Hey YouTube, I'm Tristan from Smart Home
Point.
I recently bought a Ring Indoor Cam
to put in my garage, which is an
outbuilding
and I don't have any internet there, so
it got me thinking about the different
ways you can get
internet in an outbuilding if you
don't already have internet there.
And I came up with a list of seven
different methods you can use
to get internetin your out building,
so I wanted to do this quick general video
today and just talk through the seven
methods that are available to you.
The first method open to you is to
extend your wi-fi network
out throughout your house, so that
hopefully it can be reached
in your out building. You can do this
with two different methods, called wi-fi
repeating or wi-fi extending. Now,
although they're actually slightly
different
methods and how they work, they're all
sold under the same bucket. So for
example, you might see routers that say
they 'boost your wi-fi network' or they
'extend the reach of your wi-fi network',
and so I'm grouping these two as one
method.
So in essence what you'd have is - right
by your back door, for example - you might
plug in a device,
and this will boost your wifi range so
that then in your out building, you might
have another device to plug in,
and this can hopefully speak to the
device you've plugged in by your back
door.
It can reach that, and as a result your
wi-fi network is extended -
your wi-fi range is extended - and then in
your outbuilding you can actually access
that wi-fi network.
Wi-fi repeating and wi-fi extending are
slightly different
under the hood, uh wi-fi extending is
actually where your wi-fi network - your
existing wi-fi network -
gets extended and put up as a brand new
wi-fi network. The devices then connect
to it.
The Ring Chime Pro is an example of this.
Your Ring cameras and your Ring
doorbells will actually connect to a
brand new network that's published by
your Ring Chime Pro.
You won't actually see this when
you're actually setting up your Ring
device in the Ring app,
it just says "do you want to use your
Ring Chime Pro?". It's not going to
actually say:
"do you want to use your wi-fi extender
device"? Uhm, equally a
wi-fi repeater - such as a router or
another plug-in device -
that's slightly different in the sense
that it takes your wi-fi
network and re-broadcast it,
just like a relay tower does with TV and
radio.
But because - although they're different
under the hood - wi-fi range
extenders and repeaters, they actually
look fairly similar to the end user, so
I'm grouping these as one method, but
they are quite a good way of extending
the reach of your wi-fi network
out to out buildings.
The second approach is a slightly newer
or better way of doing what I just
described,
and it's called wi-fi mesh. You may have
seen this marketed as 'whole house
wi-fi solutions' or 'whole house mesh
solutions',
and the Google wi-fi system is a great
example of this.
This actually uses a slightly newer
technology called mesh wi-fi,
and you have your main router - your main
hub - and then throughout your house
you've got different wifi points you
purchase to extend
the reach of your wi-fi network, and this
actually uses meshing technology.
A bit like ZigBee mesh or Bluetooth mesh,
to actually more cleverly extend the
reach of your network.
Uhm, it's quite cool technology because if
one of your nodes - when your points fails -
your mesh can - sort of - reconfigure itself,
so that instead of
going from A to B, your connection for
example might go from A to C...
a different point... and you won't know any
different. All the routing tables will
just be flipped internally,
and as I say Google wi-fi is an example
of this. So what you could do in this
case,
similar to the first method, is you could
have a Google wi-fi
point in your backyard, for
example, and then in your out building
you've got another Google wifi point
you plug in, and then obviously hopefully
the reach will be extended
via this - sort of - Mesh wi-fi method.
Uhm, this works really well but if you're
finding the range just isn't good enough,
maybe you need something more direct
because wi-fi is always going to be a
little bit limited, even if it's mesh
wi-fi.
So I'll talk to you through some other
methods as well
you can use.
Okay, so the third method I want to cover
is a bit of a strange one, and it's
called point-to-point
internet and this is actually more of an
expensive solution, you don't tend to see
it on houses to be honest.
But it's basically where you have the
transmitter
on your house - or a building - and then on
your building...
uh... you actually have a receiver, and the
internet connection gets sent
from that transmitting point to that
receiving point.
This usually uses radio waves such as
2.4 gigahertz up to 60
gigahertz. It can also use lasers which
is really cool.
It's not like in the films where people
get cut up or whatever, but you can use
laser for short distances.
To be honest, point-to-point connections
have flaws in the sense they're really
expensive.
They're more designed for industrial
applications where you might have a big
complex,
and different buildings on that complex,
and then you'd actually use
point-to-point internet -
point-to-point connections - to actually
transmit that internet connection
around that industrial complex. Unless
your house or your grounds are
absolutely massive,
then point-to-point internet may not be
suitable for you.
My fourth method for getting internet
into an out building is quite a simple
standalone solution:
and is to use a 4g or 5g mobile
hub, or mobile hotspot as they call them.
What this actually does... it's a really
small device,
uh here it is, it's A really small device
that actually has a SIM card put into it,
and then you actually buy a data plan
with your cell provider for... for your SIM
card...
and then this little device will
actually act as a wi-fi router, or wi-fi
hotspot, and it'll transmit wi-fi
out into your out building. It's
completely standalone, you can literally
just use it in your own building, and
it's a completely separate internet
connection then to your
home wi-fi. It's quite a good solution, the
downside is - of course - you've got to pay
for a separate
plan for your cell data, for your
internet data, for this device.
And you've got to buy the device as
well, so if you've already got internet
in your house you might want to actually
use that internet instead of buying a
brand new plan.
But certainly this can work really well.
It's a good standalone solution,
and 4g and 5g internet is really fast
nowadays so this could work
really well.
The next option available to you is
satellite internet.
