How to increase the wifi bandwidth/connection to my neighbors place?

[winterwonderland]

I would like to extend my network so my neighbor gets better reception/connection/bandwidth. He borrows my wifi when he is working at home.

Some generic info about our situation:
- I have already an Ubiquiti Unifi AP AC Lite at my place, but it's juuust too weak to cover the majority of his house. The AC Lite i have put right next to the window on the 2nd floor.
- His house is only 1 floor, while my house is 2 floors.
- Between our houses, there are no trees.
- We do NOT live in the U.S, but ice cold northern europe...
- My neighbor does NOT have any way to connect a RJ45 cable to the wall etc.
- We will NOT stretch a cable from my place to his place for several reasons; cold weathers (we have ice cold temperatures here), we have wild animals that can easily bite through the cables, it's impractical...
- Our houses are typical europen houses made for the winter aka non-concrete houses.

So, with those things taken into consideration, do you have any tips and/or recommendations on HOW we can improve/extend the wifi for his house without blowing up the bank vault aka a budget solution?

Our only option so far seems to be getting a pair of TP-Link Deco M4 Mesh system, use the Ubiquiti AP AC Lite as an access point and then connect the nodes to that, how about that? Would that work? Also, the node that would be at my neighbors place, can he run a RJ45-cable directly to the Deco for more stable connection, or?

I thought i'd still ask, in case we are missing out on few things.

Below is an illustration on how his place looks and how my place is:

 

[TheLostSwede]

Get a pair of directional antennas? As in, one in a window on your side and one in a window on his side, assuming there are two windows facing each other.
Obviously you need a device on each side to connect them to and you might end up getting worse coverage in your place, unless it's a dedicated device.
A mesh system wouldn't be helpful, as it's omni-directional.
Europe is a big place, so not helpful for making recommendations in terms of what to get.
Something like this might be good enough, if you want something cheap and it can be connected to your current hardware.

Alfa Network APA-M25 dual band 2.4GHz/5GHz 8 / 10dBi high gain directional indoor panel antenna with RP-SMA connector: Amazon.de: Computer & Accessories

Alfa Network APA-M25 dual band 2.4GHz/5GHz 8 / 10dBi high gain directional indoor panel antenna with RP-SMA connector: Amazon.de: Computer & Accessories

www.amazon.de

 

[Shou Miko]

What @TheLostSwede says, if you want more Ubiquiti you could go for a couple of their NanoBeams they can be a bit expensive but works wonderfully.

Link: https://www.ui.com/airmax/nanobeam-ac-gen2/

 

[winterwonderland]

Get a pair of directional antennas? As in, one in a window on your side and one in a window on his side, assuming there are two windows facing each other.
Obviously you need a device on each side to connect them to and you might end up getting worse coverage in your place, unless it's a dedicated device.
A mesh system wouldn't be helpful, as it's omni-directional.
Europe is a big place, so not helpful for making recommendations in terms of what to get.
Something like this might be good enough.

Alfa Network APA-M25 dual band 2.4GHz/5GHz 8 / 10dBi high gain directional indoor panel antenna with RP-SMA connector: Amazon.de: Computer & Accessories

Alfa Network APA-M25 dual band 2.4GHz/5GHz 8 / 10dBi high gain directional indoor panel antenna with RP-SMA connector: Amazon.de: Computer & Accessories

www.amazon.de

Yes, we have 2 windows facing each other, actually...

What is that device you're talking about? As in a router, or? Because the router for the fiber and the AP AC Lite are all at my place. What device would he need?

North of europe. Scandinavia. North of Norway. Cold, snowy mountains.

Why wouldn't a mesh system be helpful..? We place 1 node at his place and one at my place, no..?

Pardon that i forgot to mention the budget.... we are not going to spend more than €100, tops, on whatever solution we land on... That's why this is so challenging. Those 2 Deco mesh things i mentioned are just within that budget due to BF prices.

 

[TheLostSwede]

A Wi-Fi device capable of accepting the suggested antenna? You ideally need one each.
I don't know if your router or AP can accept an antenna and I don't know if your neighbours Wi-Fi device can accept one.

Again, mesh = omni-directional, as in a circle. What you want is directional, i.e. a straight line between the two of you. Different antenna designs, different signal pattern.

