The garage is more than just a place for storing things for DIYers. If you have a detached garage a few hundred feet away from your house, you probably struggle connecting your smart devices to your home Wifi.
You can extend the wifi range using an extender, and it’s a no brainer. But, the issue has to do with a lot more than that. Cable length, the router’s position, network adapter, USB antenna, and most importantly, the right type of router are needed.
This guide on how to extend wifi to detached garage will explain everything for you to understand easily and extend the wifi range in the shortest possible time.
Table of Contents
9 Easy Steps for Extending Wifi Range to Detached Garage
Depending on the distance and your internet setup, you might not have to follow all the 10 steps below. First, read through the steps. You will understand where you need to start.
1. Relocate Your Router
The very first thing to do is to reposition the router itself. Find a suitable and closer place to your garage to ensure the signal makes its way to the garage. The best place would be the room or space closer to the garage in your house. Make sure the router covers both your garage and home.
Many people prefer placing the router outside the wall to make the most out of its range. You can also try it and see if the signal reaches the garage while not weakening the coverage inside your house. If you have no option but this one, there will be some dead spots in the house.
This solution only works when the router has a wide coverage. If this doesn’t work for you, you will have to upgrade the router itself or get an extender.
2. Get a Powerful Mesh Wifi Router
If you got a really big house, a traditional router with an extender wouldn’t be able to extend the coverage. In such cases, using a mesh network system is highly recommended.
For those who are unfamiliar with this mesh network or router, well, it’s pretty similar to a wifi extender. There will be a primary router connected to the modem and other routers to place in different places in your house.
Unlike typical extenders, a mesh network is more stable and consistent in providing you with the speed you expect. Even if your smartphone is connected to the wifi, and you roam around the house, there won’t be any speed drop whatsoever. Other wireless devices connected to the primary router will get you great coverage.
Depending on how many devices come with the mesh network system you purchase, you will either have to place a router in the garage or a nearby location. This will make sure you get high-speed wifi internet even a hundred feet away from your house.
Now, the coverage area depends on how many routers a system comes with. You should opt for a system with at least 4500 square ft. coverage for a detached garage. If you need more coverage, you can consider getting TP-Link Deco M5 Mesh Wireless Router that can provide up to 5500 square ft. coverage.
So, yeah, replace your existing router with a powerful router or the home mesh network mentioned above to enjoy seamless internet service in your detached garage.
3. Get a Wifi Range Extender
Getting a wifi extender is probably the first thing people do when they decide to extend the wifi range even to the garage away from the house.
Whether your current router has weak transmission power or your garage is far from the house, a wifi range extender can improve the wireless signal allowing you access from the garage.
Note that wifi extenders aren’t as strong as mesh networks. So, if your garage is 3000-5000 square ft. or even further from the house, extenders won’t help that much.
If you find it to be the most appropriate wireless network to get you a decent internet connection to the garage, you may look at the WiFi Extender Wireless Range Booster. Users find it the best extender for a garage within the 3000 square ft. range for its consistent and reliable network signal.
4. Get an Outdoor Access Point
When it’s about covering more than a 300 ft. area, the only effective option would be to opt for the outdoor access point system. It’s the most powerful and expensive way to maximize the network strength by directing the connection to multiple outdoor locations, including your yard and detached garage.
There will be multiple access points in different locations all across the property. The system requires a buried ethernet cable to set up the internet connection. You will have to get a conduit and dig a hole to bury it in. Then, run an ethernet cable through the conduit to make its way to your house.
Now, you will have to install access points at each location where you want to get access to the wireless network. The ethernet cable then goes to your primary router.
You might need to set up a point-to-point antenna, powerline network kit, or extender to connect to access points without compromising network strength.
5. Run a Long Ethernet Cable
There are less expensive ways to bring a decent internet connection to your detached garage without spending on a costly mesh network or outdoor access point system. An ethernet cable can do the job if you only need to bring the garage within the wireless coverage.
You can seamlessly connect multiple routers using ethernet cables within a local area network. For this, you will have to bury the wires underground and connect one end of the cable to the main router and the other end of the cable to the device or wifi repeater or secondary wireless router in your garage.
However, this installation will take time to set up. But, considering the expense, it would be totally worth it.
6. Powerline Network Adapter
If the power to your garage comes out from your house, you can also use it to transmit internet signals through it. The powerline adapter connects to your house’s electrical circuit.
You will need two ethernet cables and a powerline networking kit for this to work. The kit includes two adapters – one transmitter and one receiver.
Be sure to connect the transmitter adapter and your home router using an ethernet cable. Then, plug the transmitter into the nearest power outlet to connect it to the electrical wiring of your house.
Now, connect the second powerline adapter (receiver) with your computer in the garage or any wireless bridge or access point to transmit the signal. Don’t forget to plug it into an outlet as well. Once everything is set, the transmitter and receiver will be paired, and the internal signal will come through the electric circuit to the garage.
