extend wifi outdoors

peter1942

Can anyone recommend a device to extend wifi outdoors?

Gaeilgeoir

@peter1942 You could use a Wlan Box 2 or 3 and place in that way that you will have a good signal outdoors, e.g. on a terrace or balcony. How large should the range be?

WLAN-Box 2 – Internet-Box & WLAN-Box | Swisscom

peter1942

I have both WLAN-Box-2 and 3 inside the house but they are not particularly convenient as they are not waterproof and can only be placed on a table or floor. Would prefer a waterproof extender that I could fix to a pole or a wall and with a range of 15 - 20 metres

Gaeilgeoir

@peter1942 Good results are reported in the german speaking community with a UBiquiti Unifi…. (see link), but that’s not just plug and play but you have to configurate them (which should not be a bigger problem with the app). The proble could be that as an access point they need a LAN connection to the router, so could use a LAN cable with PoE if this is possible. I think that would be the best solution to have a stable WLAN outdoors

Ubiquiti UniFi AP-AC-M-PRO Mesh (1300 Mbit/s) - buy at digitec

peter1942

Thanks. Ubiquiti seems to be an excellent choice. I will be able to connect it with a LAN cable to my Swisscom Internet box 3 - are the flat LAN cables provided by Swisscom capable of providing PoE?

r00t

Hi @peter1942

I have been using a Swisscom LAN cable (yellow caps, white cable) for years to power one of my desktop-switches. It works like a charm 😉.

Just note that the Internetbox cannot provide PoE, so you will have to either use a PoE Injector or a PoE Switch to power the AP.

Keep in mind that as it’s not outdoor rated, it will degrade due to the UV radiation from the sun - so you might have to replace it from time to time. (This, of course, highly depends on how/if it is exposed to the elements outside)

Best,

r00t

peter1942

Hi r00t

Thanks for the advice. I am still waiting for the UniFi and the PoE injector but I am confident that it will meet my requirements.

bitracer

I would go for Mikrotik outdoor devices. It would make sense to stay within the system you’ve been using.

It depends a lot on the area you need to cover. If you can cover the area by placing WLAN-Box strategically indoors, that would be the optimal solution.

peter1942

Hi bitracer

I went ahead and ordered the Ubiquiti product as suggested by Gaeilgeoir and r00t but as it is not in stock I could possibly cancel the order. When you say “ it would make sense to stay within the system you’ve been using” it seems to suggest that a Mikrotik device (which one?) would be as easy to install as a WLAN box 3 and would extend my home WiFi network. I was informed that although the Ubiquiti device requires some set up with an app - I am no expert but I think that I can manage to do that as long as it will extend my home network and not create a second one.

bitracer

I meant since you use Swisscom gear, to stay with WLAN-Box ⅔.

Mikrotik is definitely not easy to configure if you’re not familiar with it. Still, it shouldn’t be mission impossible if you’re just configuring an isolated AP.

As for device recommendation have a look here:

https://mikrotik.com/product/netbox_5_ax

or:

https://mikrotik.com/product/wap_ac