If you’re investing in a garden room for your home, you may be wondering how to extend Wi-Fi to your new space. The good news is that you have multiple options for Wi-Fi installation.
Ultimately, the solution that’s right for you depends on your needs. If you plan on using a garden room as a home office, gaming centre, or living area, you will need a reliable and fast internet connection. However, if your new space will only be used socially and occasionally, having a strong signal may be less important.
To help you determine which option is best, here we’ll explain the three main ways to get a Wi-Fi connection to your garden room and what uses they are best suited to.
How to Get Wi-Fi in Your Garden Room
Use a Wi-Fi Extender
One of the quickest and easiest ways for garden rooms to get Wi-Fi is via a Wi-Fi extender. This is a small device that plugs into electric sockets. Wi-Fi extenders use the electrical power lines to send the signal from the house through to the Garden Room. A transmitter is plugged near the modem and the receiver is plugged into a socket in the Garden Room. In the Garden Room it will transmit wirelessly, but can also be connected to a device (PC, etc.) by means of an ethernet cable.
Once the device is synced to your home internet connection, it will extend the signal to your garden room. This solution is the easiest to set up, and works in most cases. The signal can be dependent on the age of the electrical cabling in the house and the distance of your garden room from your home.
There are a number of Wi-Fi extender (booster) products on the market. The TP-link AV 600/1000/1300 are readily available and give good results, in most cases.
Install a Mesh Network
Another option is to install a mesh network or extend your existing mesh network. A mesh network is a method of linking wireless internet devices, such as routers. It’s a simple connection that allows your main internet router to link up with additional routers that you can place throughout your home. The devices are ‘daisy chained’ together, allowing you to extend your network throughout your home – or to your garden room – without the need for wired connections.
To do so, connect one of the mesh network points to your home router, then simply plug in the other mesh devices to a power socket around the home to build a wireless network mesh. Depending on distance to the garden room the mesh network may reach wirelessly. This option can be intermittent due to distance/obstructions.
Direct Cable Connection
One of the most reliable Wi-Fi solutions for garden rooms is to have a cable (such as Cat6) run from the router in your home directly to a new ethernet port installed in your Garden Room. This gives you a directly wired connection in your Garden Room. This option is the most dependable where the usage involves video calling/lecturing and the requirement for a very stable, powerful signal.
There are two factors involved in a direct cable connection:
- The routing of the cable can be very difficult (more difficult than the electrical cable) as the router is often located in the middle of the home. For these installations, consultation with the electrical contractor on site during the installation is necessary.
- As the wired connection must terminate in an ethernet socket, additional gear will be required to set-up wireless access within the Garden Room. A Mesh network or TP-link M5 Deco are options.
Wi-Fi Transmitter
A newer solution that has come on the market is a Wi-Fi transmitter mounted on the rear wall of the house that transmits a signal to your Garden Room. The advantage of this solution is that the signal is not obstructed by the walls and fabric of the house but the routing of a cable around a house and through a finished, landscaped garden is not required.
Conclusion
To get connected to Wi-Fi in your Garden Room is a must. The options outlined above vary in cost from over a hundred euro to several hundreds of euro and the complexity of installation varies considerably. For most users, a Wi-Fi extender will be an economical hassle-free solution. If it doesn’t work, a wired connection can be done at a later stage.
For users who have very demanding requirements, and a drop in signal can be detrimental, you may choose to get a wired connection during installation. Be assured, whatever your requirements are, they can be met, so you can enjoy and/or be productive in our Garden Room. A strong and reliable signal can help create a more productive working environment.
If you’re thinking about getting a garden room for your home, Shomera can help you create a space that perfectly suits your needs. Enquire with us today to learn more about how we can help.
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