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WiFi Router in metal box

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AbelR1975

New Around Here
I am going to put a security camera by my gate, which is about 100ft from my house. I'm planning on putting it in the electric gate opener box, which is a metal box. I'm currently using the Asus GT-AX11000 in my house. The camera is PoE, so I was going to just get a single PoE injector. My plan was to get an AIMesh router to put in the gate opener box, plug the camera/injector into it, and have it connect to my house router via wifi because I'm not going to dig a trench. The more I read, the more I am concerned because it seems that wifi in a metal box may not work. So, I'm considering getting an AIMesh router with a detachable antenna, then plug in an external antenna to that. The problem is that I'm not sure what I'm doing. I'm considering the RT-AC1900P, then getting one of the following:

Amazon.com: Bingfu WiFi Antenna 2.4GHz 5GHz 5.8GHz Outdoor Wall Mount MIMO RP-SMA & SMA Male Antennae Replacemet for WiFi Router Hotspot Security IP Camera USB WiFi Adapter Video Surveillance Monitor Antennas : Electronics
OR

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015QF7EMK/?tag=snbforums-20
with this:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09GF6ZMPY/?tag=snbforums-20

OR

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08242CL6Z/?tag=snbforums-20

Maybe this:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MYXG3W8/?tag=snbforums-20

If you have other ideas, I'm definitely open...I'm just not looking to spend a ton of money. There is no option to replace the box.

This is the box:
https://usautomaticgateopeners.com/...dtAfWMUqxA4rQ__Ir7DuLIxqgkBOkvGEaAkeSEALw_wcB
 
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Just drill a couple of holes in the metal and thread some rpsma cables through and put external antennas onto them.
 
That's pretty much what I was thinking, but I'm not sure which if any of the above antennas/cables will work or would be better.
 
Home routers use passive cooling. They will overheat in a black metal box, especially under the sun. You don't need an AiMesh router there. What you need is an outdoor Point-to-Point wireless bridge. Many brands offer such products. Ubiquiti, TP-Link, EnGenius, TRENDnet to name a few.
 
If you can plug the security camera into an Ethernet cable buy a Linksys 54G router for less than $20 on eBay and set it up as a wireless bridge then attach the external antenna you posted in your link to the router give you the range back to the house. At that range and given that your primary router is in the house you are going to have to rely on the 2.4 Ghz band. The old 54Gs are G band only but that should be enough bandwidth unless you want streaming video in HD from the gate.

The advantage of 54Gs is that used ones are readily available, cheap and seem to last forever.

When purchasing you can find 54Gs preflashed with DD-WRT or Tomato which gives you maximum flexibility. Also be sure the one you purchase has removable antennas as at some point Linksys discontinued this feature.

If that won't work for you connect an AP designed for outdoor installation to your primary router using an Ethernet cable and again put a router with external antenna in the gate box.
 
Home routers use passive cooling. They will overheat in a black metal box, especially under the sun. You don't need an AiMesh router there. What you need is an outdoor Point-to-Point wireless bridge. Many brands offer such products. Ubiquiti, TP-Link, EnGenius, TRENDnet to name a few.
Hmmm.....that could be a problem. I'm in central Texas. I didn't think of the heat.

I just looked at this bridge... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00N2RO63U/?tag=snbforums-20 , but the issue I'm seeing is that it is PoE and there's only one ethernet port. How do I power it and plug in the camera at the same time?
 
If you can plug the security camera into an Ethernet cable buy a Linksys 54G router for less than $20 on eBay and set it up as a wireless bridge then attach the external antenna you posted in your link to the router give you the range back to the house. At that range and given that your primary router is in the house you are going to have to rely on the 2.4 Ghz band. The old 54Gs are G band only but that should be enough bandwidth unless you want streaming video in HD from the gate.

The advantage of 54Gs is that used ones are readily available, cheap and seem to last forever.

When purchasing you can find 54Gs preflashed with DD-WRT or Tomato which gives you maximum flexibility. Also be sure the one you purchase has removable antennas as at some point Linksys discontinued this feature.

