I'm trying to find a way to get WiFi into a building that's about 20 meters away from my main house. The main router is situated in a corner of the house, and unfortunately, there's no feasible way to run a cable to the edge of the house. I'm considering using a secondary router placed near an external wall, connected wirelessly to the main router, then running a CAT5 or CAT6 cable to the external building where I'll set up an access point or another router. Does anyone have experience with this setup? Is it likely to work? Also, if I set up a mesh network inside the main house, can I connect a CAT5 cable from a mesh point to the external building? It's hard to find information on whether mesh kits can support a physical connection to an access point. Just so you know, Powerline adapters won't work for me, and WiFi boosters are ineffective inside the external building due to its high insulation with foil. Thanks for any insights!
1 Answer
You might consider this setup: run the main router's WiFi to a second access point (AP) within your house, then extend a cable outdoors to a third AP in your external building. While this may not be the most optimal solution, it could work if the WiFi link is strong enough between your main house and the second AP. Ideally, if you can manage to run an Ethernet cable all the way from your main router to the AP in the outbuilding, that would be even better since regular Ethernet can cover distances of up to 100 meters. You might need to get resourceful by sneaking the cable around the house or through any possible available space. But if running the cable isn't practical, a mesh network could work as long as there's a clear line of sight for the WiFi signal to transfer from one building to another.
Thanks for the advice! Unfortunately, running a cable from my current router is impossible because of the layout of my house and the lack of nearby external walls. There’s a window in the external building, but it opens into a bathroom, making it tricky to set up a receiver without being awkward. The garden's full of trees and other obstructions too. But I think I can run a cable outside, which would let me install an AP directly in the outbuilding to bypass all that insulation. I just need to tackle that initial connection first! By the way, can I connect a CAT5 cable to a mesh point, or are those not built to function like that?