Now traditionally, satellite internet
hasn't always been that good
but due to Elon Musk [heaven noises play]... I joke but Elon Musk
has really improved this area, which I'll
speak about in a second...
but satellite internet, it basically
revolves around having a satellite dish
on your outbuilding, just like you'd have
for
satellite tv. So you have a satellite
dish on your out building, you run a
cable in
and then you literally plug that cable
into your internet modem or internet
router
inside your out building, and then that
provides internet as normal
inside your out building. As I said at
the beginning,
this method has traditionally been quite
expensive, but Elon Musk's
Starlink program - which is funded by
SpaceX is a 10 billion dollar program -
this Starlink actually involves sending
tens of thousands of satellites up into
the sky,
and then the idea of this is that you
can actually pay Starlink for satellite
broadband - for satellite internet. This
will work by having a
Starlink terminal outside your property
somewhere, whether it's on your wall
or your ceiling, and Elon Musk has said
you literally just point it to the sky,
plug it in and it'll reconfigure itself
to look at one of the
thousands - or the tens of thousands - of
satellites that are launched into the sky.
We don't know prices just yet, they're
going to come out later this year,
I think America will be the first market
this will be launched too,
but this might be a really good way of
actually getting internet through an out
building,
because this program will actually bring
down the cost of satellite broadband
a lot, and it'll be cheaper and more
accessible than ever before.
The sixth method available to you is to
actually run a hard
link - an internet cable, or an ethernet
cable - from
your inside, internet router, into your
outbuilding.
This might not always be easy because it
might involve running it
under floors or inside walls, and then
certainly you'd have to run it outside
your external wall.
You might then need to run it under your
patio, or dig a big trench through your
garden (your back garden) - and then
eventually run it into your out
building,
so this isn't always the easiest
approach. But if you can do it, it's the
most reliable
because then in your building you
literally take the end of your ethernet
cable,
and you plug it into an internet router -
like this - and then you have a wi-fi
network available to you in your
outbuilding.
Alternatively instead of relying on an
internet router
in your out building, you can literally
just have a network switch
and then you have lots more ethernet
cables coming from your network switch
and go into your individual power over
ethernet devices.
Uhm, the... the downside of this is that not
that many smart products actually
support
power over ethernet. Uhm, I know the Ring
doorbell elite does, and the Ring stick
up cam
elite does, but most other devices don't.
So if you are going to run an ethernet
cable in,
it's probably better to have an internet
router anyway to provide your internet.
But certainly this is a good option, even
though it is
more complex. If you're able to do it,
this is probably the best option
available to you.
Okay my final option is instead of
running an ethernet cable
out along your house and then out into
your backyard and into your outbuilding,
you rely on what's called 'powerline
adapters'.
So what these are is they plug into your
wall socket
inside your house, the first one, and then
you've got an ethernet port either at
the top or the bottom.
And basically inside your house, your
ethernet cable plugs into this,
and then plugs into your internet router.
And then in your out building,
what'll actually happen is you'll either
have the same - sort of - device,
or a slightly smaller one that again
plugs into the wall socket in youre
out building,
and then obviously you connect your
ethernet cable there,
and then from here it's very similar to
the last point.
You can literally plug this ethernet
cable into your router -
or network switch - and at that point you
have internet
in your out building. This actually works -
these powerline adapters work - by
using your electrical cabling to
actually transmit
internet data. It's not always the best
method if your house has very old
electrical wiring, but if your house has
newer electrical cabling -
you don't tend to have any electrical
problems - then powerline adapters can
work really well.
The benefit of this approach - same as the
last approach - is you're actually
creating
a wi-fi access point - or wireless access
point - inside your outbuilding
and this is quite a good - sort of -
persistent way of creating
internet, while still only using one
internet connection,
unlike a 4g or 5g hub which actually
has multiple
internet points and multiple internet
subscription plans.
So if your internet works quite well,
powerline adapters will work really well
for you and the benefit of this is you
don't need to rip apart your house
by running ethernet cable everywhere.
While on the topic of powerline adapters,
the other thing you can do in your
outbuilding,
instead of having a plug-in device which
has a ethernet port
and then from here plug it into a router
to create your access point,
you can actually get some power line
adapters that have a built-in wi-fi
hotspot.
So what actually happens is you plug it
in, instead of having an Ethernet port,
the powerline adapter actually publishes
its own wi-fi network,
its own wi-fi access point. This can be
quite convenient if you are just
planning on connecting - you're
connecting your power line adapter to a
router - because instead of that, you've
simply got a single plug-in device. You
don't have to worry about any extra
devices or any ethernet cables.
Okay that wraps up today's video. Thank
you for watching it. As you can tell from the
seven different methods that I've
covered,
some of them have pros and cons. They can
vary depending on where your outbuilding
is located,
such as how far it is from your house.
They also vary depending on whether
you're able to get
satellite internet or a 4g hub or 5g hub
in your outbuilding. For example, if your
cell reception is not good in your out
building, then a 4g or 5g hub might not
make sense.
Uhm, but overall some... all... of these methods
can be used for different purposes, so
hopefully at least one of them is good
for you.
For me personally, I'm going to use
powerline adapters when I put a Ring
indoor camera
inside my garage which doesn't currently
have internet.
This should be fairly reliable for me,
but if not, I'm then going to go the
whole hog and actually run an ethernet
cable
up out of my loft (because I have a
network up there). I'll run it out of my loft,
down my house, under my patio and into my
garage,
which will probably be a day's work so
I'll try to avoid that if I can,
and just rely on powerline adapters
instead, but I'll see how I get on and at
least I know I've got a few different
options available to me.
Okay I hope you found this video useful.
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Thank you!