How to improve my wifi in my garage?

[winterwonderland]

I have a router, an asus rt ac66u, and whenever i go to the garage, which is like a couple of meters away from my house, the signal quality = close to zero... HOW can i improve the signal quality? I have tried moving the router as close to the nearest wall as possible in the house, but to no help. I have a 100/100mb connection.

I was suggested to get myself an Ubiquiti AP AC Lite and either put that one as the main "router" or put that inside the garage. Will that work, or?

Any thoughts/solutions to this? Thank you.

 

[jsfitz54]

Does your garage use foil insulation?

Looks like this: https://www.google.com/search?q=foi...VmiOAKHf1GCCMQ_AUoAnoECBQQBA&biw=1680&bih=914

 

[Regeneration]

What is foil insulation?

Like this? Won't block anything. Might actually improve reception. It's thick concrete that kills reception.

Anyway, there are 3 options to improve WiFi reception:

1. Relocate router
2. WiFi extender
3. Upgrade router or antennas to better ones (by dBi).

 

[Ja.KooLit]

wifi extender

 

[mrthanhnguyen]

Bought another asus router and set it as aimesh.

 

[jsfitz54]

What is foil insulation?

View attachment 148426

Like this?

There are 3 options to improve WiFi reception:

1. Relocate router
2. WiFi extender
3. Upgrade router or antennas to better ones (by dBi).

You got it. It comes in various forms and could be in soft rolls or have a hard foam center in various thicknesses, in drywall dimensions. Seems are closed with foil 2" tape.

Was the "garage" (in OP's case) an addition? The common wall between the house and garage may have aluminum siding that was left in place if this was a remodel.

My point being that construction methods used may be the cause of the mysterious dead zone.

As to a solution, you could run a CAT6 cable through the wall to a "unmanaged switch", ie : https://www.google.com/search?clien...XNSt8KHZHECKQQ7xYoAHoECA0QJg&biw=1680&bih=914

and go from there.

 

[P4-630]

Use 2 powerline adapters with a wifi extender.

 

[jsfitz54]

Use 2 powerline adapters with a wifi extender.

Could work but we don't know if the garage was wired in common with the house.
It may have its own panel box.

I have tried moving the router as close to the nearest wall as possible in the house

Signal may be grounding out on the exterior wall in common with the garage, pulling it away from the wall maybe more helpful.

Won't block anything. Might actually improve reception. It's thick concrete that kills reception.

Have you tried using kitchen tin foil to blanket your router? How's the reception?
Different parts of the world build differently. Concrete bunkers are a problem.

 

[newtekie1]

Could work but we don't know if the garage was wired in common with the house.
It may have its own panel box.

If you only have one electric meter on your house, then the garage is wired with the house. The garage might have a sub-panel in it, but powerline adapters will still work with a sub-panel since the sub-panel is wired back to the main panel of the house. That's how my house is set up, and I use powerline out to my detached garage with an access point in the garage running off the powerline adapter.

 

[jsfitz54]

If you only have one electric meter on your house, then the garage is wired with the house. The garage might have a sub-panel in it, but powerline adapters will still work with a sub-panel since the sub-panel is wired back to the main panel of the house. That's how my house is set up, and I use powerline out to my detached garage with an access point in the garage running off the powerline adapter.

We don't know the OP's setup. I said panel box not sub-panel.

 

[eidairaman1]

Cat 5e, or fiber ran to garage

 

[Bill_Bright]

Tell us about your garage computer.

Since your garage is only a couple meters from your house, distance is not really the problem - it is the barriers (walls) in between.

I agree with newtekie1 and if you only have one meter, power line adapters should work. Running Ethernet cable out to the garage to a simple 4-port switch is good option. But of course that requires drilling holes in both the house and garage walls. If you go this router, make sure you get cable designed for outdoor use.

Alternatively, if you have a PC in your garage, you might try a PCIe wifi adapter like this that allows you to place the antenna in a more ideal place for better propagation and reception - perhaps in a window facing the house. If a notebook, you can get a USB adapter with an external antenna.

There are also truly external (as in outdoors) antennas that connect to the router and create an AP (access point) to extend your wifi to the outdoors. These are great for connecting mobile devices poolside or patio. But of course, these require drilling a hole though your home's outer wall to run the cable through, and more holes to mount the antenna.

