Internet in the garden

[#1]

Hi, I have the Plus 2 hub in my living room which has a clear line of site through French windows to the bottom of the garden. Although only approx 20m away, there's insufficient bandwidth to use any streaming services/Sky etc without buffering. I get about 35mps download speed in the living room. What are my options please? I'm not keen on having to chase through a lengthy ethernet solution but would a mesh solution work? Possibly the Develo Magic 2? Something else?

[#2]

Moderator's note(s):

Thread moved from Broadband to My Router.

[#3]

@Staffop if there's insufficient signal strength, with the Hub2,  to reach the garden room then there's not much chance that a mesh system with nodes in similar positions will be much better. You would likely need to position a node halfway between living room and garden, which I suspect is not possible!

If the garden room and living room are on the same mains electrical circuit , then powerlines with a Wifi facility MIGHT be worth a look. Something like https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/powerline/tl-wpa7517-kit/

[#4]

Thanks MrW, there's electric but not sure if on same circuit, will speak to the electrician. If not, is ethernet the only way to be confident? Is there a maximum length for this as well? cheers

[#5]

there's electric but not sure if on same circuit, will speak to the electrician. If not, is ethernet the only way to be confident?

@Staffop they will work if not on the same circuit BUT the speed will be reduced, particularly if there are different RCD's on each circuit (as there often are these days with split-load CUs or RCBOs). For example I tested a pair of similar AV1000 Powerlines, they maxed out at around 150Mb on the same circuit, 50Mb on different circuits fed by the same RCD and as low as 20Mb on circuits with different RCDs. 

If not, is ethernet the only way to be confident? Is there a maximum length for this as well?

Ethernet will always give the best results, cat5e will handle up to 1Gb and a max of 100m. If you've got an old router, then you could possibly configure it as a wireless access point in the garden room, connected via the ethernet link.

[#6]

@Staffop 

I believe ethernet has a limit of approximately 100 meters.

If going down this road have a think about the future. I'm thinking specifically of FTTP. Are there any plans for OpenReach or an AltNet to offer FTTP.

If and when it comes, it's worth spending a bit of money running cable to get a good solid signal at various points around the house.

Brian

[#7]

Many thanks, we live in the sticks so unlike to get FTTP anytime soon I think. Good to know range of ethernet could work though

[#8]

@Staffop 

It's always worth checking - you never know your luck. Put your post code in here

www.openreach.com

You can still do some forward planning even without FTTP being on the horizon. what you need to think about is where the FTTP is likely to come into the property. Alternatively, given that FTTP connects vial an ethenet cable you could position your router anywhere you're willing to run cable. Then you can "radiate" outwards with any other ethernet connections.

Apart from this, consider running an ethernet cable round the outside of the house and using an external WiFi access point for the garden.

Brian

[#9]

Thanks BMC, I'm thinking my best bet is running an ethernet cable as suggested and using a Sky Q mini box as the access point. Will give it a go and see what happens!