Help with Powerline to external building

[Dillon]

Hello

I think I've read so much over the past few days about different solutions to the problem I'm having that I've ended up more confused than ever

I have an Asus AC68U inside our house, which functions great and gives good WiFi over the whole house. It's placed inside the front room, where the fibre cable comes in. No problems there. Connected to it I have a NAS and a TiVO box. Nothing too strenuous.

I also have a garden office, which is about 25m away from the AC68U - 2 (in some places 3) walls of the house, about 20m of garden and the office wall (which is a timber frame with heavy insulation and cladding) stand in the way. Unfortunately the signal from the AC68U doesn't reach, so I initially used a Devolo 650+ triple powerline adapter kit to get a connection down there. No problems, but it meant I was limited to wired connections (of which I need a minimum of 2 - one for a printer and one for a desktop).

I then wanted WiFi in the office, so switched the Devolo kit for an Asus PL-AC56 kit, which I've configured as a wireless access point, no DHCP, with a static IP. So it's basically a powerline AC1200 AV2 WiFi access point in the office, with built in LAN ports.

The trouble now is that the connection keeps dropping - which is making it almost impossible to work in there as it will randomly stop working meaning my work laptop disconnects from its software VPN. It happens on the wired connection too - one minute I'm browsing fine, next minute there's no connection. I initially thought it could be the power saving within the kit, but because it happens (for example) mid-YouTube, I figured it's not that. I checked the internal logs of the PL-AC56 and there was nothing there either, no indication as to why it happens.

Anyway, long story short - I need a solution that gives me a stable WiFi connection in the office (it's even more important now as I'll be having more people working from there). The options I considered:

1. Replace the Asus powerline adapter and use my original Devolo one for the Powerline bit, and then connect a simple WiFi access point (N would suffice I think, the max speed I see in the office is about 4MB/sec transfer rate over the powerline) to one of the Gigabit LAN ports on the Devolo
2. Return the Asus kit and try it again in the hope I have a dodgy one (it has the latest firmware)
3. Get a Devolo AC1200 powerline kit with WiFi and hope it peforms better (though one of the first reviews on Amazon mentions the same problem of the connection randomly dropping and disconnecting a device, similar to my issue)
4. Orbi - replace the AC68U with an Orbi unit and have the satellite in the office; as it has 4 Gigabit LAN ports I wouldn't be sacrificing anything in the office and (if speed was good) could move the NAS there as it's now being probed by a small child in the front room my concern with this is that the 5GHz signal strength between the unit and the satellite wouldn't be strong enough and I'd be back to square one. On the flip side, if it does work, I'm pretty sure it'd be faster than the 4MB/sec I see over powerline

I don't need anything else fancy - just something that works. Cost I'm not particularly bothered by either - I just need something stable. I've heard good things about the Orbi in this respect, and it wouldn't rely on electrical wiring which makes it somewhat more appealing. I don't *have* to move the NAS unit, but if I could and still stream a full HD movie back to the front room from the office that would be wonderful!

Or is it more a case that I should just take the plunge and go through the options and see what works?

Unfortunately I can't run a CAT5/6 cable all the way there (which is obviously the best thing I could do). I also can't move the AC68U (or main router) as the fibre cable is under the floor and won't reach much further than where it is now.

Any thoughts or suggestions welcome - as I mentioned I've read so much the past few days I have confused myself out of picking a solution!

Thanks in advance

 

[CaptainSTX]

Since the first set of powerline adapters worked why don't you put them back in service. Then in the garden office install a router repurposed as an AP and plug it into the Ethernet port of the powerline adapter. This will give you 3 or 4 Ethernet ports and WiFi. Just be sure to use a different non overlapping channel in the Garden office. Also use a utility to check that none of your neighbors are using the same channels you selected. Not always possible but checking is still a good idea.

There are excellent instructions on this site on repurposing a router as an AP.

 

[Shaun]

Since the first set of powerline adapters worked why don't you put them back in service. Then in the garden office install a router repurposed as an AP and plug it into the Ethernet port of the powerline adapter. This will give you 3 or 4 Ethernet ports and WiFi. Just be sure to use a different non overlapping channel in the Garden office. Also use a utility to check that none of your neighbors are using the same channels you selected. Not always possible but checking is still a good idea.

There are excellent instructions on this site on repurposing a router as an AP.

Second this recommendation,
I've got 2 Asus RT-n66U in a similar setup

Cable - Modem - Wan, RT-N66U router, Lan - devolo 200, powerLan - Lan RT-N66U AccessPoint

And it all works well.
Just check that your powerline adapters are on the same circuit / phase.

 

[Dillon]

Second this recommendation,
I've got 2 Asus RT-n66U in a similar setup

Cable - Modem - Wan, RT-N66U router, Lan - devolo 200, powerLan - Lan RT-N66U AccessPoint

And it all works well.
Just check that your powerline adapters are on the same circuit / phase.

Thank you both as I don't have a spare router lying around, should I just get a cheapish one to cover only the office?

 

[CaptainSTX]

Thank you both as I don't have a spare router lying around, should I just get a cheapish one to cover only the office?

Depends on how many WiFi clients you will have in the garden office and what they will do with their WiFi connections. If it is just to check e-mails then any N router will be OK with just a 2.4Ghz radio. If any of the clients can utilize 5 Ghz then spend a little more and get a router with dual radios.

As for the Ethernet look for a router with Gigabyte LAN ports. This will help prevent the link back to the main house becoming a bottle neck. A very cheap old router will be just Fast Ethernet or 100Mbps.

An ASUS N66 would be a good choice. They are available new for about US$75 and less used/refurbished.

The setup as an AP is extremly easy on this router and the setup Wizard will guide you through the process.

 

[Samir]

Thank you both as I don't have a spare router lying around, should I just get a cheapish one to cover only the office?

You don't even need a spare router--the existing asus powerline adapter will work for this purpose. Just plug it into a surge block so it doesn't get any powerline signals and use an ethernet cable to plug it to the Devolo. Because it has a built-in switch, it should work just like how you had it set up previously except it will connect to the rest of the network over the lan cable that's connected to the Devolo.

 

[tannebil]

Do you have a coax connection in the office coming from the house? A MoCA 2.0 bonded connection can be almost as fast as a GB Ethernet connection. Just attach a wireless router in bridge mode to it and you would be set.

If you want to do something like the Orbi, try to get the one in the house positioned so it has a clear path to the office. Putting both units in line-of-sight windows will give you the best result.

 

[Samir]

I forgot about moca2.0--that's a great solution as well and can be much faster than powerline or wifi.

 

[tannebil]

I got an absurd rate running iperf3 from my 2014 MBP over 2.0 bonded. I don't remember the exact number but it was close to the 1GB wired rate.

 

[Samir]

I got an absurd rate running iperf3 from my 2014 MBP over 2.0 bonded. I don't remember the exact number but it was close to the 1GB wired rate.

That's awesome! With which brand moca adapters?

 

[tannebil]

Actiontec ECB6200