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DavidR8's shop shenanigans

Susquatch - When you say WIFI are you referring to cell?

Simple Question.
Simple Answer is: No. I mean home network WiFi.

Complicated Answer:
There is no cable, fibre, or even DSL Internet access in my area. Anyone who wants access to the internet, either uses a dedicated point-to-point radio dish (not wifi), or a Cellular Access, or Starlink Satellite. We have a dedicated radio dish. I am thinking about going to Starlink but Cogeco has a long term plan to install fiber down the highway. That would be the cat's meow. So I've been holding off of Starlink until I know the Cogeco plan.

I reconfigured my providers router to be a simple Ethernet access point that provides internet service to my own primary router which is a 2.5 gigabit ASUS RT-AX86U that includes a tri band RT5700 WiFi Mesh Network System. It assigns IP addresses to all my devices, manages the 2.5G Cat6 wired Ethernet home network and a TriBand WiFi Mesh Network. Because it only has 4 Ethernet ports, from there I have 4 Smart Switches that each have multiple Cat6 Ethernet ports serving the rest of the house.

One of the switches is dedicated to a small number of high speed file servers where the family can do backups and file serving for files, photos, and videos.

Another switch provides an internet connection for printers and other slow hardware like my home alarm.

A third provides wired Cat6 network access for two desktops, the television, and a point-to-point wireless bridge to my barn which is about 200 yards from the house. There are also a few hubs on this switch that provide Cat6 access for the rest of my home Ethernet system.

The 4th switch only serves my security camera hub. The rest of its 8 ports are reserved for future wired use.

Inside the metal walled barn, there is another local WiFi network that connects seamlessly to the home network in the house. It also has a WiFi to Ethernet Access Point for wired devices like a few security cameras.

WiFi in the house is a tri-band mesh for high speed and whole home coverage. The mesh system is strong enough to reach the entire farmyard and every corner of my 3 level home.

Inside my home network everything is lightning fast. To understand the speed bottleneck, you just need to know that my provider's maximum speed is 5Mbit. You never ever get max at any provider. In any speed test I have ever done, I am consistently operating below 1Mbit - usually around 700k. On weekends and holidays, that might drop to 250k. Therefore the fastest I can access the forum is 1Mb and often much slower. However, I can transfer a file from my file server to another computer on my home network at a true 2.5 GigaBits.
 
Let the unloading games begin!
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@Susquatch - gotcha, I never realized places in southern Ontario weren't landlined.

Really only the big cities and major highways are wired. There is a major effort to do more, but I'd venture a SWAG that less than 10% of the rural areas of Southern Ontario are wired. I actually consider myself lucky to have point to point radio. Otherwise I'd have to go ce$$u$ar.
 
Major progress on clearing out the middle of the shop.
The centre beam is going to be replaced with a 3-ply LVL beam so that the centre post is eliminated.
Temporary support walls will be built on either side of the beam to support the roof when the beam is removed. The top of the new beam will be flush with the top of the rafters instead of the rafters sitting on top of the beam.
Tomorrow I need to clear out all the sh!t that’s stored in the rafters and take down the track for the garage doors.
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Mesh leaves everything except my file server in the rear view mirror.
Questions, questions, questions...

I'm looking for a way to extend the reach of our wifi. Our current ASUS router is at one end of the house & coverage at the other end of the house is spotty at best. Read an article a few years back that one could tie two of these routers together to extend range. Only issue is, one has to use third party software to keep the network password protected, otherwise it was wide open.

Several years later, nothing has moved forward. Same crappy coverage, would like to do something about it.

Read recently a bit about this "mesh" technology. The article was a bit light on details, but noted that two mesh routers could be linked together, better range, blah, blah, blah.

Is your mesh home network secure, as in password protected? You mention only one router. Do you need others to push the signal farther?
 
Looks like you need a bigger container! lol

Just getting rid of the post will be big improvement. Are you still getting more overall ceiling height?

I can store the bikes if you need,,,,, now where did i put my helmet,,,,,,oops,,,, did i say that out load?
 
Looks like you need a bigger container! lol

Just getting rid of the post will be big improvement. Are you still getting more overall ceiling height?

I can store the bikes if you need,,,,, now where did i put my helmet,,,,,,oops,,,, did i say that out load?
Not more height unfortunately as one of my stipulations was that I not have to completely empty the shop as it’s just so much work to move the lathe and mill.
I will gain about 6” of clearance with the raising of the beam so that’s a big win.
Then there’s the ceiling insulation, heat pump and attic storage which is going to be such a huge improvement. It was 34 C in the shop today. By 3 pm I was completely exhausted.
 
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