Internet/WiFi in Staff Clubhouse

[Dactylion]

Having one of our estate outbuildings converted into a games room for the staff
(OK converting a shed to use as an office)

Old brick built shed being tarted up - DPC & flooring plus wall & ceiling insulation/painting etc. Already got power and lights.

Insulation includes metalic/foil surfaced hard foam sheets/panels (Floor, ceiling and walls).

We have fairly decent WiFi (Google nest or summat) in the house.

(BUT) House has thick walls (and the shed is now a Faraday Cage??) and distance from main router.

I have a feeling that once complete the existing WiFi might be a tad weak in the shed....

Any suggestions - For "extending" internet access into the shed?

Generic ideas:
a) Another Google nest thingy
b) Point-to-point wireless extender thingy
c) (Shed wired into main fuse box via armoured cable so ) Extender thingy plugged in both ends
d) Cable from house (main router) to seperate router in shed (main router at front of house but shed way on back)

[eek]

D is probably the best approach - C may work or it may not, I have extended thingies to connect the garage to the router but the speed isn't as great as an ethernet cable.

Won't matter is you are on 100mb internet and don't need anymore. Noticeable if you have 1gb internet and the server in my garage / your shed is downloading large files.

[woody1]

Move router in house to be closer to/less obstructed from shed?

[d000hg]

I don't think you said the distance, but B or D would be good - with B you can still have (or may need) a separate router. I'm talking the directional "virtual cable" things not just a couple of extenders. These can provide fast, reliable connections over several hundred metres providing you have good line-of-sight.

Probably depends on what's easier to set up which I would do.

[NotAllThere]

Is the house and clubhouse on the same circuit? Try IP over power. My house is reinforced concrete - wifi signals do not pass between floors. IP over power works great.

[hobnob]

I think that a dedicated network cable (option D) is the best bet. Rather than plugging it directly into the router(s), I'd recommend using solid cable, connected to a wall socket in the house and the shed. You can then have short patch cables (stranded) which go between the wall socket and the router at each end. That way, once the wall sockets are in place, you shouldn't need to touch that cable again. It also gives you more flexibility later, e.g. you could get a longer patch cable if you wanted to move the router in the house/shed without having to dig up your garden.

[gables]

I think that a dedicated network cable (option D) is the best bet. Rather than plugging it directly into the router(s), I'd recommend using solid cable, connected to a wall socket in the house and the shed. You can then have short patch cables (stranded) which go between the wall socket and the router at each end. That way, once the wall sockets are in place, you shouldn't need to touch that cable again. It also gives you more flexibility later, e.g. you could get a longer patch cable if you wanted to move the router in the house/shed without having to dig up your garden.

This all the way, just try not to exceed the max length of ethernet cable, which I think with patch cables is about 100 metres.

[hobnob]

This all the way, just try not to exceed the max length of ethernet cable, which I think with patch cables is about 100 metres.

Yes, it's a 100m limit between devices (e.g. between a PC and a switch), which assumes 90m of solid cable and 10m of stranded cable:
ethernet - Maximum length of **Stranded** Cat5/Cat5e/Cat6 cable - Super User

That should be fine for a house and garden, but you could use fibre optic cables for a longer distance.

[b0redom]

I have exactly the same - prefabricated office at the bottom of the garden. If you can run a network cable, I heartily recommend it, you can then put a mesh wifi access point inside your shed with wired backhaul. I use Netgear Orbis. My devices roam seamlessly now, (I had multiple access points previously) and the connection would drop and then reconnect (which was a pain if you were on a call/had an active SSH session etc).

[Dactylion]

Thanks all - Seems I am not a complete muppet as my ideas weren't ridiculed (I suppose I could have posted in General if I was feeling masochistic)

I'm not certain I'll really have an issue - just thinking ahead.

WiFi is currently OK-ish in garden ie Always been OK for casual stuff but I've never used it in anger
Never even tried in shed - as it's been full of storage and tulip.
(New) insulation being built into shed - metallic on both sides of slabs (gotta impact WiFi Shirley?)
No real distance issues - shed only a few meters from house
But thick stone walls
- 3 thick walls between main router & shed
- 2 between existing Google NEST thingy & shed

Once the builders are done/out of shed I'll see if it really is an issue and sort out as required.

I'll look into b&d and possibly moving the main router as well (possibly doing some inside works - so might be an opportunity to include that) and I assume a more central router will be beneficial anyway.