What is Antenna Directivity? - everything RF

Directivity is the measure of the concentration of an antennas's radiation pattern in a particular direction. Directivity is expressed in dB. The higher the directivity,

www.everythingrf.com

 

[winterwonderland]

A Wi-Fi device capable of accepting the suggested antenna? You ideally need one each.
I don't know if your router or AP can accept an antenna and I don't know if your neighbours Wi-Fi device can accept one.

Again, mesh = omni-directional, as in a circle. What you want is directional, i.e. a straight line between the two of you. Different antenna designs, different signal pattern.

What is Antenna Directivity? - everything RF

Directivity is the measure of the concentration of an antennas's radiation pattern in a particular direction. Directivity is expressed in dB. The higher the directivity,

www.everythingrf.com

That is where i go blind... What sort of wifi device would he need to have? He does not have a way to connect any router with a cable because he does not have that option in his house.

The router that i have is this: TP-LInk AC750 Wireless...

As i thought; getting this to work would be more complicated than just straight forward, like it often is, but imma give it a shot and see if we can figure out a solution....

EDIT: Correction... apparently, my neighbor's got this at his place: asus ea-n66 ... Not sure how useful that is....

 

[TheLostSwede]

Non removable antennas on your very basic router, so that's a no go for starters.
What your neighbour has doesn't support an external antenna either.

Whatever the devices are, need to support the additional antenna to be connected to it. If that doesn't work, then you're going to have to look at some new hardware.

Based on the lack of suitable hardware, you both might want to invest in one of these each. They're meant for outdoors use, but I see no reason why they wouldn't work inside. Do note that they're powered by PoE, although it would seem that a passive injector is included. The reason to get one each, is because the transmitter is always stronger than the receiver, so if you only get one and mount it on your side, your neighbour would only get good download speed, but not upload speed. This is outside of your budget though. I guess you could get one first and test and see how it works, since it's not THAT far between your houses. Note that the Ethernet port is limited to 100Mbps.

TP-Link CPE510 Aksesspunkt - Aksesspunkt

TP-Link CPE510 Aksesspunkt - AC300, værbestandig, passiv PoE

www.komplett.no

 

[winterwonderland]

Non removable antennas on your very basic router, so that's a no go for starters.
What your neighbour has doesn't support an external antenna either.

Whatever the devices are, need to support the additional antenna to be connected to it. If that doesn't work, then you're going to have to look at some new hardware.

Based on the lack of suitable hardware, you both might want to invest in one of these each. They're meant for outdoors use, but I see no reason why they wouldn't work inside. Do note that they're powered by PoE, although it would seem that a passive injector is included. The reason to get one each, is because the transmitter is always stronger than the receiver, so if you only get one and mount it on your side, your neighbour would only get good download speed, but not upload speed. This is outside of your budget though. I guess you could get one first and test and see how it works, since it's not THAT far between your houses. Note that the Ethernet port is limited to 100Mbps.

TP-Link CPE510 Aksesspunkt - Aksesspunkt

TP-Link CPE510 Aksesspunkt - AC300, værbestandig, passiv PoE

www.komplett.no

Ok, so if we'd opt for that TP CPE510, it might work, huh? What is the difference between that one and this: https://www.komplett.no/product/853...esspunkt/tp-link-cpe210-wireless-access-point

If we get either the CPE510 or CPE210, what else would we need? How will my neighbor connect to that CPE510? He can run an ethernet cable from his laptop and into the CPE510, yes? And that CPE510 will then wirelessly connect to the AP AC Lite at my place, yes?

I am sorry if i sound difficult here, but yeah, i am just a tad bit noob when it comes to this, so im just trying to get an understanding before i buy anything.

 

[TheLostSwede]

The 210 is 2.4GHz only, whereas the 510 is 5GHz. I guess based on the hardware limitations, there wouldn't be much of a difference.

Let's start over to make this easy.

Get one device to start with, put it in your home. Point it towards your neighbours window, where your neighbour puts the Asus AE-N66, as it would be the best place for it. Your neighbour might need to get a longer network cable from it, to the computer.

You would connect the CPEx10 to the powered port on the included passive power injector (which should be connected to a power socket) and then the unpowered port on the injector to a network port in your network. There might be some configuration that has to be done on the device itself, but as I don't own one, I'm not that familiar with the software side of the specific device. I would presume you have to configure the SSID (Wi-Fi name), as it should have its own SSID, since it's a managed device. Then your neighbour simply connects to that network.

