Wi-Fi range extender

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farmerjohn1324

Member
I have a T-Mobile hotspot installed outside and plugged into a temporary power pole. This is a construction site with no power inside so the only source of power is the temporary power pole. There is a Ring camera mounted outside close to the hotspot and these two are working together great.

However, I'm trying to put a camera inside, and I believe the block walls of the house are too much interference. I haven't measured, but I believe it's within 100 feet.

Will a Wi-Fi range extender work here? It will have to be weatherproof. Are there certain specifications I can look at on the range extender so that I know it will work before I buy it?
 
beers

beers

Moderator
Staff member
Hummmmmmmmm, I've done similar installs to this, although usually it was with a cellular device integrated into a router, then you'd simply use an external antenna on top of the building to feed the router inside. A lot of building materials act like a faraday cage especially if it has a metal exterior.

You might be able to wire an access point in bridge mode to the hotspot in the box and then wire it inside, and then you can span whatever internal wireless connecivity through access points internally, although it starts getting into rigged territory a bit imo.

Cradlepoint specializes in those types of setup for using cellular as a WAN:
cradlepoint.com

Home | Wireless WAN & Private Cellular Solutions | Cradlepoint

Wireless WAN and private cellular solutions use 5G and LTE to enable the freedom to connect your enterprise — anywhere.
cradlepoint.com cradlepoint.com
 
F

farmerjohn1324

Member
beers said:
Hummmmmmmmm, I've done similar installs to this, although usually it was with a cellular device integrated into a router, then you'd simply use an external antenna on top of the building to feed the router inside. A lot of building materials act like a faraday cage especially if it has a metal exterior.

You might be able to wire an access point in bridge mode to the hotspot in the box and then wire it inside, and then you can span whatever internal wireless connecivity through access points internally, although it starts getting into rigged territory a bit imo.

Cradlepoint specializes in those types of setup for using cellular as a WAN:
cradlepoint.com

Home | Wireless WAN & Private Cellular Solutions | Cradlepoint

Wireless WAN and private cellular solutions use 5G and LTE to enable the freedom to connect your enterprise — anywhere.
cradlepoint.com cradlepoint.com
Click to expand...

The building is masonry walls and wood/shingle roof. No metal.

The signal is almost strong enough. It's possible that I could move the camera to another location of the house, but that wouldn't give me the view I want, so I'll try to amplify instead.

All access points I've seen have an Ethernet cable as their input. My hotspot doesn't have an Ethernet output. So I would also need a device that "catches" the Wi-Fi and outputs an Ethernet cable. I saw a product like this but it seems out of stock (or out of production) everywhere I look. Here it is...

WL-330gE - Support

www.asus.com www.asus.com

And I would also have to get power to both the access point and the WiFi-to-Ethernet converter. I've seen some access points can get power from the Ethernet cable.
 
beers

beers

Moderator
Staff member
farmerjohn1324 said:
So I would also need a device that "catches" the Wi-Fi and outputs an Ethernet cable
Click to expand...
Any cheapy AP will have a client or bridge mode that does this, I just used one to connect to my neighbors Comcast while they were repairing mine. Once you set the SSID and MAC to join it just acts like a cable bro.
 
F

farmerjohn1324

Member
beers said:
Any cheapy AP will have a client or bridge mode that does this, I just used one to connect to my neighbors Comcast while they were repairing mine. Once you set the SSID and MAC to join it just acts like a cable bro.
Click to expand...

I called Cradlepoint and that is more than what I need. They would have required me to sign up for a monthly service and pay at least $600 for their cheapest product. I just want to own the equipment outright with no monthly contracts.

I've been playing "phone tag" with a local Ubiquity dealer. I want to make sure their Access Points have a bridge mode. I couldn't find anything saying that in the specs.

Can you suggest an Access Point that will work for me?
 
beers

beers

Moderator
Staff member
UBNT doesn't really do bridge mode. They do wireless uplink to their own UBNT products which works okay, but not to a third party vendor.
 
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