Wifi throughout the house and beyond....recommendations please

Sackmycook

Sackmycook

Ex-owner
T6 Legend
Just about to move into my new gaff and looking at the way I would like wifi to work. We are very rural and the cottage is stone built and long, in one floor.
My supplier uses a line of sight system to a receiver on the outside wall. There is then a modem inside the house at one end.
I'm thinking of a powerlink system using the house electrics with an output in each room? I'd also like the ability for it to reach an outhouse and shed about 30m away from the house which, although it has its own distribution board, is linked to the main house electrics.

Any recommendations and advice greatly appreciated
 
The stone walls are an issue. Have a look at swapping out a socket in some rooms for a socket with a wifi extender built-in. Screwfix do them.

You biggest challenge will be the performance of the “line of sight” internet. We had it and it was pants. Maybe look at going for a Starlink setup? It’s a great solution for rural “not spots”
 
Sounds like you live in a welsh long cottage. JOG is right, propagating a wifi signal in a stone cottage will result in poor service. The best signal will always be from a wired connection, so if you wfh and have an office i would try and either put the router in that room, or hardwire from the router to that room. The powerlinks are ok, but i have had mixed results putting them in my father in laws house. Thats an older house and im not too sure how good the electrics are! Starlink uses satellite technology but is pricey. A quick look on their website shows £75 per month.
 
Thanks both, yes it's a Long Cottage, originally 2 but knocked into one.
The system is through Alncom and its supposedly pretty reliable through to the router box thingy. I will have to see I guess, how it's like through the house once we get in.
The outbuilding is a Shepherds Hut which we will be renting out, so would be good to offer wifi in there to paying guests. I've read it might be possible to run an external ethernet cable to it?
 
Internally in our stone cottage I bit the bullet & laid Ethernet to suitably spaced Ubiquiti APs which mesh seamlessly on the same SSID as you walk through.

Garage has same SSID, but could easily be a seperate one or multiple. Ubiquiti stuff is very flexible
 
BikerPa said:
Internally in our stone cottage I bit the bullet & laid Ethernet to suitably spaced Ubiquiti APs which mesh seamlessly on the same SSID as you walk through.

Garage has same SSID, but could easily be a seperate one or multiple. Ubiquiti stuff is very flexible
Click to expand...
Similar story here, I went a further stage and put a power over ethernet switch which feeds 3 Cisco wireless access points at various locations of the property (only the ethernet cables is needed for data and power, so easier in locations where local power is not available - for example in the loft). I also use the switch to power all the CCTV cameras I have installed. its initially a PITA running ethernet cable everywhere, but once its done, its done for good and connection speeds will be lightening compared to wireless boosters, repeaters powerline adaptors etc.
 
BikerPa said:
All my Ubiquiti APs are PoE powered from a central Netgear PoE switch as described above

Sorry I thought this was a given these days :whistle:
Click to expand...
Hey PoE buddy! - I dont know of anyone else with this setup in a domestic setting, as most of my IT work is in the commercial sector, I brought this mentality home with me. Mine is probably a bit OTT for a domestic setting (Dell rack server, with VMs for CCTV, Home automation, file server etc and OPNsense for routing/firewall) Switch, redundant supplies etc.

BTW, if my other half asks, its all completely necessary! :cool:
 
Last edited:
BikerPa said:
Internally in our stone cottage I bit the bullet & laid Ethernet to suitably spaced Ubiquiti APs which mesh seamlessly on the same SSID as you walk through.

Garage has same SSID, but could easily be a seperate one or multiple. Ubiquiti stuff is very flexible
Click to expand...
SsID?
 
sparkzer said:
Hey PoE buddy! - I dont know of anyone else with this setup in a domestic setting, as most of my IT work is in the commercial sector, I brought this mentality home with me. Mine is probably a bit OTT for a domestic setting (Dell rack server, with VMs for CCTV, Home automation, file server etc and OPNsense for routing/firewall) Switch, redundant supplies etc.

BTW, if my other half asks, its all completely necessary! :cool:
Click to expand...
I’ve not gone this far with mine but do have UPS’s on my router/PoE switch which supplies the APs. Also on my NAS

Our CCTV runs on specific separate PoE Ethernet NW with UPS backup as they switch faster than the Tesla powerwall2 that backs up the whole property will.

As I work mainly from home these days & we suffer numerous power outages here in rural North Yorkshire, I’m a bit paranoid about not being able to work when Northern Powergrids infrastructure cr@ps out on a regular basis :rolleyes:
 
Seems I have been a bit pessimistic about my WiFi signal ! My advertised service is 20mbs, achieving 19 close to the router and approx 16-18 in the furthest room.
I can get 1-2mbs in the Mancave, about 25m across the garden and as I'm planning on a Zwift cycle trainer going in there, will definitely need a boost in that direction.
 
I'd suggest the powerline adaptors with wifi in the rooms you need a good signal. I'm in a town house so used to use a powerline WiFi device on the top floor just to make the signal a bit more stable.
 
Hi Paul
Just be aware that the plug in extenders that rely upon the electrical circuit to distribute the signal, are impeded if the property has two fuse boxes.

I found this out the hard way, they didn't work from my (old) house to the extension.

I ended up with three BT Whole Home Hub discs which work really well.

Hope that you get it sorted
 
I use TP-Link Archer router and one mesh wi-fi extenders. Seamless gigabit Wi-Fi throughout the house and garden, with the advantage of good support and long term security updates for the products.
 
Oldrat said:
Hi Paul
Just be aware that the plug in extenders that rely upon the electrical circuit to distribute the signal, are impeded if the property has two fuse boxes.

I found this out the hard way, they didn't work from my (old) house to the extension.

I ended up with three BT Whole Home Hub discs which work really well.

Hope that you get it sorted
Click to expand...
Hello Matey,
Yeah, I've got 3 fuseboxes at the last count and I think there is one more to find.....
I've got some of the BT discs lying around from a previous setup but I don't think they will fit the bill on my needs. I've got good signal in the house but need to extend it across the garden to my workshop/mancave and the nearby Shepherds Hut.
I'm leaning towards a Wavlink AC600 on the outside wall of the cottage and see if that throws a good signal.
 
laidbackian said:
I use TP-Link Archer router and one mesh wi-fi extenders. Seamless gigabit Wi-Fi throughout the house and garden, with the advantage of good support and long term security updates for the products.
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure I'd have to keep my line of sight router from Alncom.
 
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