead power cable to our house.
We're having a second supply/meter installed maybe 40-50m back down the same overhead cable for the log cabin we're building in our grounds.

It's a bit far for WiFi repeaters so I wondered if there's any chance homeplug might travel outside our domestic wiring?

Otherwise we'll either get mobile internet or see if we can wing a cat 6 cable down there. We'd likely want internet for security cameras so I'm a bit dubious about 4g... Not for the quality but the data/cost.

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You've probably got a far better chance of WiFi reaching that far than anything through the mains cable.

Can you position the house WiFi router, next to a window, so it's in line of sight of the cabin? It's worth a shot before you buy any extra kit or lay cables.

WiFi travels a fair distance. My laptop can see our neighbour's router and they're over 100m away.

**BR14** · 2 November 2019, 12:51

Originally posted by DealorNoDeal View Post

You've probably got a far better chance of WiFi reaching that far than anything through the mains cable.

Can you position the house WiFi router, next to a window, so it's in line of sight of the cabin? It's worth a shot before you buy any extra kit or lay cables.

WiFi travels a fair distance. My laptop can see our neighbour's router and they're over 100m away.

this, my BT router is by a first floor window and i get a really strong signal 60M down the garden.
stick a repeater in the cabin window and you could be sorted.

**d000hg** · 2 November 2019, 12:54

Thanks. I cannot really shift the modem but we do use BT Whole Home mesh WiFi. I could try to put a disc in the window closest. There would be partial line of site but through trees and of course the wall of the building.
There are no windows on the side facing the house.
I suppose easy to test.

Another idea along the same line is to lay cat6 under the floor to the room nearest the garden and then put a dedicated WiFi repeater (maybe a spare router lying around). Or even to mount an external repeater on the external wall.

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**Uncle Albert** · 4 November 2019, 09:21

We have the same situation and no, homeplugs don't work reliably in that setup. I ran a cat 6 cable from the house to the cabin. The house end connects into a homeplug and the cabin end goes into a network point and a hub that then connects to four other network points around the cabin.

**b0redom** · 4 November 2019, 09:32

If you're having a log cabin built, presumably you're having armoured power cables run down to it? If so, just pick up some armoured cat 5/6, bury it in the same trench as your power cables and have the sparky wire it up properly for you. That's what I had done and it's great.

**Snooky** · 4 November 2019, 10:09

You don't say how the new power supply will be connected. We have a cabin / summerhouse thing down our garden and the power supply just feeds off a spare slot in our main consumer unit (aka fuse box). Homeplug works fine down there.

But if you're actually getting a second consumer unit fitted I have no idea. Your electrician will probably know, no harm in asking them!

**DealorNoDeal** · 4 November 2019, 10:44

I'd just take a laptop down to where the cabin is going and see if you can connect to the WiFi. If you can, there's a very good chance you'll still be able to get a signal from inside the cabin.

**amanwhoisquiet** · 4 November 2019, 11:13

You can get repeaters with directional antennas for working like a point to point bridge, which is what you're doing here. This is by far the easiest way to go.. so much easier than digging a trench.

There's an issue about running copper cables (catx) from your house to the new shed in that you'll need to check the ground is the same level, as you might end up with a charge on the cabling at one side. Your electrician should be able to help with this, but ususally you'd use optical cables to get around this, but don't bother with either and just do the p2p wireless link. You'd then need another wireless radio/ap (or just a socket or two) on the other side for using your devices.

Can homeplug travel back down the power main?