How To Get Internet And Wifi To An Outbuilding
If you have an outbuilding in Hertfordshire that you use for an Office, Games Room, Indoor Gym, or just an area or building that you would like reliable internet connection working 24/7- then this is the blog for you.
If you already have an internet connection in your Home then there are various ways of extending a connection to your Outbuilding. The most reliable method by far is to run a Structured Data Cable, Permanent Link, or Hard Wired Connection from your ISP ( Internet Service Provider) Router to the outbuilding. This method is far superior to Point to Point Wifi Links, which should only be used when you have exhausted any method of trying to get a Hard Wired Structured Cable to the outbuilding.
What Hard Data Cabling Types To Run To Your Outbuilding
Cat 5e is now almost a 20 year old technology. A lot of manufacturers are now simply discontinuing its use, as it’s manufacturer time is up. It’s the Norwegian Blue Parrot of the cabling world and if it was not nailed to the perch if would fall off. Anyway, you get the picture. As an absolute minimum, you should install a good Quality Cat 6 External Grade Cable. To avoid any confusion, look at the image below to see what the cable should look like.
DannySh33han
The Wrong Type Of Hard Data Cabling To Run
Do Not Use Internal Grade Cabling even if you have it inside conduit or Copex
It is a common misunderstanding that PVC, the material used to coat standard data cable, is waterproof. It is not, it is Hygroscopic. Standard Category 6 Cables have a PVC coating and are designed for indoor use. These Data Cables are not suitable for use outside in the ground and elements ( Water ). It is also not UV Stabilized and unless its protected from direct sunlight, it will become brittle and hard overtime. In practical terms, it will not last long enough externally, as the rain will make it useless far before the sun does in Hertfordshire and The Home Counties.
DO NOT RUN Internal Cabling Externally Ever!!
100 Mts Patch leads from AMAZON or EBAY
How these even exist is beyond me, they are sold as external grade extension cables when in fact they are 100mt patch leads in black PVC coating so they look like external cable and the PVC is so thin that they last no time at all . Do not even waste your time installing these. Return them before use as they are total rubbish.
“Fluke said that 80% of the Consumer Cat 6 Cables they tested, didn’t begin to meet the Cat 6 Specification.”
Zero Loss Cat 6 Cable
Total marketing baloney!. That only exists in the same world as Unicorns, the Easter bunny and Big foot. Good quality data cable is made from solid copper core normally 23 or 24 awg and unless someone has invented a way of making copper into a super conductor that I am not aware of, And if they had, They certainly would not have used this world changing discovery to make their fortune making Zero loss Cat 6 cable!!!. There will always be a resistance and therefore a loss across the length of a installed cable. Its a fact. The maximum run of a Structured cable is 90mts ( actually its 100mts as you are allowed 5mts per end for a patch lead) just take this as a fact of life. If you are lucky enough to have a garden that is 90mts long then read keep reading my blog as we will get to fibre optic cabling.
“Indeed Certification Testing Standards actually allow for a loss along an installed cable”
Run Screened Cable alongside Power Cable
Electromagnetic Interference, or EMI as it is known, is external interference caused by radio frequency interference (RFI) generated by electromagnetic fields close to data cables, power cables, connecting motors, and generators. Typical methods of eliminating Crosstalk Interference doesn’t work with EMI because it’s an external signal. The most common method of dealing with this type of interference is to use Screened Cable. EMI can cause data errors even at 10 Mbit/s and when looking at 100 Mbit/s Ethernet speeds, it is a serious problem for Gigabit Ethernet performance.
Screened Data Cable ( Ftp or S/Ftp) is engineered to deflect electrical interference. This should be seen as method against accidental electrical interference and not a way of allowing you to run the power and data together. Not only is this against UK Electrical Regulation and dangerous, You will almost certainly get electrical noise on the Data Cable and this will result in lost data and an unreliable connection.
When Installing Screened Data Cable to provide a Hard Wired Data Link to your outbuilding, it is essential that at least one end of the Data Cable is connected to a good clean earth (grounding). This is easily done by using a metal clad faceplate and back box ( the draw wire in the the cable is terminated with the cut facility on the Krone or similar IDC termination tool bypassed). It is connected to the Earthing Terminal which is located at the back of the metal backbox. If you don’t do this, the shielding is completely negated and you may as well not have used a Shielded Cable!
