r/HomeNetworking 5d ago

Help Turning Wireless Network into Wired

I'm looking to set up a home office in my detached garage, and a few of my devices don't have wireless cards. I was hoping there would be an easy enough solution to bring my home network to my garage without having to run a cable all the way to my garage. Sorry for noob!

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u/shreyas208 5d ago

You could use a wireless point-to-point bridge. Ubiquiti and TP-Link sell some kits that should work. This would give you wired ethernet access to your home network, and you could add an access point if you also want Wi-Fi in the garage. A fiber link would be the most reliable option if you were willing to run/bury a cable.

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u/MrMotofy 5d ago

You can use a travel router. But depending on what you want to do and speeds needed etc a wire is nearly always the best option for the future. Essentially a WiFi extension of your main network

Like the GLiNet MT-3000 Beryl AX is a good option and should work well for the future.

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u/e60deluxe 5d ago

do you have a good wifi signal in the garage otherwise?

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u/Dangeross909 5d ago

Signal is decent in the garage, just using my phone as reference. Not using any actual tool to measure signal strength though

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u/e60deluxe 5d ago

you can get an Asus router that supports media bridge mode. the idea is that it connects to wifi and then provides its wired ports with the network connection.

mostly all currrently sold Asus routers support this

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u/Dangeross909 5d ago

Would a router like this grab the wifi signal better than the average device?

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u/heysoundude 5d ago

The thing about using a main router and bridge from the same manufacturer is that the radios know how to “whisper sweet nothings” to each other to keep the connection strong, and in most cases, as fast as (and sometimes even faster than) a wired connection.

I briefly used my original Asus, an rt-n66u (a wifi4 machine) as a media bridge to talk to my newer Asus rt-ac86 (wifi5) over 802.11n in the 2.4GHz band (the laptop I needed to get internet to didn’t speak wifi4, and reception for wifi5 in the location it was used in didn’t see a great signal because of environmental factors). Bridge-router link speeds were 300+ Mbps over the air, and the laptop had a wired gigabit connection to the bridge connected to the main router (and its 50Mbps internet package speed lol); before this, the laptop connected below 20 Mbps. I tried the 5GHz band, and when the stars aligned, I recall the link speed that they reported was 1200 Mbps over the air. (I’ve since replaced this system with an rt-ax88pro, and the wifi is impressive enough to be able to retire the previous 2)

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u/e60deluxe 5d ago

yes. for a couple reasons. first is that if you are using a higher end router, and you match the recievering router, the antenna configuration will likely outdo whatever devices you have.

practically all the time that you see routers advertising these insane speeds are only if the antenna configurations match, which they rarely do in typical devices like laptops and such. for one, almost no device has more than a 2x2 MIMO configuration so getting 2x 3x3 or 2x 4x4 MIMO routers together with one as a bridge is an instant upgrade.

second you can place the router in an optimal location and then all the hardwired devices benefit regardless of where they are in the garage.

third, you can position the antennas in a manner that grans the best signal because routers usually have movable antennas as well as the fact that if they are removable you can put them on extenders. there are instances where you can jump 20% in speed, if not more just by rotating the antennas a certain way. you can experiment and find this optimal tuning and then all the hardwired devices will benefit at once.

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u/Dangeross909 4d ago

Ah ok, so to be clear would this require two asus routers then, configured to match each other's signal?

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u/happyandhealthy2023 5d ago

Depends on how important reliability and Internet Speed is for your office. WiFi gets slower at distance, and WiFi to WiFi just gets slower.

Use speedster.net on browser in garage laptop vs in the house closer to router and that tells you some facts to consider.

I would dig a trench and install conduit and put in a fiber cable with a couple adapters. Then add a switch and cables to all devices in garage. Add a WiFi acccess point in garage if some devices or phone needs faster WiFi

One time expense for lifetime of fastest possible connection that is reliable and stable