Is this networking overkill?

I've got a mate who has a Belkin Router in his garage and a Belkin Range Extender in his house, he has two computers in his house. The garage is about 100 feet away from his house). The first computer (in the front of the house) picks up an OK signal but the other computer (back of the house) picks up a very weak signal.

I am wondering if I buy this and this instead of the two Belkins:

Netgear DGN2000 300Mbps Wireless N ADSL2+ Modem/Router

Netgear WG602 54Mbps Wireless Access Point


Should I get a better signal?

I'd prefer HomePlugs in that situation.

Is cat5 really so difficult to lay?

yeah tbh, the garage is quite far away and is an MOT testing garage so cabling around it and up to the house would be a nightmare.

Heard the home plugs have to work on the same electrical circuit as the router though, which in this case it wouldn't be.

You could always use can-fi.

In reply to a post by smurkej:

the garage is quite far away and is an MOT testing garage

In that case cabling via Cat5/6 may be your only real option as the machinery and equipment used may cause huge problems for wireless connectivity.

In reply to a post by smurkej:

Heard the home plugs have to work on the same electrical circuit as the router though, which in this case it wouldn't be.

I had envisaged a house with a domestic garage attached or at least very close and thereby sharing the electricity supply.

forgot the link: http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/cantennahowto.html
can boost a signal over miles.

In reply to a post by Deadbeat:

I'd prefer HomePlugs in that situation.

I'd be a bit wary of Homeplugs- I suspect the word "Home" is there for a good reason.

Not at all sure how they'd behave in the electrical noise of any industrial-type environment.

In reply to a post by billford:

In reply to a post by Deadbeat:

I'd prefer HomePlugs in that situation.

I'd be a bit wary of Homeplugs- I suspect the word "Home" is there for a good reason.

Not at all sure how they'd behave in the electrical noise of any industrial-type environment.

When I posted that I thought that we were talking about a normal domestic garage.

Edited by Deadbeat (Wed 15-Jul-09 17:37:34)

Well, the key question is,

Are both buildings on the same mains supply, ie, share a meter?

Yes = homeplugs *should* work.
No = homeplugs will not work.

In terms of coping with mains-borne noise or suchlike, homeplugs use a *very* similar method to ADSL to decide how to work - a wide frequency range split in to "bins".

If the buildings share a meter, the AV homeplugs apparently work better over long range, but I use 85Mbps ones in my own (domestic-ish) garage, and get about 20Mbps to one and 35Mbps to the other in the house, across a similar, probably greater, distance and across the garage's not-great wiring - the homeplug in there is at the end of a spur, I haven't fully investigated the state of the ring main in there, and it's an old wire-fuse type fusebox. This goes back to the modern fusebox in the house via a long armoured cable.

The internet connection in the garage is used for iPlayer and the llike while I work in there, using power tools up to and including arc welding on the same ring main, and it copes just fine.