How to get WiFi in your shop in the backyard

[gtrboy77]

I have a 30’x40’ insulated metal building for my shop that I put up this past year in the backyard. My shop is probably 100’ or so from my house where my WiFi router is. I just spent about $60 on a Linksys range extender that didnt do any good, so I’m returning it. Without having to dig a trench and run Ethernet cable and listen to the wife carry on for the next month why the yard looks like hell, I would like to hear from someone with a similar setup and how they were able to run their signal wirelessly and not tear up the yard to get WiFi in their shop.

[fixtureman]

I would see about renting a vibrator plow

[Strokes77]

I would see about renting a vibrator plow

You can explore the hotspot options to use your phone as a wireless router.  But I'd rather do it up right.

[Phil Thien]

If you have power running from the house panel to the garage, you could try power line ethernet units, I think they have some with wireless build in now.

If that doesn’t work you could try a wireless bridge from Ubiquiti or Mikrotik.

[Stwood_]

Same situation, only 75' from my house router.
I cabled up and dangled the WiFi USB adapter in the shop, out through a previous telephone cable hole in the shop wall.
Attached it about 6' up. I get a good signal. I put a small clear plastic bag over the adapter to keep it dry.

[crokett™]

your problem is your metal building is acting as a giant faraday cage. 100' is a bit long for wifi range even without the metal building. if you have line of sight you can try one of these:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004EG...UTF8&psc=1
put it in a window of your shop facing your house. it should pick up the wifi from your house and amplify the signal. you can also get 2 of them to act as repeaters.

[JDuke]

I was coming here to say ubiquiti

I have a point to point network running 2 surveillance cameras that are about 620 feet from the house, when my shop gets done, I’ll put another point radio on the side of my metal building and put one of their wireless access points in the shop.

Ubiquiti also practices what they call disruptive pricing selling prosumer level solutions for consumer level prices

Duke

[FS7]

I have a 30’x40’ insulated metal building for my shop that I put up this past year in the backyard.  My shop is probably 100’ or so from my house where my WiFi router is.  I just spent about $60 on a Linksys range extender that didnt do any good, so I’m returning it.  Without having to dig a trench and run Ethernet cable and listen to the wife carry on for the next month why the yard looks like hell, I would like to hear from someone with a similar setup and how they were able to run their signal wirelessly and not tear up the yard to get WiFi in their shop.

This is the right way to do this. You can get 125 feet of direct burial C5E cable for $60 here and use a lawn edger or something similar to split open a very narrow trench to lay the cable in. Landscape wires are often done this way, and in fact because of the repeated laziness of Verizon techs my fiber line coming from the residential drop to the house is only buried about 4" deep at most. It has been a problem a few times, but only when I didn't know where it was (or when they came out to replace it after I had the driveway expanded and the contractor broke it, at which point somebody laid out flags for where it should go and then the actual fiber installer just placed a second cable directly over the first broken one while probably looking at the flags a few feet away thinking "wow, how pretty...").

So, to answer the question, direct burial cable is inexpensive, fairly easy to do, and won't disturb the yard. The downside is that the easy and quick way is shallow, and this presents a risk for rupture if in the future you forget where the wire is run. I use a flat spade (not an edger) to run cable, since the bottom of the edger is angled and as such doesn't maximally bury the cable. I learned this from the Verizon techs since they just drove in the flat spade and rocked slightly to open up a gap. I don't know the exact name of the tool, but I bought mine at Home Depot (Ames Razorback). You can walk on the gap after (it will be no more than an inch wide) to help close it up. 

It's a lot cheaper and easier (and faster) than trying to figure out a wireless solution.

[fredhargis]

Mine is also about 100' (not a metal buuilding) and even though the wi-fi worked, it wasn't consistent. So I went direct burial cat5E. It may be 6 months of listening to LOML complain, but after that it's smooth sailing.

[Wizard of Oz]

What FS7 said, but I would run it in PVC conduit to help prevent damage due to digging. Just a thought.