brodie19 Posted February 10, 2012 Share Posted February 10, 2012 Following on from my recent post on here re wifi CCTV, I now have a partial system up and running using the home network, however as my house is a renovated old stone barn with the usual 2 feet thick walls, I find that the wifi signal from the Livebox is non existent literally 5 feet from the house. I need the IP cameras to pick up the wifi from no more than 40m away from the house.Has anyone any experience of boosting their wifi signal to be picked up outside (gite owners offering wifi?).Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chiefluvvie Posted February 10, 2012 Share Posted February 10, 2012 Yep - just use FON 'Spot-in-a-box' (or the basic 'Simpl') and a 'Fontenna' - about 70€ the pair delivered - extends your Orange Livebox / SFR Neufbox etc Wifi range up to 5 times further - brilliant and cheap!Link : https://shop.fon.com/FonShop/shop/FR/ShopController?view=product&product=PRD-HIB01Chiefluvvie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnOther Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 Taking the claims of a '50% more powerful antenna' and '50% farther range' with the usual recommended large pinch of salt, as far as I can see the Fon SIMPL is nothing more than a fancy WiFi dongle and as such can only increase range by being placed in an advantageous position, something you could equally do with your Livebox albeit perhaps not so conveniently. To use it in a remote location will require an ethernet cable between it and your Livebox.I would also take the claims for the Fontenna with a bag of salt never mind a pinch. From the very first glance at the specs I could see something was wrong as the ULA168 cable quoted itself has losses of 65.6dB/100m which works out to just under 2dB for 3m but that is ignoring the connectors which will likely introduce another 1/2-1dB. On top of the already hopelessly optimistic claim of 6.5dB gain for the device as a whole I'd be surprised if in practice it actually provided any gain whatsoever and any perceived improvement in performance from it's use would be down to flexibility of positioning and little else.Not only my opinion either.http://elfonblog.fondoo.net/?p=90For your application you'd probably be better off with a mains solution such as this:http://www.amazon.co.uk/Devolo-1409-dLAN-Wireless-N-Starter/dp/B00472MMC6/ref=dp_cp_ob_computers_title_0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pachapapa Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 I dont believe Wi Fi will work. I use CPL for anything further than two 60 cm stone walls from the router; the higher band width MIMO routers get a bit further.Same thing with portable phones...bull sh1t...the bases have got an antenna like a bent hairpin.BUT I have an old Philips portable with a substantial aerial on base and phone...with that I can get a connection through four stone walls and then 100 metres up the garden to the grape vine pergola.A CCTV will only require an "a/b" bandwidth...they are outdated...but a pair of such outdated CPLs should not cost more than € 20. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chiefluvvie Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 Does make me laugh!!Just to reiterate some points in light of the 'oh-so- predictable' sceptical comments........I have a FON Spot-in-a-Box with a Fontenna ariel attached. I bought them for 71€ delivered by UPS from Madrid. I did this after having researched many incredibly costly and impractical alternatives.I have 2 gites approx 200m from the house on independant electricity supplies - so CPL and any other mains connections as 'suggested' are out of the question!The FON Simpl is connected to my SFR Neufbox via a simple short ethernet cable. The Fontenna (booster ariel) is connected to the FON Simpl via a 3m cable. The Fontenna is stuck to a window pointing in the direction of the gites. The Wifi signal received in the gites is as strong as it is in my house - job done!What's more - the gite guests receive 30mins per day of free access via there own secure log-on - totally separate to my own private access (Hadopi etc!). After that they buy top-ups and I receive 50% of the revenue generated - direct into my Paypal account.And another thing...because I have opened up my SFR Neufbox to FON public wifi access - I also have free access to over 4 million FON hotspots worldwide - as a pilot it's been just great for me!So - I guess my message would be don't knock it until you've tried it! I don't have an Orange Livebox but I'd imagine it's pretty similar to an SFR Neufbox with cable connection ports - no doubt someone will 'correct' me if I'm wrong of course.......Chiefluvvie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnOther Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 [quote user="Chiefluvvie"]Does make me laugh!!Just to reiterate some points in light of the 'oh-so- predictable' sceptical comments........ [/quote]And an equally predictable pithy response from you, are you always so aggressive out of the starting blocks ?In my post I simply highlighted the indisputably exaggerated technical specifications and that it might not necessarily be the 'plug and play' solution your very brief 'buy this it's brilliant' initial post suggested and BTW I'm sure I don't need to remind you that you can only reiterate something you have already said so you were not 'reiterating' anything, merely expanding.I didn't say it wouldn't work and I'm very happy that it does for you and suits your needs however in the OP's circumstances, with only 40m distance to cover, it seemed to me that a mains solution would probably be easier. Since the OP didn't express any need or desire to share his WiFi or benefit from FON that part of your post is of little relevance here, perhaps you might share it in the Gite Owners section though [:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chiefluvvie Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 Oh dear me AnOther - this is just like magnetic fishing.....Great suggestion though - makes a refreshing change.TTFNChiefluvvieOh, and thanks for the free English lesson - even though I did not 'express any need or desire' to have one!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pachapapa Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 I use ariel washing powder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brodie19 Posted February 14, 2012 Author Share Posted February 14, 2012 Thanks for everyone`s input. I am going with Another`s suggestion re the Devolo plugs as they are the best for my situation. Again, thanks for all the advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richardbk Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 I've just got a pair of the latest netgear 500Mbit/s CPLs XAVB5001 from amazon.fr for a touch under €70 with free delivery. BTW I'm also using Wifi Ip cameras, but I am now going to add a power over ethernet switch to the remote CPL, and then link the cameras via cable, as I find this provides better transfer rates and more stability. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
halfblind Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 I have used CPL for a while and they are good, just one word of caution though, the CPL plugs need to be on the same phase of the electrical circuit to work. This is not a problem if you only use one phase of your 3 phase supply for your house/barn wiring.You can overcome the problem with a piece of kit to "link" the phases together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richardbk Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 [quote user="halfblind"]I have used CPL for a while and they are good, just one word of caution though, the CPL plugs need to be on the same phase of the electrical circuit to work. This is not a problem if you only use one phase of your 3 phase supply for your house/barn wiring.You can overcome the problem with a piece of kit to "link" the phases together.[/quote]You can couple the 3-phase to enable CPLs to work across phases very cheaply by just connecting a 22nF capacitor (500Volts or more) between each pair of phases. Of course please don't do this if you don't know what you are doing ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyv Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 [quote user="Richardbk"]BTW I'm also using Wifi Ip cameras, [/quote]Which cameras are you using, Richard? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
halfblind Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 [quote user="Richardbk"][quote user="halfblind"]I have used CPL for a while and they are good, just one word of caution though, the CPL plugs need to be on the same phase of the electrical circuit to work. This is not a problem if you only use one phase of your 3 phase supply for your house/barn wiring.You can overcome the problem with a piece of kit to "link" the phases together.[/quote]You can couple the 3-phase to enable CPLs to work across phases very cheaply by just connecting a 22nF capacitor (500Volts or more) between each pair of phases. Of course please don't do this if you don't know what you are doing ![/quote]Thanks Richardbk thats interesting - I bought a bit of kit for around €9 from Conrad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richardbk Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 I'm using some axis 207W internal cameras (wireless or wired), but will upgrade to getting a couple of outdoor ones with cases. axis are not cheap but IMHO the best IP camera's around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyv Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 Thanks Richard. I see the 207W are now out of production; superseded by the M1011, which is quite a bit cheaper :)I'm hoping to install them in the chalet, just to keep an eye on things while I'm in the UK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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