“Just Because Your Using Shielded Data Cable does not mean it can be run side by side with power!”
Methods of Routing Cable to External Buildings
If you have a line of fence panels down the side of your garden and Gravelboards ( concrete or wood used to raise the Fence panel from ground to prevent the panels rotting) then this is the perfect place to mount the cable. Clipping the cables to the top of the fence panel may be easier because your not crawling around in the shrubs and bushes. But, be warned! This is where those furry, cute little squirrels love to sit and the sight of a new data cable will be irresistible, And to be honest, it will look terrible no matter how long you spend making it neat and tidy.
So mounting at low level on the Gravelboard is the best choice. Ideally, depending on your budget, 20mm Black Plastic Conduit- mounted to each fence post- will hinder the occasional mishap. This can really help while your digging the borders or going wild with the Strimmer.
Data Cabling Engineer Tip
Either pull a draw string through the conduit as your installing it or actually pull the External Data cable, And where you come to corners use inspection bends rather than closed bends as it makes it far simpler to pull the cable though.
Direct Burial of Hard Cabling
This is the perfect solution for running Hard Cable to your building. If done correctly, the cable will last forever- as nothing can damage it underground. Unless you are using SWA Data Cable, I would still enclose the cable within a duct. The perfect duct to use is Plastic MDPE Water pipe its cheap and tough as old boots, You need to dig a trench at least 1 1/2 spades depth, Add a shallow depth of pea shingle lay your pipe and if you are installing power this will also lay in the same trench but spaced away from the pipe. Then backfill trench with pea shingle until the pipe is covered by at least 50mm. Before backfilling the trench your electrician may insist on a warning tape being laid- which is of course good practice. You know it’s there, you have just bug a trench down the garden. You may never forget the back pain but the tape will act as a warning to future owners and others.
Catenary Wire Uses
A reasonable solution for close outbuildings is mounting a steel wire between buildings. For instance, really high up washing lines. This should not be pulled taught but have a bit of slack on it. Next, your external cable is Ty Wrapped to the steel wire. This method is a quick and simple way that is normally used on Temporary Buildings during construction, such as: Building Site Offices, Portakabins, and other Construction Site Buildings or Commercial Buildings where Wire Management isn’t required . This use is for when the cable needs to be out of the way but aesthetics is not a priority.
Using Fibre Optic Cabling
Contrary too popular belief or misinformation, Fibre Optic Cabling has many advantages in getting a Data Link to your external building, especially if the distance between your router location and the outbuilding is more than 90mts.
Fibre Optic Cable uses light to transmit data and the distances it can cover is vast , you can have a 1 GBit/s connection at up 550mt ( that’s not a typo 550mts or 1800 feet) and 10GBit/s at just over 200mts
When duct is already installed between your house and the outbuilding
Fibre Optic Cable is not affected by proximity to power the main cores are fine glass stands and therefore cannot conduct power. So unlike copper cable the fibre can be routed through the duct side by side with the power cable and not be affected at all. It would then be a matter of terminating the fibre and using a pair of media convertors. When running fibre optic cabling this way, a Zero- Loss High Performance Link is easily achieved.
Fibre optic installation is certainly not a DIY project as the cost of the terminating equipment would make it prohibitive in regard to outlay. This i would recommend is handed over to a specialist company like ourselves who have made the investment in training and equipment required to terminate fibre optic cable.
**The following alternatives should only be used when all possible means of getting a physical data cable. First rule these options out: Cat 6 UTP, Cat 6 SFTP, or even Cat 6 Steel Wire Armoured or Fibre Optic Cable have been investigated and ruled out. These alternative methods can prove to be unreliable, slow, and expensive to install and run. They are really only included for full disclosure of all methods of Getting a Data Link to an External Building.**
P2P Wireless Bridge
Do not get me wrong, P2P Wireless bridges have their uses. As a company we have installed quite a few enterprise quality units that have worked very well and provided a reasonably acceptable data link. However these were in locations where we had investigated the possibility of running a hard wired data link and it was physically impossible to undertake.
P2P Bridges need Line Of sight, this is not as simple as it sounds though, You may well be able to see the external building but the transmitted signal is not a straight line it is radiated more as a Rugby Ball shape and anything such as Trees, Walls etc in your garden can adversely affect the signal and therefore the total speed of the link.