Keep in mind that several factors such as the distance between adapter and router, quality of the electrical wiring of your house, etc., will affect the signal range as well as internet speed.
7. Add a Powerful USB Antenna to Your Garage
If the garage isn’t that far from your house, and the position of the router is near the site where the garage is located, getting a USB antenna would be the right option to choose. The USB antenna will pick a weaker signal and make a decent connection out of it by extending the coverage, similar to any wifi booster.
However, you might not get the full speed, but the signal will be more stable. Keep in mind that the coverage and signal strength to the garage will depend on certain factors like wall thickness, the distance between your house and garage, etc.
Make sure you get a powerful external USB antenna. Antennas with 5dBi or wider coverage will be better for your detached garage. Also, look for an antenna with maximum range, length, number of antennas, and sizes to get the most out of your investment.
If there are multiple antennas, you can position each antenna in various directions to increase the wifi coverage. AC compatible antennas are the best in terms of high signal coverage. The antenna on these is detachable, meaning you can replace the antenna with a more powerful one.
However, DC antennas will work too if you position the antenna near the closest wall to your detachable garage.
8. By Troubleshooting Garage Internet Connectivity
If your garage isn’t that far from the house, it’s within the wireless range of your router or other devices; then, you might not need any hardware upgrade. A lot of time, poor signal issues have to do with software-related stuff.
Be sure to check if the manufacturer’s website of the router has a software or firmware update or not. If you see any update, install it right away, and the issue can be solved if the hardware is okay.
If you have purchased devices or routers or extenders, and still you are not getting the expected wireless signal in your garage, check if you have installed new devices correctly or not. Try reinstalling to see if the issue is fixed or not. For a complicated router setup, it’s better to leave it to your ISP to get things done correctly.
9. Try Switching Frequency 2.4GHz to 5GHz
Modern routers offer 2.4GHz to 5GHz wireless frequencies. If any certain frequency isn’t working for you, you should try switching to another frequency to see if the signal quality improves or not.
If your current router is a 2.4GHz device, which produces a weak wifi signal, be sure to upgrade to a 5GHz router to get a strong signal.
Why my wifi signal is weak in the Garage?
When it comes to getting internet access in the garage, distance is the primary factor that affects the signal strength. Also, there are other reasons for getting a poor signal in your garage or the furthest part of the house.
Inappropriate Location of the Router
If the garage is in the south, and you placed the router on the northmost side of your house, then obviously, it won’t get the signal all the way to the garage. Try placing the router on a wall in the house that is nearest to the garage. If the router has multiple antennas, adjust the antennas in multiple directions as well.
Physical Object Obstacle
The wifi strength is also affected by the wall thickness, trees, steel walls, etc. If the signal has to travel through thicker walls or multiple steel walls, the network strength will be very weak. Also, the density of those materials, size of the room, etc., factors affect the signal.
Weather Issues
Bad weather can be the reason for poor wifi signals in your house. Lightning, thunder, etc., affect the performance of wifi. You might also face weak signals due to fog and electrical interference.
Other Frequencies
Devices or appliances that emit radio frequencies such as microwaves, cell phones, next door wifi signals, etc., also weaken the wireless signal in areas where you get consistently poor internet coverage. If your house has multiple Bluetooth devices turned on, this can also be the reason for poor network connection.
Router or Modem Installation
As signals don’t uniformly flow through your router’s or extender’s antenna, the placement and where the antennas are directed also matter when it comes to getting a decent internet connection. Also, be sure to check if the access point is positioned correctly or not.
Even if your hardware setup is sound, you might not get internet access to your detached garage if you overlook these things.
Connected Devices
If there are more users in a specific network range, your home wifi signal will get weaker. That is the reason why internet speed highly decreases in a crowded room or place.
Be sure to change the wifi password to make sure there aren’t too many users who are using your home wifi without even letting you know. Well, this doesn’t mean they can’t hack your wifi. Anyone can get wireless access by pressing the WPS button on the back of your router when you are away from home.
So, What Will Be the Best Way to Extend wifi to Detached Garage?
For most people, the solutions for the weak wifi signal in their garage would be –
1. Getting a Mesh Wifi System
For a large area or building, or if your detached garage is a few hundred ft. away from home, getting a Mesh wifi system would be the right investment. You will get seamless wireless signals even while moving from one place to another without noticing a speed drop.
2. Getting a Wifi Extender
If the garage isn’t that far from your house, a wifi extender with powerful antennas would be a value for money option for you.
3. Running a Long Ethernet Cable
If you only want to expand your home wifi to the garage and nowhere else, be sure to take the initiative for running an ethernet cable to the garage’s router or computer. This is the least expensive option you can try.
WRAPPING UP
Now that you know how to extend wifi to detached garage, you can also extend the wireless coverage in other areas.
Even after you set up everything correctly and the hardware is good, you can experience weak wifi signals from time to time depending on the user traffic, weather issues, and radio frequencies. So, don’t freak out then. Try to limit these factors to get everything going as usual.
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