WiFi repeater recommendation

GoliathsDownfall · September 10, 2022

I'm currently living in a metal guest house that prevents me from getting a clear wifi signal from the main house. On my PC I currently just put the antenna for my wifi card on the windowsill and I get good signal (good enough to Livestream in 1080p). However I can't get anything to my consoles or my TV. The second you walk inside you lose all signal from the wifi. Would a repeater be a good option and if so which one? It would obviously need to be able to sit on a windowsill to actually get the initial signal. I know some people don't like them but all my TV and consoles will really be doing is streaming in movies and downloading games.

This house has no wiring to get internet to it so getting it from the main house via wifi is my only option until it's wired over.

Thank you all for any suggestions.

Falcon1986 · September 10, 2022

1 hour ago, GoliathsDownfall said:

Would a repeater be a good option and if so which one?

Ideally, no. Repeaters use WiFi to propagate WiFi. Your metal guest house is essentially acting like a Faraday cage, so will block all forms of electromagnetic radiation, including WiFi.

1 hour ago, GoliathsDownfall said:

This house has no wiring to get internet to it so getting it from the main house via wifi is my only option until it's wired over.

If this is only temporary, get anything cheap for now and use ethernet when it becomes available.

WiFi repeaters are actually a thing of the past. Mesh systems are better, but they're still subject to interference.

GoliathsDownfall · September 11, 2022

14 hours ago, Falcon1986 said:

Ideally, no. Repeaters use WiFi to propagate WiFi. Your metal guest house is essentially acting like a Faraday cage, so will block all forms of electromagnetic radiation, including WiFi.

If this is only temporary, get anything cheap for now and use ethernet when it becomes available.

WiFi repeaters are actually a thing of the past. Mesh systems are better, but they're still subject to interference.

The plan is to eventually run Ethernet from the main house to this one (and possibly get it all set up as a mesh network so it's just getting the main wifi network into the guest house)but with all the other things that's being done in the main house as well it may be a bit.

LapsedMemory · September 11, 2022

How do you get power to the guest house? If you've got power or coax, you can always install Ethernet-over-power from the main house and the guest house, then run it to a switch for your devices. The speed won't be phenomenal, but it should be enough for streaming. If you've got COAX, then go with MOCA adapters instead.

Another option is a wifi bridge. Many cheap wifi routers with a bank of LAN ports have this option. Plug your devices into the lan ports, and put the wifi router next to the window in bridge mode, connected to the house wifi. You can actually do this with a network switch and your PC too, as windows has built-in tools for allowing your ethernet port to share it's wifi internet connection.

GoliathsDownfall · September 11, 2022

4 hours ago, LapsedMemory said:

How do you get power to the guest house? If you've got power or coax, you can always install Ethernet-over-power from the main house and the guest house, then run it to a switch for your devices. The speed won't be phenomenal, but it should be enough for streaming. If you've got COAX, then go with MOCA adapters instead.

Another option is a wifi bridge. Many cheap wifi routers with a bank of LAN ports have this option. Plug your devices into the lan ports, and put the wifi router next to the window in bridge mode, connected to the house wifi. You can actually do this with a network switch and your PC too, as windows has built-in tools for allowing your ethernet port to share it's wifi internet connection.

The latter two would be a good idea to try. I might try sharing my internet with my PC Ethernet port before the wifi bridge, since that's what I already have. I can't do Ethernet over power because the guest house has its own separate electric line(like separate bill for it from the electric company).