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How to get WiFi to house behind hill?

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Ryan Spaulding

New Around Here
I have a tricky situation on our farm trying to get wifi to a house that is blocked from the wireless router by a hill. Running wire between the router and hill isn't currently an option but I can run wire from the house to the hill. Also, the powerline devices won't work as they are on separate solar power systems. A basic visual:

Untitled_1.jpg

(Clear line of sight to the hill from both house and router)

I put a wifi extender at the top of the hill as a test and it gets good signal and I even get good signal from the extender while standing outside the house. Problem is that the thick walls of house 2 are not at all conducive to wifi signal and so the signal inside the house is crap. What types of devices would I need in order to receive wifi signal at the hill and then transfer that signal (wired or wirelessly) to another device that can broadcast wifi inside house 2 (like a wifi router normally would)?

Thanks for any advice
 
I have a tricky situation on our farm trying to get wifi to a house that is blocked from the wireless router by a hill. Running wire between the router and hill isn't currently an option but I can run wire from the house to the hill. Also, the powerline devices won't work as they are on separate solar power systems. A basic visual:

Untitled_1.jpg

(Clear line of sight to the hill from both house and router)

I put a wifi extender at the top of the hill as a test and it gets good signal and I even get good signal from the extender while standing outside the house. Problem is that the thick walls of house 2 are not at all conducive to wifi signal and so the signal inside the house is crap. What types of devices would I need in order to receive wifi signal at the hill and then transfer that signal (wired or wirelessly) to another device that can broadcast wifi inside house 2 (like a wifi router normally would)?

Thanks for any advice

At the top of the hill install a device that can be used as a wireless bridge (also called media bridge). Then run a Ethernet cable from one of the LAN ports on this device to house 2 and connect the other end of the cable to an AP.

Some or most ASUS routers running Merlin have the option built in to be put into the media bridge or the AP mode. All routers by any manufacturer can be repurposed as APs but repurposing a router as a media bridge is more involved if the factory firmware doesn't support this mode. If the stock firmware doesn't support the media bridge mode then you would have to install a third party firmware such as DD-WRT.

When you run the cable from the top of the hill to house 2 be sure to stall an Ethernet ground block on the outside of house 2.
 
At the top of the hill install a device that can be used as a wireless bridge (also called media bridge). Then run a Ethernet cable from one of the LAN ports on this device to house 2 and connect the other end of the cable to an AP.

Some or most ASUS routers running Merlin have the option built in to be put into the media bridge or the AP mode. All routers by any manufacturer can be repurposed as APs but repurposing a router as a media bridge is more involved if the factory firmware doesn't support this mode. If the stock firmware doesn't support the media bridge mode then you would have to install a third party firmware such as DD-WRT.

When you run the cable from the top of the hill to house 2 be sure to stall an Ethernet ground block on the outside of house 2.
I have installed DD-WRT onto a spare router and set it up as a bridge which gets it's connection wirelessly from the source router, mostly using the following directions plus a couple of other tweaks: https://bit.ly/2Lt63KC

So now I have a WNDR4500 as the source router and a WNDR4300 set up as the bridge. With a computer plugged into the bridge router I can get online but I can only load web pages for the first 30 sec or so, then I start to get timeouts and DNS errors until I unplug the computer from bridge and re plug, then another 30 sec or so of connectivity. The two routers are very close, and I'm getting a strong and consistent network connection between the two, just not consistent web connection. Any idea why this could be? I'm SO close! :/
 
I have installed DD-WRT onto a spare router and set it up as a bridge which gets it's connection wirelessly from the source router, mostly using the following directions plus a couple of other tweaks: https://bit.ly/2Lt63KC

So now I have a WNDR4500 as the source router and a WNDR4300 set up as the bridge. With a computer plugged into the bridge router I can get online but I can only load web pages for the first 30 sec or so, then I start to get timeouts and DNS errors until I unplug the computer from bridge and re plug, then another 30 sec or so of connectivity. The two routers are very close, and I'm getting a strong and consistent network connection between the two, just not consistent web connection. Any idea why this could be? I'm SO close! :/


Have you tried different Channels? Survey your envirnoment using a Wifi checking utility on a mobil device to look for interferring channels from other sources.

If the router and bridge both have external antennas installing higher gain antennas might actually help in this case. Directional antennas would be even better.
 
Have you tried different Channels? Survey your envirnoment using a Wifi checking utility on a mobil device to look for interferring channels from other sources.

If the router and bridge both have external antennas installing higher gain antennas might actually help in this case. Directional antennas would be even better.
I have the channels (dual band) set to auto. I'm not sure what to use to survey, but we're in the middle of nowhere and the only possible signals around here would be our cordless phone or our incoming satellite internet connection. The connection between the routers seems fine (I'm testing them right next to each other as well), I use an app called cloudcheck and it gives me a consistent 80-90 mbps which is just reading the wifi connection, not the internet connection which is where I'm getting drop outs.
 
Just FYI to anyone who finds this in the future.. I accomplished this by getting a TP-Link Archer C1200 router and setting it up as a Bridge via it's stock firmware. No fancy antennas or anything. It's working great and the signal from the bridge/router is great! I still have a wired connection coming from it and to a wifi extender for better reliability.
 

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