You may well need to mount the Transmitter and Receiver on a pole to avoid any physical obstructions. In a domestic setting this may not get spousal approval. Another consideration is speed. Quoted speeds of the data link are very rarely achieved in the real world. But if they were achieved, a 300Mbps Bridge Link would really only be a 150Mbps Duplex Link as the total signal is halved for a transmit and receive signal.
To put this into simpler terms, Cat5 e, if perfectly installed, will have a transmission rate of 350Mbps and is now deemed as too slow for new installations. Also, production is being ceased by the larger manufacturers. If you must use a P2P Bridge, then i really would suggest going for an Enterprise Level Unit with at least a 450mbps connection speed.
What Does Hygroscopic Mean?
“Hygroscopy is the phenomenon of attracting and holding water molecules via either absorption or adsorption from the surrounding environment, which is usually at normal or room temperature. If water molecules become suspended among the substance’s molecules, adsorbing substances can become physically changed, e.g., changing in volume, boiling point, viscosity or some other physical characteristic or property of the substance”.
Powerline Adaptor Data Connections
These use your Electrical Ring Main to “replace” a Structured Data Cable Link . The theory is that you plug one into your mains outlet and connect a RJ45 Patch Lead from your ISP Router into the NIC Port on the Powerline Adaptor. Then, in another room, you do the same but plug the RJ45 into your PC or an additional WIFI Booster.
That is the theory. In practice, they are troublesome, slow, and unreliable. And it’s crucial that they are on the same ring main to even stand a chance of working. Its normal electrical practice in the UK to have a separate ring main per floor of your home. This allows plugging one in on the 1st floor whilst your ISP router is on the ground floor, and therefore it’s on another ring main. This causes it to not work.
This also applies to your outside building. If you have run an electrical feed, it will almost certainly be in the form of a Radial Feed ( ie. one single cable) otherwise the Powerline Adaptors simply will not work.
3G or 4G Data Situations
As crazy as it sounds, if you have good mobile data coverage in your area and are happy to pay around £20-25 per month to get an internet connection to your outbuilding, then there are some excellent routers that will accept a Mobile Data Sims. You can find these on the market, and along with an External Antenna Kit, an excellent signal can be achieved.
You may well fall foul of the fair usage policy of the mobile data company if you start streaming SKY Q to your 85″ UHD screen, But for general home office usage great results can be achieved.
Satellite Broadband Options
Yes, you can receive broadband via satellite! This is not a cheap option because the equipment that receives the satellite signal is expensive and the subscription is also quite a hefty price. Also, the best connection you will achieve using a Satellite Data Connection is 20Mbps. To boot, there is also an inherent latency on the connection, due to the signal needing to travel to the Geostationary Satellites and then back again to Earth. This will cause VOIP ( Voice Over Internet Protocol) calls and online gaming to be almost impossible. Realistically, this is a drastic solution to getting a Data Connection to your outside building and only would be a solution if there was no Internet connection even close or 3G / 4G signal was non existent.
Once The Data Point Has Been Established
Now that you have an internet connection in your External Building, the rest is plain sailing. If your requirements are simply some WIFI and some data ports for SKY Q or Smart TV then the single internet connection can be connected to a WIFI router such as the ASSUS AC1200 which offers both 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz as well as 4 additional ports for additional PCs, TVs etc.
What Our Customers Are Saying About Our Data Cable Installation Services
“Dan responded very quickly to my initial inquiry regarding our poor wi-fi signal and, after surveying our property, offered a couple of different solutions.”
“After picking our preferred option he arranged to come back within days to install it, and our wi-fi has improved dramatically!”
“I highly recommend Dan, he offers great service at good rates, so you can’t really ask for anything more.”
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Where Can I Find An External Data Cabling Company Near Me?
If you have read our Blog Post and decided you want the Installation of External Data Connection to your outside building. And you want it undertaken by a Professional Data Cabling Installation Company , Cabledan is located in Watford, UK. Cabledan’s Service Area includes Hertfordshire and the Surrounding Counties. Please, do not hesitate to contact us on 01923 624120
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For Home Wi-Fi Installations in Hertfordshire, UK, and surrounding counties, please contact CableDan at 01923 624120 or sales@cabledan.co.uk