Less destructive approach may be to drill a hole through your garage's outer wall and use an antenna connected to your PC that extends outdoors. There are some RV antennas designed for this.

 

[newtekie1]

We don't know the OP's setup. I said panel box not sub-panel.

Correct, I wasn't arguing with you, I was adding information. It's also far less likely that the garage is separate from the house with it's own panel, but without more info from the OP we don't know.

 

[John Naylor]

I live / work in a 200 year old Dairy Barn with post and beam (8' thick Locus Wood ... aka ironwood) beams First thing i did was install ethernet cables. Each beam took about 45 minutes in a very awkward position to complete. Laptops see about half the download speed when using WiFi. We also have foil insulation (on exterior walls) which doesn't affect the wifi since all that is indoors ... but it kills cell service... we go from 4 bars on my deck to 0 bars 2 steps inside. We use a MicroCell to get phone service inside.

We also have a large detached garage and workshop. Kids used the place as a "clubhouse". Added a splitter to the exterior cable drop and in summer they ran a cable over to watch music videos and whatever ... the next year, ran a temporary ethernet cable from router out the window. I had an 8 port switch that became redundant when got an 8 port router and gave them that and they had lan parties and would binge stream TV series or movies out there.

 

[jsfitz54]

If the OP's space is an attached garage, with a common wall, it may be fire retardant built and maybe a dead zone for wifi from house to garage.

If it's a free standing garage near the house and still dead for signal then something in the way it's built is preventing signal. (from house side or garage side).

OP has not replied. Self isolation I expect.

 

[winterwonderland]

Thanks for all the response. Been hella busy running a charity, sending out information about the virus in my village and organizing help for elderly, sick ones etc. So it has kept me very busy...

Anyway, i have attached a drawing of the house and garage. To be honest, i cannot change the router location that much, really. i can try, but there is a space limit, unfortunately.

The garage have a concrete wall, yes.

I have no pc in my garage. The point is that i will be streaming courses/classes in my garage, since it is spacious, so i will not be "living" there. So, i will be using my laptop and phone, and that is why i need wifi to work properly there as well as in the whole house. The signal is BAD in the garage, very unstable. Not dead, though.

What would be the easiest solution for me to get wifi working properly in my garage? I understand that i must buy an additional device. It gets utterly cold here during the winter times, so stretching a cable from the main house to the garage would not be an option, unfortunately.

 

[P4-630]

If you can, use 2 powerline adapters with a wifi extender.

 

[winterwonderland]

If you can, use 2 powerline adapters with a wifi extender.

What you mean by that? Sorry, i am bit noob with this... powerline adapters? wifi extender?

 

[P4-630]

What you mean by that? Sorry, i am bit noob with this... powerline adapters? wifi extender?

Plug a powerline adapter into a power socket near your router, then connect that adapter via Lan cable to the router.
Now take another powerline adapter and plug that into a power socket in your garage, in the garage plugin a wifi extender and connect the wifi extender via Lan cable to powerline adapter.

 

[winterwonderland]

Plug a powerline adapter into a power socket near your router, then connect that adapter via Lan cable to the router.
Now take another powerline adapter and plug that into a power socket in your garage, in the garage plugin a wifi extender and connect the wifi extender via Lan cable to powerline adapter.

Hmm, okay. i think i am following you, yes. I do have power sockets in my garage, yes. but a powerline adapter... any examples on such adapters, or?

 

[P4-630]

but a powerline adapter... any examples on such adapters, or?

Search on google.

Example

 

[winterwonderland]

Search on google.

Example
View attachment 148485

Okay. So i would need a wifi extender and those powerline adapters, and that's it? No additional router needed, or?

 

[P4-630]

Okay. So i would need a wifi extender and those powerline adapters, and that's it? No additional router needed, or?

Yes.
But the power of the garage must be wired to the house otherwise it can't work this way.

 

[Ferrum Master]

idk. Outdoor cat5e and a cheap router looks like the best solution. Best speed, price...

 

[winterwonderland]

Yes.
But the power of the garage must be wired to the house otherwise it can't work this way.

Yes, i do believe so. I can see the fuses to the garage in my fuse box, so i assume that means it's on the same powerline?

Any other solutions that doesn't include "outdoor" things, perhaps?

I am just checking what alternatives i have.

Wouldn't a repeater work like a charm for my solution, perhaps? Somethiing like Netgear EX6110?