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Ethernet cable to garden office

Wisesophie12
Joining in

I'm looking to get WiFi working in a garden office. We have tried a netgear extender as the office is super close to the house, but the outer walls block any signal. As the office is so close the next thought is to run an ethernet cable across

Is it just as simple as installing the cable and connecting it to an access point?

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Andrew-G
Alessandro Volta

Probably an idea to use outdoor grade ethernet if it is exposed to sunlight, and I'd use Cat 6a.  If it's 100% in trunking or conduit you can use indoor grade stuff.  And however it is setup, make sure that you can replace the ethernet cable without too much trouble.  Whilst the probability of the cable going bad is small if carefully handled and suitably protected, they can still sometimes go bad for no obvious reason, and if that happens you don't want to have to excavate buried conduit, or dig up a nicely laid garden path, etc

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VM-Alex
Forum Team (Retired)
Forum Team (Retired)

The short answer is yes. 

The longer answer involves researching what you want from the access point. It can be done cheaply and still be effective or you can spend more for a smarter set up. 

From a Virgin perspective you can get their plume pods and use the wired ethernet as wired backbone and use it as a WiFi accesspoint in the office. 

From a cheap perspective, alot of old routers can be set up as access points that keep costs down. 

The smarter setups use a mesh system and are really good at handing devices off to the other nodes as you move about the property.

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I work for Virgin Media - but all opinions posted here are my own

g0akc
Problem sorter

@Wisesophie12 wrote:

 

Is it just as simple as installing the cable and connecting it to an access point?


Basically yes.

One of the challenges can be terminating the cable with a plug.   There are a couple of main choices;

  • Run cable through wall and terminate with a plug yourself
  • Use a pre-terminated/ready made cable - this can mean needing to make a larger hole in the wall - for the plug to pass through.

Much depends on the cable run - the type of wall, and existing holes or gaps that can be utilised.  There are a number of skills involved in running cables!

You can purchase a crimping tool online or from shops like screwfix.  There are details of how to terminate the plugs online.

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I know a bit about Wi-Fi, Telecoms, and TV as I used to do it for a living but I'm not perfect so don't beat me up... If you make things you make mistakes!

Tudor
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

A direct Ethernet cable is far the best option. It’s unlikely that a home mesh system would work very well as WiFi signals are very fickle and a lot of glass contains metal that blocks a large amount of the signal. Another thing the signal is easily dispersed when it’s raining.


Tudor
There are 10 types of people: those who understand binary and those who don't and F people out of 10 who do not understand hexadecimal c1a2a285948293859940d9a49385a2

Andrew-G
Alessandro Volta

Probably an idea to use outdoor grade ethernet if it is exposed to sunlight, and I'd use Cat 6a.  If it's 100% in trunking or conduit you can use indoor grade stuff.  And however it is setup, make sure that you can replace the ethernet cable without too much trouble.  Whilst the probability of the cable going bad is small if carefully handled and suitably protected, they can still sometimes go bad for no obvious reason, and if that happens you don't want to have to excavate buried conduit, or dig up a nicely laid garden path, etc

In fact the cost of the actual cable is tiny compared to the expense of getting someone to lay it or the inconvenience of doing it yourself, so always install at least two runs of the cable. Properly terminate and use one of them and leave the other as a ‘backup’ And no, don’t be tempted to use both of them at the same same on the grounds that two cables will give faster speed - no? Because unless you know what you are doing and have equipment capable of dealing with this situation, then ‘bad stuff’ will happen!

Over the years I  have gone through a number of solutions.

Powerline are a waste of space.

Wifi Bridge using a pair of directional units ran out of speed at 700Mb

Outdoor spec 5e cable hung of 50m of catenary, l became concerned as to lightening risk and even using a lag connection still a bottle neck

Finally a 4 core om3 fibre. 20gb throughout and probably good for my needs for the duration. Most of my non WiFi need is 10Gb connected.

Hub4/Gig1-> pfSense->Microtik CRS312/CSS326/CRS305->Meshed Asus RT-AX89X
VM Network - Timwilky

Wisesophie12
Joining in

Thanks for the swift replies all. Will definitely do some research into the points raised 

Don't overlook "quick and dirty", in the form of unprotected, surface laid cable, pushed under hedges or against the base of walls and fences.  Whilst that's not good practice, we see it used often enough in VM coax installations, and it can avoid a huge amount of cost and effort.  Whilst this has greater risk of damage, if you make sure that the cable entry and exit points are suitable for re-threading a replacement, then you don't need to run two cables, no digging, no conduit.  If you want pre-terminated you'll need 14mm holes in walls or window frames to allow for the plug.  If going through masonry walls and you have the tools and the bits, a 15mm hole in a wall with a length of 15mm water pipe creates a neat job and makes passing a plug and cable easy (just use some non-permanent wadding to fill the gap around the cable.  

If buying pre-terminated choices are bit limited, but Cat 7 like this would do. Basic Cat 6 is more readily available, personally I'd choose Cat 6a or 7 because they're shielded, which is perhaps a good idea for surface laid cable.  And subject to suitable doors or windows you might even find the flat cable can be run through the door or window shut, avoiding drilling.

Tudor
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

I would never ever use Cat7 cable because it’s proprietary and not recognised by any international standards body. Only use ones approved are Cat5e/Cat6/Cat6a and Cat8.


Tudor
There are 10 types of people: those who understand binary and those who don't and F people out of 10 who do not understand hexadecimal c1a2a285948293859940d9a49385a2