wifi x 2

[G8racingfool]

I have a customer that has a netgear wifi router in the house providing both the secure wifi connection to the internal lan as well as the guest wifi to provide internet access for visitors. They also have a wifi extender to get the guest wifi into the workshop about 80 meters away. They would like the secure wifi to be available in the workshop as well. Is there a single device/extender/whatever that can get both wifi into the second building? We're free to replace any/all of the existing equipment if we can figure out how to get the two wifi s in the workshop. Is there an elegant solution to this? Am i setting up two range extenders? Running cable is not desirable due to the lay of the land. EoP is not possible due to separate power circuits.

Okay, don't want to step on Stonecat's toes here but I think this is what he's getting at:



I would *think* since it's less than 100 yards you could pretty easily get away with Ubiquity's Nano receivers (I use Engenius products more so I'm not as read up on Ubiquity but I do know the Nano's work pretty well). Here's how I would set up the project.

First things first, is there (or will there be) any interference in the way? Things like trees, other buildings, poles, bushes, etc. Do cars/trucks park in the way frequently (some vehicles give off massive amounts of radio interference while running)? Know the lay of the land first, just like how Stonecat's doing a flyover of his newest location (I'm just gonna move to Connecticut and work for you Stonecat mmk? You get all the fun jobs).

Once you know that there won't be any issues with interference then you can decide on equipment. Since I'm guessing this is a residential job there's a couple ways you can go. If the workshop isn't terribly large ASUS makes a neato little router (RT-N12) that can be a router (so the workshop is completely separate from the house) OR a wireless access point (so the networks/lans are the same). Or you can go with a dedicated access point which will probably provide a bit better coverage. Either way will get you what you're after.

So once you've got your equipment (2 point-to-point antennas + 1 access point) you'll need to configure the antennas to talk to each other (consult documentation!) and then run a cable from their current router/modem in the house (hook it into a lan port) to a PoE injector for one of the P2P antennas, then from there you'll go outside the house to the antenna itself (if you or the homeowner is queasy about poking holes in buildings you can try putting the antennas in a window but they won't perform nearly as well).

Once the house side is done, you'll head to the workshop where you'll put in the other P2P antenna on the outside of the building, and then run cat5 to the other PoE injector on the inside, then you'll run another cat5 to your router/access point and configure it however you wish (most cases you'd configure it the same as what's in the house so anyone who's connected there can just walk into the building and be linked up as well).

So, at the end of the day here's how it looks:

There are two separate WiFi networks. One for the house, one for the workshop. They can both be configured the same way to look like the same network (ie: same SSIDs/Passwords) but they're still technically separate. However, both of these networks are connected by the two P2P antennas they're hooked to (thus the "wireless cable" Stonecat refers to). So by logging into the network in the workshop, the client can still access PCs, NAS, files, printers, and anything else on the network located in the house (and vice-versa). Meanwhile you can configure the "Guest Network" in the workshop as a guest just like in the house and they'll still get internet but will be unable to see anything local.


And that my friend is the best, most reliable way to do it. (And it's not really all that expensive equipment-wise!)

 

[glennd]

Meanwhile you can configure the "Guest Network" in the workshop as a guest just like in the house and they'll still get internet but will be unable to see anything local.

ok, this is the crux of the matter and the black hole in my knowledge. It seems the AP will provide it's own isolated guest access in addition to the regular secure ssid. It's actually different to the house guest access but that's ok because each client is isolated and only want internet access. So, two Nanos (from the existing router) and an AP will apparently do the job.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Okay, don't want to step on Stonecat's toes here but I think this is what he's getting at:

View attachment 7898

Bingo...you nailed it. And no toe stepping taken.

When I walk about "airMAX"..that's the small to medium sized family of Ubiquiti radios designed to be used in pairs as "point to point" wireless. They have many models, depending on your needs. Size, distance, bandwidth, frequency, some with various antenna options. And then their is the "big daddy" family called "airFiber"...basically the same purpose..just....bigger and faster.

For this setup here, based on G8rancingfools drawing, I would have a bill of material of the following:
*Ubiquiti UC-CK (Unifi Cloud Key..for you to remote manage through the free unifi.ubnt.com management portal)
*Ubiquiti USG (Unifi Security Gateway..their router...not 100% necessary can use existing router but you get more features and better management and performance)
*2x Ubiquiti US-8-60W (Unifi 8 port 60 watt POE switch, 1 for the house, 1 for the workshop)
*2x Ubiquiti UAP-AC-PRO...1 for the house, 1 for the workshop. Or could use the UAP-AC-LR
*2x NanoBeam AC Gen2s...the smaller 16 models would be fine...depending on clients needs either the smaller 150 meg or the larger 450 meg models.

