Forum Discussion

DrNik80's avatar
DrNik80
Tuning in
2 months ago

How to extend network to guesthouse?

Hi folks, hope I can get your experienced advice on this.

I am using Virgin broadband at home. The router is in the 1st floor of the house, in a small room I use as my office. I need the router to be in my office so I can connect my workstation via ethernet cable to the router (NB: I need fast speed to work).

We have a small guesthouse which is *outside* the main property, a few meters separating the main house and the guesthouse. I need to turn the latter into an additional office so I need to extend my internet coverage there, preferably wired because I need the fast speeds.

Relocating the router from the main house to the guesthouse/office-to-be would not really be an option, as we need internet coverage in the rest of the main house.

Any thoughts? Is this doable?

Many thanks

 

  • Cardiffman282's avatar
    Cardiffman282
    Trouble shooter
    2 months ago

    Run a Cat 6 ethernet cable to the guesthouse from the hub and put a wifi access point on the end of this cable. 

  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    Alessandro Volta
    2 months ago

    Ask a local electrician, data/comms installer, computer tech etc, to install an ethernet cable from your existing office room to the guesthouse building.

    The cable should be external grade to withstand the sun/weather and it is often useful to install two cable runs at the same time for redundancy/futureproofing.

    In the guesthouse, connect the end of the ethernet cable to a network switch and/or wireless access point. In your home the other end of the ethernet cable plugs into one of the ethernet sockets on the VM hub.

    The method of getting the cable to the guesthouse depends on the geography of your home/garden. Options might include burying the cable in an underground duct between buildings or flying the cable overhead on a catenary wire (if sufficient height clearance is available) or possibly taking a route where the cable is clipped to walls, fences etc. A good cable installer will usually be able to find a way to get the cable from A to B.

    If you search the forum for

    garden room

    (same idea) you will find past topics which discuss further options and equipment

  • jbrennand's avatar
    jbrennand
    Very Insightful Person
    2 months ago

    Do as goslow recommends - we did this ourselves and used one of these in access mode - works brilliantly

     

    • DrNik80's avatar
      DrNik80
      Tuning in
      2 months ago

      Thank you all for your time this is great advice!

      Would the TP link wifi router be compatible with the Virgin router? Is it easy to set up or does it need a professional to handle?

      • jbrennand's avatar
        jbrennand
        Very Insightful Person
        2 months ago

        Yes its a doddle - my son set it up it in 5 minutes. We also used a wifi scanning App to check what channels were  in use at that point - so you can connect to the least used channels around you.  2.4 band should be set to either channel 1, 6 or 11 - least  in use at the new location.

        Only difficulty is running/hiding the Cat6a cable :-)

        Just leave the Hub as it is and set the TP-Link to access point mode (as per its instructions) using their App.  Ours has the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands set to different names (TP2 & TP5) with the same password - that allows you to connect to the most appropriate network but not essential can let the box "decide" if you prefer

        Has 4 ports for wired connections too.

    • DrNik80's avatar
      DrNik80
      Tuning in
      2 months ago

      Thank you for your time.

      May I pls ask, could I use this in the main house as well to strengthen the signal? Would it interfere with the pods I already have? 

      • Matthew_ML's avatar
        Matthew_ML
        Forum Team
        2 months ago

        Hey DrNik80, thank you for reaching out and just to jump on we would advise only to use one set of pods.

        Using this and pods may affect it overall.