Advice on WAP in home office please

[hllns]

It is also possible to get inline voltage changers to run 24v PoE kit on 48v PoE, but it did always worry me that the white outer casing of the ubiquiti ones was burnt to yellow at a particular point

I've had several of those die over the years, they're rubbish, switched back to the supplied injectors

 

[Stringman_uk]

Last question - I promise ( well until I come to buy the wap/switcher!

for my purpose- running externally to home office should I go for shielded or un shielded cable??
Thanks

 

[hllns]

Unshielded but exterior grade if it's exposed to the elements in any way.

 

[Stringman_uk]

Unshielded but exterior grade if it's exposed to the elements in any way.

Thanks for that
can I usk why- not questioning it but i just presumed sheilded would be better

 

[hllns]

Thanks for that
can I usk why- not questioning it but i just presumed sheilded would be better

Necessary if you're trying to solve a particular EMI issue but costs more and is harder to terminate properly.
The issues that you'd run in to are down to how well it's terminated and if you're venturing outside potentially water ingress, FTP doesn't really help with either of those.
I've seen all manner of ropey cat5e installs over the years that have worked fine, whenever we've had issues it's nearly always at the ends due to poor termination, socket damage etc

 

[Stringman_uk]

Necessary if you're trying to solve a particular EMI issue but costs more and is harder to terminate properly.
The issues that you'd run in to are down to how well it's terminated and if you're venturing outside potentially water ingress, FTP doesn't really help with either of those.
I've seen all manner of ropey cat5e installs over the years that have worked fine, whenever we've had issues it's nearly always at the ends due to poor termination, socket damage etc

That makes sense
It will definately be the terminations in the case! Its been a fair few years since I terminated any cat hence the desire to buy ready made cables lol

 

[robinbanks]

Thanks for that
can I usk why- not questioning it but i just presumed sheilded would be better

From what are you thinking to sheild the electrical signals within the cable?

Terminating is easy enough with a bit of practice; skin the outer to slightly longer than the correct amount, trim the central divider plastic, unwind the pairs and rearrange roughly. If any are really reluctant to stay near the end location, undo one more twist on the pair and try again. Arrange them all in order how they will be in the socket and pinch them between thumb and forefinger then pull and bend 45 degrees one way, 45 the other and back to straight (it encourages them to stay where they are when you release thumb and forefinger), clip them off to the correct length and put them into the plug.

The crimp tool will have a fat finger that pushes on the plastic locking triangle that retains the cable. Take care to locate the plug in the tool so that this finger pushes on the part that moves rather than the hinge part attached to the plug as overzealous squeezing of the crimp tool can break the plastic triangle off if it presses on the hinge too much..

 

[Stringman_uk]

So a bit of an update.
I have bought some external cat 6, connectors etc and I won an ebay bid on an Ubiquity
Uap-ac-m-pro This comes with an injector so I could just buy a cheap switch ( was thinking TPlink)

So I can see the range is huge (180m) but does anyone know the angle of output? I presume it isnt 360 or even 180

The reason I ask is my garden is long and thin. its about 5.5m wide but about 50m long.
Originally I thought of putting the wap on the office ( which is halfway up the garden)
But this seems a waste.
The office will be hard wired So I wondered if it would actually be better to put a small switch in the kitchen and then feed the office from that. Then I could feed the the WAP ( via the poe injector) and hang it on the kitchen wall facing up the garden?

Any thoughts?

Thanks

​

 

[mrrusty]

My network is ISP router => honor router 30m away => fritz router another 30m away. The honor and fritz have dhcp turned off and a fixed IP connected with Cat5e. I can use the ports on the honor and fritz to connect other devices and no problem with streaming, video conf etc. The honor and fritz also give me wifi at these locations. I use the same SSID and PW on all devices and all seems to work fine. I also have a little switch plugged in to the ISP router which gives me a few more ports as well. All solid and stable.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

thanks for the reply
not sure about the relevance of burying fibre- I definitely wont be using fibre or burying cables.
As I said the office itself will be run on hard wire. The reason for the wifi was to reach the summerhouse (40m from our house 50+ from the neighbours) and to be able to use our echo in the garden, It shouldnt interfere with the neighbours at all

Generally, the further you get away from your neighbours wifi access points, the more useful, and reliable your own wifi becomes. You might get away with wire to the office and an AP there, then make do with wifi to the summerhouse.

Here, I struggled with accessing wifi from the house, in my large back garden. I ended up installing a 2g 5g repeater in my hut, connecting to my main router in the loft, via both 2g and 5g. The hut is around 1/3 the way up my garden. It provides reasonable coverage to most of the garden and my summerhouse.

One particular problem I had, was getting wifi access into my metal roofed garage and workshop. The repeater in the hut, fixed that too.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I also have a little switch plugged in to the ISP router which gives me a few more ports as well. All solid and stable.

My setup is - ISP router in loft, wired LAN to second router on ground floor, plus LAN to print server on 1st floor. I use wifi to two TV's on 1st floor, wired LAN to living room TV. Wired LAN to security cam from loft, and to Rpi serving weather station. Finally a wifi repeater in the garden hut.

Various other portable devices, can connect to any of the three wifi AP's.

 

[Stringman_uk]

Thanks all.
I have bought a little 4 way switch that I will install in the kitchen
Then using the poe injector I will try the wap on the kitchen wall and see how far it reaches. ( should be fine as its range is 180m my garden is 40m)
If it doesnt reach then when I wire up the office I will try it there.

Just got to work out how to set it all up now!

 

[robinbanks]

hang it on the kitchen wall facing up the garden?

Yes, and in free air, 50m is nothing for wifi

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Yes, and in free air, 50m is nothing for wifi

I managed half a mile, without too much difficulty. Walls, particularly metal, and neighbours wifi access points, are the main limitations on usable distance.

 

[Stringman_uk]

Well I have done a bit of experimenting today.
Hung it on the kitchen wall. 1st cable to the switch is a 15m cat5 (not e)
named the new wifi test ( as you do)
sat on the patio and got 285mbs
Moved to where the office (about 15m away) and it dropped to 85mbs
Moved to the summerhouse and the speed dropped to 50mbs
I was hoping for less of a drop but those speeds are more than adequate.
Obviously when I move into the house I am still connected to test (10mbs)

Next thing I tried was to rename the network to the same as the house networks. The house network is split into 5ghz and 2.4ghz as some devices we have only work on 2.4ghz.
My theory was that then it would just be one big network and the device will connect to the strongest signal.
Sadly I seemed to end up with 2 lots of 5ghz network and 2.4ghz networks.
Is there a simple way to "merge" the networks together so its seemless ( not to bothered about the house 2.4ghz)

Thanks