Extending WiFi to another building for an European home...

[5lic3]

Hello everyone! I'm looking for some advice on extending a WiFi network, and although I've seen similar topics, my situation has a bit of a twist because it involves international travel and a non-local setup.

Every year, I spend about two months working from my in-laws' office in Europe. The office has WiFi and is located on the first floor, directly above the fiber box, providing a decent signal. However, I'm facing a challenge in extending this WiFi to the main house, about 30 meters away.

Here's the setup: The office building has thick stone walls and well-insulated windows, which prevent the WiFi signal from reaching outside unless the front door is open and the fiber box is in sight. The office itself is an open plan area with large double-glazed sliding doors leading to a balcony, but the view is partially blocked by a tiled roof designed for winter weather protection.

The main house, also about 30 meters from the office, is built with similarly thick stone walls, and each building has its own electrical system.

I'm exploring ways to extend the WiFi to the main house as discreetly and affordably as possible. Here are my thoughts so far:

1. Place a WiFi extender in the office and connect it to the main house via an ethernet cable laid in a conduit. This might require digging through a driveway, although I could potentially avoid this by taking a longer route through the garden.
2. Similar to the first idea, but instead of connecting directly to the main house, use the ethernet cable to connect to a point-to-point system outside the office. This could then beam the signal directly to the main house. I'm concerned this might be visually intrusive and perhaps more complex than necessary.

I need to purchase the equipment here and take it with me. I'd greatly appreciate any advice, recommendations, or insights from anyone who's tackled a similar challenge. Is there a better approach I haven't considered? Thank you in advance for your help!

 

[RandomSheepZA]

Can ask why you don't just run a network cable from your router to the main house?
Why do you want to add WiFi extenders?

If you don't have enough network points on the router then I would first replace that.
The more devices you have in between, the more possible issues you will have.

Happy to help design a simple solution for you.

 

[JollyJamma]

Just run an outdoor rated Ethernet cable like the sheep said

Wi-Fi is poor for long distances.

Get a cable that’s reinforced, some passthrough RJ45 connectors and a crimper.

Net result, 10gbs connection without the wifi dropouts from interference.


You could try a Ethernet over power solution as long as it’s on the same power phase as the rest of the house but I wouldn’t count on it being amazing.

 

[PJtheKILL3R]

Net result, 10gbs connection without the wifi dropouts from interference.

One big disclaimer you are missing here, if he uses CAT5e he won't manage to do 10Gbe.
CAT6 would be required.
Personally between 2 buildings I would want the galvanic isolation that you get from fibre, you get pre-terminated fibre cable in various lengths that will have even less interference than copper cables.

 

[JollyJamma]

One big disclaimer you are missing here, if he uses CAT5e he won't manage to do 10Gbe.
CAT6 would be required.
Personally between 2 buildings I would want the galvanic isolation that you get from fibre, you get pre-terminated fibre cable in various lengths that will have even less interference than copper cables.

Wellll yessss, sure. CAT6 would be required.

Fibre is amazing but can be expensive.

Out of interest, Can you price 20m of fibre with connectors and networking equipment?

 

[PJtheKILL3R]

Out of interest, Can you price 20m of fibre with connectors and networking equipment?

The pre-terminated fibre is stupidly cheap.
30m outdoor LC-LC is about R200 for a 2 core cable (Single mode), if you are going to bury it though you need to put inside a conduit, 20mm conduit works fine, works out to about R6 p/m for the conduit.

The expensive part is the SFP (Or SFP+ if you want 10Gbps+ speeds) capable switches you need on both ends (If you don't already have gear with open SFP ports), or if you happy with 1Gbps you could get media converters (About R800 each and you would need 2) or something like a Mikrotik CSS610-8G-2S+IN (Has 2SFP+ ports) if you want 10Gbps. ~R2400 each.
2x Cudy SFP+ modules for Single mode fibre is ~R700

So 1Gbps fibre with media converters +-R2500
10Gbps with those Mikrotik switches would be R5700

Of course you need to buy whatever would suit your install the best (And see whatever you have that you could re-use)
Most people would be just fine with 1Gbps.
Mikrotik actually has a nice little 4 port SFP+ switch (CRS305-1G-4S+IN) ~R3k which you could use to tie a few devices together at 10Gbps if you have that requirement.

 

[JollyJamma]

So 1Gbps fibre with media converters +-R2500
10Gbps with those Mikrotik switches would be R5700

R2500 for fibre isn’t bad but CAT6 is better value.

I do love fibre. It’s fundamentally a top rate technology - Wi-Fi on the other hand is a pain in the arse.

 

[cdmnuy]

Something like this maybe? Linkbasic 100M Shielded UV Protected Cat6 Cable

 

[Scrooloose]

You could do a point-to-point wireless bridge. It would be the least-effort approach, but probably won't be particularly cost effective.

First prize would be fibre, and I personally would advise against running copper under ground due to lightning and interference possibility. I realise that lightning is less of an issue in most of Europe, but the risk still exists.

 

[PJtheKILL3R]

R2500 for fibre isn’t bad but CAT6 is better value.

Value is relative, after the lightning kills your setup one time you will be kicking yourself for not going fibre.

but probably won't be particularly cost effective.

Yeah, Mikrotik have those little 60Ghz radios that would work great for giving 1Gbps speeds at that range, but yeah it would cost more than the fibre option.