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Adding Outdoor Antennas to a AI Mesh Node

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Venom

New Around Here
Hi All,
I live on a large rural property
I currently have two Asus AC RT-5300 routers running AI Mesh. The Main unit is in my home and the AI Node is in my workshop over 200 feet away. The node is hardwired to the main unit because the Workshop is a metal building and I was barely getting enough signal to the AI Mesh Node. The Wifi inside the shop works great ( Although, I talk about the node shutting down and needing resets in another post). When using Wifi outside the workshop there is a dead spot between the house and workshop with no Wifi. Right in between the house and workshop there is a small metal shed that has electricity. I want to add another AI Mesh node there to fill the gap in the Wifi signal. I got an RT-AC68U and set it up as the second AI Mesh Node. Unfortunately when I put it in the metal shed and closed the door the signal only makes it outside the shed a few feet ( Just like the workshop ). If I open the shed door and place the RT-AC68U by the door opening it works great and fixes the Wifi dead spot. Since I don't need Wifi in the small metal shed, Could I mount the three Wifi antennas on the outside of the shed? Do they sell outdoor antennas to do this? Thanks for any help.
 
The attenuation if you try and extend the antennas outside using cables will make this probably a no go.

You can either put the entire router in a plastic container outside the shed and hope the AC68 holds up for the season or purchase an outdoor AP, and then connect it by Ethernet cable to the AC68.

Even then don't count on getting more than a couple of years of service out of a consumer grade outdoor AP. The temperature extremes and moisture are not conducive to long electronics life.
 
Thanks for your reply... You just confirmed what I thought would be the answer... I was reading about Outdoor AP Units and could not find a reasonably priced unit that seems to work well, at least according to reviews. Thanks again..
 
Thanks for your reply... You just confirmed what I thought would be the answer... I was reading about Outdoor AP Units and could not find a reasonably priced unit that seems to work well, at least according to reviews. Thanks again..


I used an Engenious unit and it worked fine. My devices could see the signal at 1,500 feet but of course didn't have enough power to connect from that distance. The first unit lasted 20 months the second about the same.
 
I used an Engenious unit and it worked fine. My devices could see the signal at 1,500 feet but of course didn't have enough power to connect from that distance. The first unit lasted 20 months the second about the same.
Reading about them now... Thank you.
 

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