WiFi Extenders that actually work?

[riser4]

Seemed like a job for a Cantenna. https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to...ingles-can-nb/

[dan_pdx]

Seemed like a job for a Cantenna. https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to...ingles-can-nb/

I was just about to suggest this! It will cost you 2 cans of Pringles (I think you need one at each end). Worth a shot before investing in something more expensive.

[riser4]

I was just about to suggest this! It will cost you 2 cans of Pringles (I think you need one at each end). Worth a shot before investing in something more expensive.

Slow your roll there superchief. Read the article. Other cans have better shapes. Pringles is wrong dimensions. Plus you need a few other parts.

[dan_pdx]

Slow your roll there superchief. Read the article. Other cans have better shapes. Pringles is wrong dimensions. Plus you need a few other parts.

What's that, RTFA you say? Pretty good idea ;-) I may have let my feelings for Pringles get the better of me

[RShea]

Seemed like a job for a Cantenna. https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to...ingles-can-nb/

I was just about to suggest this! It will cost you 2 cans of Pringles (I think you need one at each end). Worth a shot before investing in something more expensive.

That is just a home made directional antenna that I suggested as one of the options. Cheaper than a premade factory units, cantenna if done right could help pick up an existing signal better.

You do not always need 2 of them, it also depends on where the router is and if there is a window or whatever at that side of the connection is (nobody usually wants to run an external antenna off their router that typically has omni-directional antennas connected. The wire would have to run to somewhere near a window of the wall closest to the 2nd building...

All depends on many factors.

[coldfeet]

If you can't easily get the super duper little microwave connectors for the Cantenna, or don't solder, you could probably just stick the aerial of the router into the can at the right place and it would boost the signal enough to relay it to the house.

You could also try putting a router at the focus of a wok or similar dish (colander) - I am not kidding, some of my friends used a wok+router in a window to relay wifi across the street a few years ago. At the frequencies/wavelengths used by wifi (6-12 cm), metal mesh also makes a good reflector.

[adrenalated]

He's my boss/friend and doesn't normally rent this spot out. Just doing me a solid post split until I get off my feet.

Yeah, but what does he normally do with the guest house? I mean, if he has guests at all regularly, or does short term rentals on it, having functional wifi is important. Mesh is really the only answer. Offer to help him with the cost (maybe 1/3 of a 3 point system), setup with most of the major systems is dead simple, and the shit really just works.

[snapt]

Yeah, but what does he normally do with the guest house? I mean, if he has guests at all regularly, or does short term rentals on it, having functional wifi is important. Mesh is really the only answer. Offer to help him with the cost (maybe 1/3 of a 3 point system), setup with most of the major systems is dead simple, and the shit really just works.

It's mostly just a halfway house for employees who end up divorced to crash in until they find something to move on to. its 225 square feet, off the grid, pipes/toilet freeze off and on all winter, people don't stay long but I love it here! He said he was open to mesh today as his router is shitting the bed. So I guess that will solve that.

[old goat]

We have friends who have a house 60 ft away. They aren't there much and they don't have internet, TV or a land line phone. When they are there we have an extender that we pug into an outside outlet on the wall closest to their house, which is the wall 35 away from our router. They have no trouble using our internet when they're here. When they're not we unplug it. They bought the extender, I don't know the brand or specs, and I'm not at the house to look at it--sorry about that, but at least you know there is something that works.

The space between the router and the wall with the extender is wide open except for the one exterior wall. Likewise in their house, the signal has to go through one outside wall.

[RShea]

If you can't easily get the super duper little microwave connectors for the Cantenna, or don't solder, you could probably just stick the aerial of the router into the can at the right place and it would boost the signal enough to relay it to the house.

You could also try putting a router at the focus of a wok or similar dish (colander) - I am not kidding, some of my friends used a wok+router in a window to relay wifi across the street a few years ago. At the frequencies/wavelengths used by wifi (6-12 cm), metal mesh also makes a good reflector.

That reflector is going to kill the wifi signal the opposite direction though, so sacrifice the main structure's full coverage by redirection the signal from behind the router even if the router is in the middle of the house, the signal is going to be greatly reduced on the section of the house behind the reflector unless a omnidirectional antenna is used behind the reflector also.

[RShea]

It's mostly just a halfway house for employees who end up divorced to crash in until they find something to move on to. its 225 square feet, off the grid, pipes/toilet freeze off and on all winter, people don't stay long but I love it here! He said he was open to mesh today as his router is shitting the bed. So I guess that will solve that.

Sounds like a plan- he gets a new router/mesh with 3 units (puts the base where the existing router and modem is now) sets a 2nd mesh satellite over near the outside wall on your side of the main house if there is signal that reaches there as the boost to go across the yardage of the property, and then you put a 2nd satellite in the smaller "house".