[Bramblecot]

Hi To All
I am new to this subject, but am baffled
We have a barn about 200 yards from the house, which we use for lambing. Last winter was hellish in the mud going at all hours to check for new borns etc. Recently in our Barn Owl Tea Chest boxes we have had a family move in and at least two owlets are being fed. We would like to be able to view the owls feeding but then to use the camera for next year's lambing
We have bought an infra red web cam that can be run off an inverter but is either LAN cabled or WI Fi
There is no mains power or phone in the barn and I wondered if anyone has ever managed to extend the range of their Home Wi Fi Hub to give coverage at such a distance?
I have tried Maplins with no luck Signal booster have been mentioned but I don't know their capability
Regards   Bob

[happygolucky]

This interests me too, we have a problem with our stone walls, the signal from our BT wireless home hub will not penetrate them and  I wanted to put our web cam in the whelping room to watch pups when they arrive!

[Foobar]

You need a wireless repeater (or several) in order to extend your wifi range.  Google that and you will find lots of different sorts available.

[90driver]

I managed to get a reliable connection across a field over 150meters. Using a standard belkin wifi router in the window of my house and a huge hi gain antenna in my workshop. Has been reliable for prob 8 years. The wifi repeaters all require a power source of some description.

[bazzais]

I got so sick of dodgy wifi - I ran some bnc cables.

With lan cables there is a 150m limit I think?  My cables are at least 250m and work cyrystal clear.

[Hassle]

Cat 5 is a limit of 100 meters between active devices, although the signal doesn't drop off the earth at 100.1 meters, so you are able to push the limit. Depends what you are running through though as the network timing has a big involvement.

[jaykay]

I use a Solwise homeplug, which would solve HappyGoLucky's problem as it works through the mains wiring - you take the second wi-fi bit and just plug it into a normal socket in whatever room you want the wi-fi signal in -  but it's no good for Bramblecot since there is no mains to the barn.

[Backinwellies]

lan cables      Cat 5      bnc cables.    ? ??

How about talking to the rest of us please ...... 

[Hassle]

Sorry Cat 5 or Cat 5e or Cat 6 cable (even bigger) is the cable that would come from the router,  to your computer if you weren't using wireless network.

It is suitable for carrying information up to 1 giga bite for a network but can also carry video and telephone communications.

To give you an idea a cat 5 cable could carry 2 telephone lines and network information quite happily. The official max reach of sending information through cat 5 is 100 meters this is made up of 90 meters long cable  with 2 x 5 meter connections either end (100m)

If you where to look at it you might confuse it with a standard telephone lead but with a slightly wider connector at either end.

[mab]

I think 90driver is spot on; if you can put your router (or a repeater) in a good location in/near/by the house (line of sight to your barn), and the receiver in an appropriate position at the barn (i.e. line of sight to the house) then you have a good chance.


you need to avoid substantial obstructions between them (like masonry walls, large metal objects, or dense woodland).


I haven't tested the limits of my wifi, but my digital cordless BT phone (quoted range 50m indoors, 300m outdoors) works fine at 500m from home (the furthest I can get without something getting in the way).


another thing you can try if your web-cam (or router) has a separate antenna; (and this does work with wifi - used to do this to borrow the pub's wifi when I lived on a boat) is to put your antenna in a 'dish' (I used an old wok) and point it in the right direction.

[Bramblecot]

Thanks folks for all replies.  I would like to say that my OH (Bob) put this post on, and I have no idea what you are talking about .  It will be lovely if he can fix up a camera though . 

[steve_pr]

The other option is to put a high gain directional aerial on the camera (assuming it has a removeable one with a bnc connector).  You can get these on the web (try Amazon, TP-Link is a good brand).  I use them to create a wireless link from the house to our barn (which is over 100m) with no problems.

[Bramblecot]

Thank you Steve, I will let himself know.  It's all double-dutch to me .

[Mad Scientist]

I dont know if it will help, but a while ago i saw an article on boosting wifi range. A quick google of woktenna, pantenna or cantenna gives quite a bit of information. A homemade parabolidish at each end can give a useable wifi signal between hilltops. Note i said can. Not will http://karlherrick.com/dev/2006/02/10/woktenna/