WAP to extend Mesh???
Author
Discussion

Mark Lewis

Original Poster:

142 posts

20 months

Tuesday 7th October
quotequote all
House has Eero mesh units (loads as the walls are 1m stone) - the barn (25m away) has an eero that is linked by cat6 to the house (easy to hide the wire)

Now stuck on the stables that are 50m (ish) away and running a wire there....which I have done is a mess and hiding it will be impossible. But it does mean I have an eero plugged in there now to link to the ring cameras up there and give wifi in the padock the stable is in.

So....to ditch that 100m nasty wire....do I:

a) put an eero in a waterproof box on the house and hope the signal gets to the stable's eero to complete the mesh (despite trees, etc in the way) or

b) put a WAP on the wall of the house and another on the stable and plug the stable eero into that (basically swapping the wire for the WAP)

I guess my question is - is a WAP way better at sending a signal that a mesh unit outside?


skyebear

990 posts

24 months

Tuesday 7th October
quotequote all
I think a couple of these Outdoor 7 devices may be what you need: https://support.eero.com/hc/en-us/articles/2716571...

Mark Lewis

Original Poster:

142 posts

20 months

Tuesday 7th October
quotequote all
The outdoor 7 is not in the UK (and they have no plans to sell it here)

xeny

5,273 posts

96 months

Wednesday 8th October
quotequote all
Mark Lewis said:
I guess my question is - is a WAP way better at sending a signal that a mesh unit outside?
Do you mean WAP, or a dedicated bridge unit? If the latter, then far better.

WH16

7,514 posts

236 months

Wednesday 8th October
quotequote all
Not sure how much you've invested in Eero, but Deco (TP Link) do outdoor (IP65) units, which I use to reach some outbuildings. Unfortunately the two systems are not compatible so it would need a complete swap.

Harpoon

2,279 posts

232 months

Wednesday 8th October
quotequote all
I would probably look at a Mikrotik "Wireless Wire" kit for the backhaul between the buildings and just use the Eero for device connectivity. £200 for a pre-configured pair to give a 1Gbps link. Pop a network switch into the stable for the Eero node and other wired devices

https://linitx.com/product/mikrotik-wireless-wire-...

skyebear

990 posts

24 months

Wednesday 8th October
quotequote all
Mark Lewis said:
The outdoor 7 is not in the UK (and they have no plans to sell it here)
That's a pain.

Looking at some feedback online it seems that eero is fairly restrictive and third party wireless point to point systems may not work.

Merry

1,445 posts

206 months

Wednesday 8th October
quotequote all
Can you not use some sort of WiFi point to point bridge, with the eero on the end of that in the stables.

Been a fair few years since I've looked at this mind...

.:ian:.

2,634 posts

221 months

Wednesday 8th October
quotequote all
Line of sight? or is there stuff in the way?

You should be able to get a 5ghz signal 50m outdoors with no buildings or trees in the way.

Stick one of the eeros out the window and see what the signal is like outside the stables. Then inside the stables.
You can get wifi heatmap apps for your phone/tablet.
If you get a decent signal outside then you should be able to use two eeros. You might not need one inside the stables, depending on its construction.

To extend the mesh you need a wifi bridge, so two of something like this : https://www.solwise.co.uk/EL-ENSTATION6

Or potentially you can just add an external WAP on the same SSID, this wont extend the mesh as such, but give a strong signal outside, that should be good enough to reach the stables and hopefully inside.

f.e https://www.solwise.co.uk/EL-ECW160

If this is strong enough to leak into the house, you need to ensure its not on the same channel as the indoors units.

TikTak

2,453 posts

37 months

Wednesday 8th October
quotequote all
.:ian:. said:
Line of sight? or is there stuff in the way?
That was my thought. Rather than putting a multi-directional eero unit on the roof (which I strongly doubt will have the range), get a directional antenna and point it at the stables.

If you're lucky/have a decent enough directional antenna you might just get away with that creating a wifi pocket you can use in that location, especially if it's not high usage. Failing that can just be set up as a point 2 point with another device at the other end.


biggiles

1,983 posts

243 months

Wednesday 8th October
quotequote all
You can also use "homeplug" units, the newer "g.hn" ones are so much better than the old ones. But armoured cable is very tough on the signal.

But frankly, it's an outbuilding, and unless you have serious network requirements, surely it's easier to just put another Eero in a waterproof box and have done with it?

A typical WAP will be no better than an Eero.

Mark Lewis

Original Poster:

142 posts

20 months

Wednesday 8th October
quotequote all
Thanks for the advice - gone for a wireless bridge unit. Fingers crossed!

Griffith4ever

5,894 posts

53 months

Thursday 9th October
quotequote all
By Wireless bridge, if you mean something like ths:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adalov-CPE660-Wireless-Br...

Then you will be pleasantly surprised. They are basically CPEs with most of the interface hidden from the end user I use TPLink and Kuwifi CPEs to achieve what you are doing.