Garage Networking

S

seduxion

Weaksauce
Joined
Nov 12, 2009
Messages
78
I have a detached garage where I am setting up a spare PC I had laying around to hook into my stereo and entertainment system out there. I am tired of lugging my laptop out there all the time. Plus I don't like exposing it to the saw dust and climate changes due to the Midwest hot and cold cycles.

Anyways the garage is about 20 feet behind the house and the PC will be at the back of the garage which is another 30 feet. The wireless router is in the middle of the house in the basement so that adds another 20-25 feet to the distance. The laptop gets decent enough signal to do what it needs to do. With that in mind I think I have a few options and I know which is the best fail proof but wondering what your collective minds might do.

Option 1: Run outdoor ethernet cable, STP and UV protected across a guy wire from house to garage. No chance for burial due to concrete poured all around.

Option 2: Will a wireless N USB dongle work for my setup? The wireless n in my laptop does so would the USB dongles be as powerful? I have never tested them.

Option 3: Actually an extension of option 2. Add a wireless extender at the edge of the garage nearest the house if needed.

Any input? Cost for STP UV cable is ~$100 for 1000 feet. I have thousands of feet of UTP but I have no conduit to run it through.
 
An 802.11n may do what you want if you're happy with the speed. That being said, wired will always be better. More stable, faster, secure.

Though, if you're connecting two buildings with separate grounds you should always use a non-conductive medium like wireless or fibre. This will prevent voltage differentials from crossing the line and frying equipment or causing errors.

I think there could also be an issue if the other building's electrical is using a different phase. However, I haven't really looked into that much.

Riley
 
My garage's subpanel is coming from my house's main panel. So they are all on the same main lug coming from the power co. Also the garage does not have a separate ground from what I can tell. It runs back to the house.

I am thinking the 802.11n wireless will be fine. It is with my laptop anyways. I just don't know about the USB adapters if their wattage is the same or less than the internal card on my laptop.

I mainly need it for streaming audio and video from my home theater server and the Internet.
 
First, I would think that a USB Wireless-N adapter would be more powerful then the card in a laptop.

Second, you don't really need to worry about a ground potential difference between a house and a detached garage. Generally they are close enough that any potential difference would be minimal.

I'd go for the USB Wireless-N adapter if it were me.
 
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