Internet in garage far from router : Help :

Hi,

I am new to this and do not know much technical knowledge regarding this subject so bare with me please.

I live in the UK and have recently converted a garage into a room which is not connected to my house. In the converted garage I have the latest Apple iMac with "802.11 a/b/g/n" Airport capabilities.

The problem I am having is getting internet on my computer at that long distance. (around 20 feet atleast plus through three walls). I have upgraded my router with o2 to the new 'N' router to try to get a stronger signal but it actually seems worse? I am getting no signal at all...

When i do get a signal, rarely, I am able to play games on the mac, compose and send emails but the internet is frustratingly slow at times. I mean an hour to load google homepage. I am told this is due to losing and gaining signal being so far away but I am unsure which is what bring me to here.

basically what I want is some way of getting broadband to my garage without a ghastly cable floating from the house to the garage. I cant go undergroudf as I have jut had my drive done so i guess wireless signals are all I have to go on. I want something that will work as it has been 5 months now and is really taking its toll on me.

please anymore information dont hesitate to ask!

Appreciate any reply and thank you for your time.

Regards,

Justin.

DIAGRAM OF HOUSE

I have included a brief diagram of my predicament to show you what I mean....

Provided the garage is fed from the same electricity supply as the house then home plug would be my suggestion.

Apart from preferring Devolo (for no good reason that I'm prepared to defend!), I'd agree with Rockh.

Thank you for your suggestion Dave.

Are you aware of any speed implications at all? My internet already is fairly slow so any further reduction would be fairly frustrations. So I would plug this in next to my router. Use an ethernet cable to connect the two... then place another in a socket next to my Mac and an ethernet cable to connect the two and thats all there is to it? Sounds easy enough if I got that correct!

Thanks again.

Justin.

That Ghastly cable is your only hope of getting a good signal into your house with a router at the other end broadcasting internally. That or a new phone line put in.

Maybe should of hard wired before you had your drive done?

Right ok, thanks a lot!

Appreciated!

Your thoughts about how to connect them are correct, with a couple of provisos: they work better (ie faster) when plugged directly into the mains socket rather than an extension lead, and any form of surge or RF filtering is a complete no-no. They'll also work on different ring mains, provided both are fed from a single junction box.

There will almost certainly be a speed penalty, but it's hard to say in advance how much it will be, it's very much a case of suck it and see. I use a couple of the 85Mbps Devolo units on extension leads (naughty ) and get about 10Mbps over something like 10 meters.

But apart from that, in my experience you plug 'em in, connect 'em up and forget about them. I've had one pair in use for over 5 years, and never had to pay them the slightest attention. Except to brush the dust off now and then so I can see the LEDs

Sounds simple enough!

I am sure I can manage wiping dust off from time to time! I guess I will give it a go and see how it goes! Its worth a shot. Worst case scenario I get slower speeds i presume but a connection is a connection!

Thanks a lot for your time,

I will be sure to pass this website on to friends and family. I didn't expect such a speedy reply!

I have just ordered some and will be sure to let you know how it goes...

If you don't get a reply, you know it hasn't worked as I would have no internet to reply on

Thanks again =]

Justin.

I hope it works for you

One thing I would add though- if you're ever doing any work that would allow the installation of an acceptably unobtrusive Ethernet cable, do it. Don't forget that Cat5 Ethernet is spec'd for up to 100 metres, so it wouldn't matter if the route wasn't direct.

Cable will always be faster than any other form of connection.

(For the pedants: OK, fibre will be faster still, but not yet really appropriate for most domestic LANs!)

Just to add to the above, I use homeplugs in exactly the situation you have, and they work very well for this.

I wouldn't want to put a media server in the garage and attempt to watch films in the living room, but for general networking, they're excellent.

Using 85Mbps ones here, and at this exact moment, from my study to the garage via two fuseboxes and a LONG length of cable joining the two buldings, approx 40Mbps is available (approx 52 to the living room, where my router is.)