Network For Indoor/Outdoor Coverage
I am getting ready to set up a wifi network on a new property and dont know enough to be confident in this solution. I am planning on purchasing and installing the following devices to cover inside a home, a detached barn about 200 ft from the home and the outdoor space around the house. Just curious if i am on the right track or if anyone has any suggestions to help point me in a better direction.
Modem supplied by the internet company
ER605 Router
OC200 Controller
SG1005P Switch
EAP 653 Access Point - Hardwired to the switch mounted centrally inside
EAP 650 Access Point - Hardwired to the switch mounted outside pointed toward the barn
EAP 650 Access Point - Mounted to the barn
My main concerns are having decent coverage on the property around the barn and house because there is no cell service. I also want to make sure that what i do invest in can be added to if i need coverage in other areas.
Based on research i think this is a good base to start with and then add onto after some real world testing if necessary but i am hoping someone can help me confirm.
Thank you!
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@hart13 point form:
- Since you are rural, it is a low noise environment. Neighbor's WiFi access points are distant and less than -85 dBm if visible at all . You will get great range! 200'+ outdoors or more is no problem in open fields.
- 5GHz works great outdoors but is Line of Sight. Any leaves and it will fade and become unreliable. To mesh the barn your EAP225 Outdoor must "see" the linked station at the farmhouse (another EAP225 or the EAP610).
- A strategic location to mount your EAP225 outside for mesh on a wooden wall will also provide good coverage into the building at 2.4 GHz. If an indoor EAP is required, it would be in a location sufficiently far from the outdoor EAP225 to spread out coverage/speed. .
- If your barn is mostly wood construction (2nd level floor and upper walls), you will have good coverage indoors at 2.4 GHz from the outdoor EAP225.
- Consider that your mesh can act as backhaul for a future camera surveillance system or anything else you need in the barn. You would likely need a switch.
- Mesh to barn gets you going today. Future dig a trench and go wired or fiber inside a 3/4" or 1" Polypipe as conduit. Better still, bury 4" agricultrural pipe with a Polypipe in it... and anything else like water, etc. Sorry, electrical has to be seperated by code (it is 1' in Canada from other stuff).
- SG2005P-PD would be excellent for the barn (outdoor rated meaning dust, water and temperature) and would be powered over Ethernet from a farmhouse PoE switch. With a UPS, you have internet through a power outage. And the switch can also power surveillance cameras.
- if lightning is a problem, use FIBER between the router in the house and the barn (or stick with mesh). For fiber you have to upgrade the router to a version with SFP (ER7212PC which is also a Omada controller), as well as the barn switch with SFP like TL-SG2210P. The previous PoE solution (Ethernet between barn and house) would not apply, and you would need a barn UPS if that is important to you. Electronics in a barn needs to be damp,dust proof, and tolerant of temperatures or placed into a NEMA4 enclosure.
- Just saying, in my barn and farmhouse (no cellular sunshine... 100 acres), coverage past my barn is over 300'. And if you need more range in one particular direction away from the barn and farmhouse, you can hang a non-Omada directional 2.4G or 5G AP. But that is the advanced course.
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Mainly depends on the size of the location you want to cover, the recommended wifi coverage radius for each indoor EAP is 15 metres.
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Thank you, that is helpful. I was planning on possibly having to add a second EAP inside if the coverage from one doesn't reach everywhere.
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Replace the SG1005P with an SG2008P (cheapest switch with 4 POE ports) so you can manage it as part of the Omada solution.
I would replace the EAP650's with EAP225-Outdoors (or EAP610-outdoors...but I don't think they are worth the money). The 225 comes with its own passive POE injector which you can use at the barn without needing another switch (I'm assuming you are meshing the barn AP back to the house AP).
Mount the outdoor units so they have line of sight to each other (no trees/buildings etc in the straight line between them). Higher up is better, recommend mounting them ~0.5m/2' below the roof overhang so they benefit from some sheltering.
Use outdoor rated cable (UV stabilized, gel infused etc) and ideally shielded.
If your barn needs grow, you can connect a wired device or even a switch (to support multiple devices like cameras) to the ethernet port of the meshed AP.
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@hart13 point form:
- Since you are rural, it is a low noise environment. Neighbor's WiFi access points are distant and less than -85 dBm if visible at all . You will get great range! 200'+ outdoors or more is no problem in open fields.
- 5GHz works great outdoors but is Line of Sight. Any leaves and it will fade and become unreliable. To mesh the barn your EAP225 Outdoor must "see" the linked station at the farmhouse (another EAP225 or the EAP610).
- A strategic location to mount your EAP225 outside for mesh on a wooden wall will also provide good coverage into the building at 2.4 GHz. If an indoor EAP is required, it would be in a location sufficiently far from the outdoor EAP225 to spread out coverage/speed. .
- If your barn is mostly wood construction (2nd level floor and upper walls), you will have good coverage indoors at 2.4 GHz from the outdoor EAP225.
- Consider that your mesh can act as backhaul for a future camera surveillance system or anything else you need in the barn. You would likely need a switch.
- Mesh to barn gets you going today. Future dig a trench and go wired or fiber inside a 3/4" or 1" Polypipe as conduit. Better still, bury 4" agricultrural pipe with a Polypipe in it... and anything else like water, etc. Sorry, electrical has to be seperated by code (it is 1' in Canada from other stuff).
- SG2005P-PD would be excellent for the barn (outdoor rated meaning dust, water and temperature) and would be powered over Ethernet from a farmhouse PoE switch. With a UPS, you have internet through a power outage. And the switch can also power surveillance cameras.
- if lightning is a problem, use FIBER between the router in the house and the barn (or stick with mesh). For fiber you have to upgrade the router to a version with SFP (ER7212PC which is also a Omada controller), as well as the barn switch with SFP like TL-SG2210P. The previous PoE solution (Ethernet between barn and house) would not apply, and you would need a barn UPS if that is important to you. Electronics in a barn needs to be damp,dust proof, and tolerant of temperatures or placed into a NEMA4 enclosure.
- Just saying, in my barn and farmhouse (no cellular sunshine... 100 acres), coverage past my barn is over 300'. And if you need more range in one particular direction away from the barn and farmhouse, you can hang a non-Omada directional 2.4G or 5G AP. But that is the advanced course.
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I don't think the 6XX series outdoor APs perform as well as the 225 which is half the price. I attribute that to the 225 having external dipole antennas vs the PCB version inside the 6XX units just performing better when wall or post mounted.
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