If the signal still isn't strong enough, get a second CPEx10 for your neighbour and set it up in client mode.

There's a quick start guide here. What you want is the access point mode.

quick_start_guide_cpe_and_wbs_

Oh and make sure you update the firmware.

 

[toname]

That is where i go blind... What sort of wifi device would he need to have? He does not have a way to connect any router with a cable because he does not have that option in his house.

The router that i have is this: TP-LInk AC750 Wireless...

As i thought; getting this to work would be more complicated than just straight forward, like it often is, but imma give it a shot and see if we can figure out a solution....

EDIT: Correction... apparently, my neighbor's got this at his place: asus ea-n66 ... Not sure how useful that is....

Have you both tried using his ASUS EA-N66 in Range extender mode? Before doing this what kind of signal strength is he getting from your router at his house?

 

[1freedude]

EDIT: Correction... apparently, my neighbor's got this at his place: asus ea-n66 ... Not sure how useful that is....

ASUS EA-N66 Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter Reviewed - SmallNetBuilder

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=7061

www.smallnetbuilder.com

Read that. Put it in bridge mode so Cat 5e or 6 will connect Asus and his LAN, or whatever.

They are 10 meters apart. They don't need directional beams.

Do a site survey to get the best channel, prob 1 or 6. Go with 20 MHz bandwidth to increase reliability at the cost of throughput.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Have you both tried using his ASUS EA-N66 in Range extender mode? Before doing this what kind of signal strength is he getting from your router at his house?

How is that supposed to work?
The OP is the one with the internet connectivity. The neighbour has the EA-N66 which he connects to his computer as his sole Wi-Fi device by the sounds of it.
So how would it help to set that up as a range extender?

 

[winterwonderland]

The 210 is 2.4GHz only, whereas the 510 is 5GHz. I guess based on the hardware limitations, there wouldn't be much of a difference.

Let's start over to make this easy.

Get one device to start with, put it in your home. Point it towards your neighbours window, where your neighbour puts the Asus AE-N66, as it would be the best place for it. Your neighbour might need to get a longer network cable from it, to the computer.

You would connect the CPEx10 to the powered port on the included passive power injector (which should be connected to a power socket) and then the unpowered port on the injector to a network port in your network. There might be some configuration that has to be done on the device itself, but as I don't own one, I'm not that familiar with the software side of the specific device. I would presume you have to configure the SSID (Wi-Fi name), as it should have its own SSID, since it's a managed device. Then your neighbour simply connects to that network.

If the signal still isn't strong enough, get a second CPEx10 for your neighbour and set it up in client mode.

There's a quick start guide here. What you want is the access point mode.

quick_start_guide_cpe_and_wbs_

Oh and make sure you update the firmware.

Thank you so much for making it teaspoon-friendly for me, sir. Appreciated.

I will first try the steps that the 2 others mentioned first and then we'll see what we'll do, yes.

Have you both tried using his ASUS EA-N66 in Range extender mode? Before doing this what kind of signal strength is he getting from your router at his house?

ASUS EA-N66 Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter Reviewed - SmallNetBuilder

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=7061

www.smallnetbuilder.com

Read that. Put it in bridge mode so Cat 5e or 6 will connect Asus and his LAN, or whatever.

They are 10 meters apart. They don't need directional beams.

Do a site survey to get the best channel, prob 1 or 6. Go with 20 MHz bandwidth to increase reliability at the cost of throughput.

Roger that. Will try it out tonight. Thanks for the advise.

 

[TheLostSwede]

ASUS EA-N66 Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter Reviewed - SmallNetBuilder

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=7061

www.smallnetbuilder.com

Read that. Put it in bridge mode so Cat 5e or 6 will connect Asus and his LAN, or whatever.

They are 10 meters apart. They don't need directional beams.

Do a site survey to get the best channel, prob 1 or 6. Go with 20 MHz bandwidth to increase reliability at the cost of throughput.

Again, I doubt the neighbour has a network, just a single computer connected to the EA-N66.

The distance appears to be a lot more than 10m, as the work room is not facing the OP's house. There are also windows and walls in the way and the OP has a weak router as well as a low-end AP in his home, both with omni-directional antennas in them.

This is why the OP asked for a way to improve the signal over at the neighbours home. What you're suggesting makes no difference.
And again, how is bridge mode supposed to help in this instance when the device is in the neighbours home?