The switches are not mandatory...but just allow better setup and management and a more proper neat design. Eliminates the clunky POE injector bricks. And I'm assuming a single Unifi AP would cover the house, and a single one would cover the workshop. Not seeing layout/pictures or doing a site survey....left with just assuming.

 

[glennd]

Bingo...you nailed it. And no toe stepping taken.

When I walk about "airMAX"..that's the small to medium sized family of Ubiquiti radios designed to be used in pairs as "point to point" wireless. They have many models, depending on your needs. Size, distance, bandwidth, frequency, some with various antenna options. And then their is the "big daddy" family called "airFiber"...basically the same purpose..just....bigger and faster.

For this setup here, based on G8rancingfools drawing, I would have a bill of material of the following:
*Ubiquiti UC-CK (Unifi Cloud Key..for you to remote manage through the free unifi.ubnt.com management portal)
*Ubiquiti USG (Unifi Security Gateway..their router...not 100% necessary can use existing router but you get more features and better management and performance)
*2x Ubiquiti US-8-60W (Unifi 8 port 60 watt POE switch, 1 for the house, 1 for the workshop)
*2x Ubiquiti UAP-AC-PRO...1 for the house, 1 for the workshop. Or could use the UAP-AC-LR
*2x NanoBeam AC Gen2s...the smaller 16 models would be fine...depending on clients needs either the smaller 150 meg or the larger 450 meg models.

The switches are not mandatory...but just allow better setup and management and a more proper neat design. Eliminates the clunky POE injector bricks. And I'm assuming a single Unifi AP would cover the house, and a single one would cover the workshop. Not seeing layout/pictures or doing a site survey....left with just assuming.

Sometimes one gets into a mode of thinking about a problem that makes it very hard to solve. One needs to have one's head turned 180 degrees before one begins to understand the proper approach. I've been reading everyone's responses and wondering why they're not solving my problem. The reason is that I'm thinking the solution to the problem is to extend the existing wifi setup when the correct solution is to just run a virtual cable from the router to the second building and set up a whole new wifi with the same ssid so it 'looks' like one big wifi. Because it all ends up at the router/switch in the end, we have full interconnectivity within the lan, across the two buildings. With the new AP providing it's own guess access, all our problems are solved.

I realise this is mickey mouse to many here but other than setting up my own house system, networking is not something I've spent a lot of time on.

I can now give the customer a simple explanation of how it will work, thanks @G8racingfool and I've printed out my shopping list, thanks @YeOldeStonecat.

 

[G8racingfool]

Sometimes one gets into a mode of thinking about a problem that makes it very hard to solve. One needs to have one's head turned 180 degrees before one begins to understand the proper approach. I've been reading everyone's responses and wondering why they're not solving my problem. The reason is that I'm thinking the solution to the problem is to extend the existing wifi setup when the correct solution is to just run a virtual cable from the router to the second building and set up a whole new wifi with the same ssid so it 'looks' like one big wifi. Because it all ends up at the router/switch in the end, we have full interconnectivity within the lan, across the two buildings. With the new AP providing it's own guess access, all our problems are solved.

I realise this is mickey mouse to many here but other than setting up my own house system, networking is not something I've spent a lot of time on.

I can now give the customer a simple explanation of how it will work, thanks @G8racingfool and I've printed out my shopping list, thanks @YeOldeStonecat.

Any time. One more little addendum to what I said above that I forgot to add: Make sure you set your networking equipment to static IPs and adjust your DHCP table on the house router accordingly (or leave the table as-is and do address reservation). This makes it much easier to troubleshoot in the future!

 

[glennd]

Any time. One more little addendum to what I said above that I forgot to add: Make sure you set your networking equipment to static IPs and adjust your DHCP table on the house router accordingly (or leave the table as-is and do address reservation). This makes it much easier to troubleshoot in the future!

printers and htpc are reserved, laptops and computers are dynamic but I'll take your point on board.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

With "managed" systems like Ubiquiti's Unifi APs...you can create up to 4x SSIDs...say, "Office", and "Guest"...and the managed system pushes all those SSIDs to all of the Unifi access points in the system.

Example...you can have 10 acres of property with 20 buildings in it..with 40x access points..and it will push those same 4x SSIDs to all the APs..keeping guest mode and all that stuff equal across the board. So you can walk all around the 10x acres of 4 wireless networks and see all of them as you walk around, staying connected to the same one you attached to as you walk around.