Broadband in garden office

Hi,

I've just had a garden office built in the garden approx 20 metres away from the house. The router (BT smart hub) is located in the house and we currently use BT Unlimited Infinity 1 which has a speed of just 15Mb.

I trade stocks on the internet so broadband reliability/speed are paramount in the new office. Would it be best to get a telephone point in the garden office and plug the router into there or alternatively take a few ethernet cables from the router in the house to the garden office?

Any other suggestions would be appreciated

Thanks

Wifi should reach over 20 metres (unless the HH is hidden behind thick walls) or you could try a set of those mains ethernet adapters (http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/dlink-500mbps-powerline-twin-pack-14-99-prime-18-98-non-prime-amazon-2502922)

Personally I would just get some ethernet cable and run it to the office - infact that's what I do do.

If the smarthub is near the wall facing the garden it will reach without any issues over WiFi.

Thanks for the replies...the walls are well insulated in the office so I might try a speedtest over wifi later on today. After receiving just 15mb of the 32mb "guaranteed" by BT I'm not left with any confidence in the WIFI signal over distance, despite Ryan Reynolds dangling from a helicopter with no loss.

Is that 15Mbps you are getting connecting wired or wirelessly to your Home Hub? Also, is the Home Hub plugged into the master socket or an extension socket?

In relation to that, please can you find the connection stats from your Home Hub. IIRC in Troubleshooting > Helpdesk. (You need to be logged into the router GUI). It may be necessary to do a couple of other checks once we get the answers to these questions .

Basically what I'm saying is we need to make sure you are getting the best possible connection speed in the first place. Poor speeds are very often down to not optimising the home wiring.

Once that is done, possibly an ethernet run inside the house to a socket convenient to run a single cable to the office inside wall, then connect the computer to that. Adding 20 metres or more to fit a phone socket in the office for it is the worst possible solution at the sort of speed you seem to have.

Edited by RobertoS (Wed 07-Sep-16 12:42:25)

For trading stocks speed is less of a concern, the ping is the biggest concern as that is what causes the delays.
There will be most likely be a slight speed reduction over WiFi but trading a stock will use hardly any bandwidth anyway.

Otherwise, run an ethernet cable which is the best solution but of course involves hassle.

Another alternative could be to use an outdoor access point like a Ubiquiti Picostation mounted on the side of the house. You can use these as wifi repeaters or feed them via an ethernet cable. I've also used Ubiquiti LocoM's as powerful wifi receivers (in a caravan just out of range of the site office wifi) and that worked brilliantly too.

Not better than an ethernet cable but potential alternatives if you dont want to be digging trench through garden etc!

Edited by deleted (Wed 07-Sep-16 12:54:48)

If it's important, use an ethernet cable, every time.

I'd be loath to run Ethernet over copper between buildings, because of the possibility of different ground potentials and other related issues. If it was me, I'd buy a pre-terminated OM4 armoured fibre assembly with LC connectors (probably Steel Wire Armoured, which can be buried straight in the ground, though other armour options are available). You run the cable between the buildings, remove the end caps and click the individual fibres into LC-LC couplers inside a patch box or patch panel. I'd go for at least four fibres in the assembly, which gives you a second duplex pairs for redundancy.

Once the fibre is in place, you use OM4 LC-LC patch cables to connect to the optics. 1000Base-SX will be more than adequate for your needs; there's no point spending a fortune on a 10Gbit/s link, though the fibre itself is capable of 10Gbit/s. If you just want to connect a single device, you can get a media convertor, otherwise use switches with SFP ports for the 1000Base-SX SFP optics. These need not cost that much - I would shop around for the switches and SFPs.


The links are to Universal Networks, with which I have no connection other than as a satisfied customer.