UKH

Does anyone have any experience with trying to get a WiFi connection outside at approx 100m? 

Loads online and amazon claim these sorts of distances but a bit skeptical. Amazon reviews are garbage most of the time. It's line of site with very little between it bar the phone line going to the mast. 4G isn't an option as it's crap signal where I need it. 

Ta, 

Si

My gliding club control bus has just had WIFI installed, that works up to ~1k from the main building but I'm not sure if they have a 4G modem attached to a WIFI router or some other high power/gain WIFI solution. As it's mobile and has no steerable antenna or obvious structured antenna array I suspect it's the former. I'll have a look Wednesday if I think on.

If it's just 100m line of sight you probably only need a couple of high gain antennas you can point at each other.

jk

At 100m I would just bury some conduit and run a cable. It's what I did.

Yes, I did a 200m point to point link at work to connect the office to the workshop. It's been absolutely rock solid at 100Mbit for years, despite one end being 1m above ground level on a busy street, so big vans parked in the line of sight don't affect it.

I used a Ubiquiti system. I'd recommend them for anything wifi related. Professional grade kit at (slightly pricey) amateur kit prices. I can dig out the exact item if you're interested?

Have fun

youtube.com/watch?v=Nk-nj_BwoBE&

youtube.com/watch?v=QTMi99HtW_k&

And another Mr Robot style

youtube.com/watch?v=KJh_nkgwTjw&

My first reaction whenever anyone mentions wireless is; if you can run a cable, do it. Cable is always better, but sometimes it's not possible.

It’s going back a few years now but I bought a TP Link outdoor antenna for use on a small holding up in the Eden Valley, worked a treat, could get WiFi around 200m away in direct line of sight. Dropped a bit in the woodland to the rear of the property but still reasonable.. so they do work! 

Edit - it wasn’t expensive either, maybe £50?

You could make a Pringle can antenna and a wirelwwi bridge.

Across a road Not sure the council are gonna be keen if I'm honest..

I should add that I need this to work at the other end with a laptop and nothing else. I don't have power to run a unit that acts as a bridge. So really I need something that basically goes on my house and extends my WiFi by 100m. 

It did occur to me that the issue might be the laptop not the extender. Presumably it cannot broadcast packets so far but I might be wrong?

Sounds good,W model? Might just order one on Amazon and send it back if it doesn't work. How did it connect to your router?

Actually you just reminded me that I never did finish watching mr robot. And my missus is away for the week so may well just catch up on that tonight. 

I got so bored of Elliot moaning about his feelings all the bloody time, that I ended up rooting for E-corp.

To be honest I work with alot of talented programmers who bore the shit out of me in much the same way. I do find myself rooting for their demise in a quite dark way. 

In that case you just need one of the Ubiquiti units. It will work as a directional access point, at well over 200m.

Righty ho. I'll get onto Bezos and see what he has in stock. 

It was over 10 years ago now but I did spend quite a bit of time trying to get long range WiFi to work with standard wifi access points and external antennae. It was sort of useable but flaky and slow. I would not waste my time now that there are devices designed for the job for under £60.

I'm watching season three again, while I wait for the last season to air.

It's a great show.

It's not an external one? Will it work through at a wall at those distances? 

The one I have is external. Do you want me to look up which one it is?

Edit:

I have a Ubiquiti Nanostation Locom5. It's​mounted outside and comes with a PoE adapter. It's old now and listed on their site as legacy, but still available on Amazon for £58. It's 5GHz only, so if your laptop is getting on a bit you should check the WiFi does 5Ghz. The new version is the Nanostation Loco5AC. I assume this will also be fine, but it looks like you have to buy the power adapter separately.

Bear in mind that these are aimed at professional installers, so some people complain that the setup is a bit of a learning curve. I didn't find it a problem though.

Honestly can't remember what model it was now.. but plugged in to the router via an ethernet cable.

If you can run a cable and electricity to somewhere one side of the road one of these might help get it across. 

https://www.screwfix.com/p/british-general-2g-13a-sp-switched-wi-fi-extende...

It gets WiFi to outbuildings and garden.  It won't do 100m though.   

https://www.screwfix.com/p/british-general-2g-13a-sp-switched-wi-fi-extende...

Might help might not depends on your location.  

Easy with a high gain directional antenna at each end.  You do need to put some effort in to antenna pointing.  Eg a TP-Link CPE210.

If it’s a high gain directional antenna at one end and a mobile phone or laptop at the other, it might work.   Clear line of site and a quiet radio spectrum locally and it should.  Only one way to find out.  The CPE210 has a spectrum analyser to help you find a quiet channel.

Edit: If you’re mounting it outside, make sure to get the EMP / lightning protection correct.   You’ll be sticking a conductive unit on a high pole somewhere and connecting it to your network and your ring main.  

EMP grounding is one of those things you really want to research and get right rather than making it up as you go along.  My building proximal surge unit grounds to the domestic earth, with an additional ground spike close to the unit.  The power over ethernet injector and connected network switch gear is also inside a metal rack that’s grounded and with another surge device on its power feed and on the network cable to the house network.   Redundancy is my friend.

That's the same sort of thing as the Ubiquiti device I was recommending. That's what the OP needs, I couldn't say which one is better but probably either one would do 100m no problem.