OT, sort of: Wi-fi & mobile homes?

I live in a mobile home - metal sides, probably steel. Next to it is a small wood frame building I use as a combination shop and office.

I am thinking of getting a tablet computer to use in the mobile, more for amusement than office-type tasks. The wi-fi router will be with the DSL modem, in the office. Will this work? Will the wi-fi signal go through the mobile home walls?

I Googled but couldn't find a flat yes/no answer. I already have a router but nothing I can use to test its penetration into the mobile home. I'd hate to buy a tablet and find it didn't work.

I could move the modem and router into the mobile and run cables from the modem to the computers in the office but that is by far not my first choice. May not work as cables will have to be 75 feet long or so and I'd have to install conduit. No room for the office desktop computers, printers, monitors, etc. in the mobile. Rather than that solution I'd prefer to just forget about getting the tablet.

Suggestions? Experience?

TIA

Reply to
KenK
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Have a friend with a wifi-enabled smart phone you ask over a beer?

Reply to
Kurt V. Ullman

As Kurt said, ask a friend with a tablet or a wifi enabled smart phone to try it. The metal walls of the mobile home will definitely attenuate the signal significantly, but your windows will let some signal through. Trying it is the only way to be sure. You could mount your router near a window to help.

If you runs wires to the office for the computer there, 75 feet is not a problem. Ethernet can go hundreds of feet without problems and outdoor/direct bury cat 5 or 6 cable is available. You might want conduit for ease of future changes, but it is not needed for the connection to work.

Pat

Reply to
Pat

Pat wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Unfortunately, the rear of the mobile faces the office and it has no windows or any nearby.

I will consider your idea of running the cables. Didn't know that ethernet cables could be so long.

Reply to
KenK

"Kurt V. Ullman" wrote in news:68ydnfb33d snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.com:

Unfortunately, in many other ways as well, I'm pretty much of a hermit and can't think of any of my few friends with such a device.

Reply to
KenK

My house is clad in aluminum siding. Before I got wi-fi my laptop would try to pick up the neighbor across the street signal and any others in the neighborhood.

Reply to
ItsJoanNotJoann

Put the wifi modem in front of a window on the side facing the shop.

Reply to
clare

100 meters
Reply to
gfretwell

There isn't one. There's more than one factor affecting wifi strength and reception, including the quality of the wifi antenna(s) within the device. The radio band and channel used will also affect reception. If you've got neighbors in the vicinity, you want to pick a channel/band that has fewer users on it. See

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Black Friday is nearly upon us, meaning there will be deals on very inexpensive Android tablets. It wouldn't cost you much to buy and try. Amazon is sure to be putting their Fire tablets on sale, and they're easy about taking returns. And there's a lot you can do with tablets that doesn't require constant internet access - you can load books, music, videos on the tablet and access them anytime, internet or no internet. When you needed to download to update something, you could just take the tablet into your office.

Reply to
Moe DeLoughan

Per KenK:

Here's another option:

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I've got a pair of these down the shore linking a server/Comcast cable to a shed-type windsurfing shop 1.6 miles away.

I have another pair that I use as an "air gap" between my garden shed/TV antenna/LAN-based tuners/file backup server and my 24-7 PC in our rec room about 100' away.

Both applications work and even I was able to set them up and get them running quickly. Biggest problem for me was getting over the idea that they don't have to be aimed/tuned particularly well and they are about as close to plug-and-play as one can expect from such an application.

At $130, it's a lot cheaper than burying conduit.

Reply to
(PeteCresswell)

Per KenK:

The standard is something like 300'.

Reply to
(PeteCresswell)

Add a window!!!

Reply to
Paintedcow

I live in a mobile home park. About nine of my neighbors' wifi signals are showing up on my wifi. They're all locked incidentally. My house doesn't have metal siding but I think most of my neighbors' houses do.

Reply to
Dean Hoffman

I never saw a trailer house without metal siding. What does it have?

Reply to
Paintedcow

I don't know the correct term. The original siding is a soft wood paneling type stuff maybe 3/4" thick. I put regular plastic siding over it a few years ago.

Reply to
Dean Hoffman

Reply to
clare

You beat me to it, but I wasn't smart enough to give him a beer.

Hmm. is the building 75 feet from the trailer?. I don't know if that is a problem or not, but your cell phone friend can check

and there are more powerful routers and there are wifi amps, but I guess it would have to be half way between. Maybe you can build a little house for the amp.

Reply to
micky

My wife has an amp and antenna at the club that takes the WiFi about

300 feet out to the #1 tee so the starter can use his I pad to get the tee times.
Reply to
gfretwell

That's impressive. I brought this up because in my investigative days, when I was visiting my brother and bored in the middle of the night, but unable to make noise like I do at home, I got in my car to check out stuff like this. Of course I don't know who turns their router off at night, and I dont' know for sure who even has one, and my old laptop probably wasn't as good at this as my newer one, and even routers might have been weaker than most now, but I parked outside of the library close to the door and got no signal. Then I went to the mall and drove past the open air restaurant, which still had customers. Then I drove down the street by my brother's house, which is a lot more expensive than anything I can afford and where I figured everyone had wifi and didn't turn it off, but still the houses had short front yards, 30 or 40 feet from house to street, I'd say, plus of course some distance within the house. .

I got nothing at any of these places.

Finally I tried his house and I had to drive halfway up the driveway to get a signal.

This was before McDonalds and Home Depot etc had open wifi, and I was trying to plan for my 4-day drive home, not that I actually need the net on the drive.

What I should do is try this with my own house and my newer netbook.

Reply to
micky

I remember 100 meters, which is a little over 328 feet.

Reply to
Mark Lloyd

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