If that won't work for you connect an AP designed for outdoor installation to your primary router using an Ethernet cable and again put a router with external antenna in the gate box.
The GT-AX11000 has dual 5Ghz bands, so I was planning on using that. And yes.... it will be streaming 4k video from the gate, so I have to have something capable of handling that.
 
Why don't you look for Wi-Fi camera instead? An example:

I've thought about that, but I don't see any that fits what I need it to do. I don't have an outlet near where I'm putting the camera, so it's easier/safer for me to run a cat6 cable to it, with PoE. Also, most of the wi-fi cameras are huge. As this will be next to a road, I'd rather it be concealed as much as possible.
 
In this case it depends how professional you want to go. A cheap home router with Wireless Bridge mode may eventually work on 2.4GHz band at 100ft and through some walls. Overheating and exposure to outdoor elements remains a concern, especially at your location. Better setup will be Ubiquiti NanoStation (loco) M2/M5 (for the wireless bridge) with Ubiquiti ETH-SP surge protectors (for your exposed wires). They are designed for outdoor use (-22 to 167F temperature, 5-95% humidity) and will be independent from your home network, with guaranteed max speed and reliability at 100ft.


This is example equipment.

And how it works (setup) video:


You can use 1x Nano connected to your router (if the signal is strong enough outside), or 2x Nano in Point-to-Point, whatever works best.
 
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In this case it depends how professional you want to go. A cheap home router with Wireless Bridge mode may eventually work on 2.4GHz band at 100ft and through some walls. Overheating and exposure to outdoor elements remains a concern, especially at your location. Better setup will be Ubiquiti NanoStation (loco) M2/M5 (for the wireless bridge) with Ubiquiti ETH-SP surge protectors (for your exposed wires). They are designed for outdoor use (-22 to 167F temperature, 5-95% humidity) and will be independent from your home network, with guaranteed max speed and reliability at 100ft.


This is example equipment.

And how it works (setup) video:


You can use 1x Nano connected to your router (if the signal is strong enough outside), or 2x Nano in Point-to-Point, whatever works best.
Thank you very much! So something like this? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08XLDZM3X/?tag=snbforums-20

Here are some pics of what I am now thinking. Forgive my lack of artistry.
6BAFB31D-75F0-4107-A90D-B716252C771A.jpeg


FEA2830B-DC3B-483F-AF71-369D4BB4CF96.jpeg


I don’t suppose I can leave out the one I labeled Ubiquiti 1, can I? Also, would something like this work provide my internet, to my parents’ house about 500 ft away?
 
There are very good installation instructions on Ubiquiti's website, if you go with Ubiquiti.

For your parents' house - yes, if you have line of sight.

You can see different hardware options from NanoStation line here:

https://dl.ubnt.com/datasheets/nanostationm/nsm_ds_web.pdf

Or you can go high tech and high speed with building-to-building bridge like this:

 
There are very good installation instructions on Ubiquiti's website, if you go with Ubiquiti.

For your parents' house - yes, if you have line of sight.

You can see different hardware options from NanoStation line here:

https://dl.ubnt.com/datasheets/nanostationm/nsm_ds_web.pdf

Or you can go high tech and high speed with building-to-building bridge like this:

Thank you very much! I searched amazon for nanostationm and that was what came up...i didn't look close enough to see it wasn't Ubiquiti. I really don't understand the differences in the different models on the datasheet. I saw on a datasheet that some have a port that will also power a surveillance camera over PoE, which I think I want. I don't understand much of the differences in frequencies. I mean, I know that my router has 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands, but as far as the devices you suggested, I don't understand. I don't know which is better for my application and which will be able to handle bandwidth of the 4k video transmission. I know this may be a big ask, but would you mind narrowing it down a bit for me? It looks to me like the Loco only has 1 port, so that won't do what I want. Then there's the NSM2, NSM3, NSM365, and the NSM5. Can you help narrow it down, please?
 

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