Thank you so much for making it teaspoon-friendly for me, sir. Appreciated.

I will first try the steps that the 2 others mentioned first and then we'll see what we'll do, yes.

Roger that. Will try it out tonight. Thanks for the advise.

Sorry to say, but what they're suggesting is just going to cause you more headache.
Setting your neighbours device into bridge mode, is not going help, unless you put it out in the snow between the houses.

 

[winterwonderland]

How is that supposed to work?
The OP is the one with the internet connectivity. The neighbour has the EA-N66 which he connects to his computer as his sole Wi-Fi device by the sounds of it.
So how would it help to set that up as a range extender?

Yes, this is correct. That EA-N66 is his only device that gives him internet, yes. So i guess that CPE510 seems to be the only solution now then... hmmm

 

[TheLostSwede]

Yes, this is correct. That EA-N66 is his only device that gives him internet, yes. So i guess that CPE510 seems to be the only solution now then... hmmm

Well, the CPE210 would do the job as well. Both devices are limited to 100Mbps either which way. 2.4GHz has better wall penetration, so it might actually be the better choice to go for here, since nothing will be mounted outside either home.'

Just out of curiosity, how is your Ubiquiti AP AC Lite orientated? You mentioned it sits by the window, but is it vertical or horizontal?
This is apparently the antenna pattern for it. So what you could try and do, is to put it vertically and pointing towards your neighbours place to see if this improves the signal at all.
As this is a ceiling mounted product, it has a bit of an odd signal pattern.

UniFi - Introduction to Antenna Radiation Patterns

Overview This article will explain how to understand antenna radiation plots and how this should impact your wireless deployments. Table of Contents What is a Radiation Pattern? What is Antenna G...

help.ui.com

UniFi - UAP Antenna Radiation Patterns

Overview In this article users can compare the different antenna radiation patterns of a few of our UniFi Access Points. For an explanation on how to read antenna radiation patterns see our UniFi -...

help.ui.com

 

[1freedude]

Replace "his" with "your" WiFi router

 

[TheLostSwede]

Replace "his" with "your" WiFi router

I think you misunderstand what bridge mode does and how it works.
If the EA-N66 was set to bridge mode, it would re-transmit the Wi-Fi signal from wherever it gets the signal from, so other devices can connect to it as an AP, i.e. it bridges the Wi-Fi signal. This generally means slower speed for all devices connected to it.
It's also not the issue at hand here.

 

[1freedude]

I think you misunderstand bridge mode vs repeater mode

 

[TheLostSwede]

I think you misunderstand bridge mode vs repeater mode

Not at all, they more or less do the same thing. With the bridge mode simply enabling the Ethernet port to be working at the same time.
On a "normal" router, it means the switch is enabled and you can plug in wired devices. Repeater mode normally does't have Ethernet ports or doesn't enable them.

Neither mode is going to add anything to this scenario though.

 

[Solaris17]

I think what swede is covering that the OP is missing is this is not how wireless data transmission works.

You need something in the other side that can "scream back" the distance. So you should have something on both ends.

Burning money to amplify signal one direction accomplishes nothing.

 

[erocker]

If your neighbor is using a wifi connection that has antennas (on their PC) a larger antenna should definitely help.

 

[Fangio1951]

Does anyone remember this =

Cantenna - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

or

How to Make a Wi-Fi Antenna Out of a Pringles Can

Use a Pringles can to make a simple home-made antenna to boost your Wi-Fi range.

www.makeuseof.com

 

[1freedude]

If your neighbor is using a wifi connection that has antennas (on their PC) a larger antenna should definitely help.

Right, that's where ea-n66 in bridge mode comes into play. String an Ethernet cable from the ea-n66 (that sits in closest proximity to minstreless' house) to his PC or whatever. The ea-n66 in bridge mode gets its signal from minstreless' Ubiquiti or WiFi router. If OP puts the AP closest proximity to clients house, EA-n66 will act as better antenna without feedline losses.

Only problem with this scenario is minstreless' LAN will be at the mercy of neighbor.

 

[bug]

I maybe asking the wrong question here, but wouldn't a simple range extender do the job? I know I can pick up my router's signal over 10m+, wouldn't a range extender be able to do the same?

Also, OP said he's in northern Norway. If he's close enough to Santa's village, maybe that'll fix it?