Is it possible to use two routers?

Hi all, hope you’re keeping safe and well.

My wife has needed to resort to exercising in the garage as the gym she attends has been closed. She’s doing online exercise classes but struggling with the WiFi connection.

I’ve tried using one of the two Netgear WiFi extenders which work a treat in the house, but it won’t pick up a signal in the garage. I’ve also tried the ones that plug in and use the mains circuit to carry signal in the past but they interfered with my Superline so they’re not an option. I’ve tried tethering her tablet to her mobile but her mobile signal doesn’t cut it either (the joys of Wales!). Hardwiring from the router to the garage doesn’t look feasible.

Anyone know how I can get a signal into the garage?
I do have an unused telephone socket in the garage - can I plug in a second router into that?

Thanks in advance.
Steve O.

Plugging in a second modem/router to the socket in the garage won’t help unless you’ve got a second phone line (not an extension) coming into the property with a different internet provider account. You would not ordinarily be able to have two routers using the same phone line to connect independently to the same ISP account, unless you only had one turned on at a time as they would conflict with each other, and depending on the internet technology you connect to at the exchange frequent disconnections could potentially affect your speed profile, less of an issue these days for most.

If you’ve got the powerline plugs could you not just switch them on when she’s exercising and disconnect after that?

Unless you’re prepared to run ethernet cable to the garage I think you’d need to look at something more powerful than the Netgear extenders - Ubiquiti have a good reputation for price/performance and I’ve been considering something for my own property but am not up to speed on the current offerings.

Might be helpful to know a bit more about the Netgear devices you already have and the type of property construction (modern, thick old solid stone or brick walls etc) and distance from the existing router.

I have a couple of mobile mi-fi devices (USB powered) from EE which give very good speeds using their mobile connections - if you could ascertain you’d get reasonable signal might be a temporary option as they can come on monthly or PAYG contracts with set data quotas. Given your tethering comment it may not be feasible but I have managed to get decent speeds in rural locations when I’m barely picking up a mobile signal. Likely to be mobile provider dependent in terms of reception.

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Look into Mesh WiFi. I use Google Nest which works great with both us us working and on video calls most of the day. The BT version also gets good reviews on this forum.

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I have the BT SH2 with the matching wifi disc - so so simple

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It’s an old brick house and the garage is separate and a good 30 yards from the router, walking through doorways. If I were to run cable out of the house and around it’s probably nearer 50 yards.
The powerlines were sold on and her exercise and my listening often coincide so not really an option.

I’ll look at the Mesh WiFi.
Thanks.

You could buy a 50m ethernet cable for less than £20 from any number of suppliers on eBay. That could get things going really quickly and you could sort out a proper outdoor installation if you wanted to for the winter…

Best

David

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Have you tried putting the extender at a point around midway between router and garage? They’re designed to act as a relay so if it’s closer to your router it might do its job of passing enough signal onto the garage.

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Yes, tried that.
It picks up a signal in the kitchen (nearest point to the garage) but tablet doesn’t pick it up in the garage. Plugging it in in the garage the signal won’t reach. I suppose I could try buying another couple …

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If you have a telephone extension in the remote building then you can use devices that network over a spare pair of wires. At source connect lan cable from unit to router and telephone pair on an RJ12 (or RJ11) cable. At the other the same setup but connect lan cable to an access point. Typically speeds in the 100s of meg.

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I ran armoured LAN cable to my garage when I was running in power and water. It cost about 80 quid for 50m of cable. As you point out cheap ready made ‘plug and play’ cable is widely available that could make a temporary solution; e.g. plug ethernet into the router, get the cable to a window and lie it on the ground to the garage.

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