Can EAP225-Outdoor cover both inside and outside a house?

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Can EAP225-Outdoor cover both inside and outside a house?

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Can EAP225-Outdoor cover both inside and outside a house?
Can EAP225-Outdoor cover both inside and outside a house?
2019-11-12 13:59:58 - last edited 2019-11-13 09:39:52
Model: EAP225-Outdoor  
Hardware Version:
Firmware Version:

Hey guys! 

 

I'd kindly ask you to advise me what equipment to purchase. 

 

We live in a house of roughly 500m2 on 3 floors surrounded by land of 12000m2. The farthest point from the house is some 140m away. 4 people live in the house and there are usually 6 devices connected to WiFi. We have a modem/router provided by our cable provider that struggles to offer strong signal in the whole house, naturally. If we connect EAP225-Outdoor and place it on the outside of the house, would it be able to provide strong signal inside the house and 140m away?

 

Thank you for your help!

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#1
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Re:Can EAP225-Outdoor cover both inside and outside a house?-Solution
2019-11-13 03:20:49 - last edited 2019-11-13 09:39:52

I second this, the EAP225-Outdoor has an excellent coverage.

 

However, keep in mind that client devices might not produce such good signal strengh over 140m. For example, my Neffos N1 cannot cover this distance, even not over 5 GHz within the max. limits (EIRP) defined in Europe. The effect is that the Neffos can receive the SSID of the EAP225-Outdoor, but not establish a stable WiFi link over 140m. The solution which works for me is a meshed node somewhere in between.

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Re:Can EAP225-Outdoor cover both inside and outside a house?
2019-11-13 03:02:32

@kcato 

 

Hello,

 

Yes the EAP225-Outdoor can cover both inside and outside a house. 

Normally, For the EAP25-Outdoor, the coverage of 2.4G frequency is about 200m and 300m of 5G. So it can meet your requirement.

 

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Re:Can EAP225-Outdoor cover both inside and outside a house?-Solution
2019-11-13 03:20:49 - last edited 2019-11-13 09:39:52

I second this, the EAP225-Outdoor has an excellent coverage.

 

However, keep in mind that client devices might not produce such good signal strengh over 140m. For example, my Neffos N1 cannot cover this distance, even not over 5 GHz within the max. limits (EIRP) defined in Europe. The effect is that the Neffos can receive the SSID of the EAP225-Outdoor, but not establish a stable WiFi link over 140m. The solution which works for me is a meshed node somewhere in between.

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Re:Can EAP225-Outdoor cover both inside and outside a house?
2019-11-13 09:44:06

@R1D2 @forrest thank you so much for quick responses guys! 

 

There's one thing that puzzles me now. I also noticed Deco M9 Plus system that is intended for indoor use only and covers a much smaller area in comparison to EAP225-Outdoor. What puzzles me is that EAP225-Outdoor offers more but costs a lot less. Are there any benefits to installing Deco M9 Plus over EAP225-Outdoor?

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Re:Can EAP225-Outdoor cover both inside and outside a house?
2019-11-13 11:32:33

Maybe I sound a little more pessimistic but i think the coverage within the house is mainly dependent on construction and materials of the house itselve.

 

500sqm on 3 floors is not small and if the house is built of solid bricks and armored concrete ceilings then I have my doubts that an EP (even if its as good as the EAP225 outdoor) mounted outside on one side of the building will provide a decent signal strength at the other end inside the house. 

It might be less critical if it's timber house.

 

 

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Re:Can EAP225-Outdoor cover both inside and outside a house?
2019-11-13 15:44:48 - last edited 2019-11-13 22:17:13

 

kcato wrote

What puzzles me is that EAP225-Outdoor offers more but costs a lot less. Are there any benefits to installing Deco M9 Plus over EAP225-Outdoor?

 

kcato, the Deco is a SOHO system for indoor-only use while the EAP225-Outdoor is a SMB/enterprise device for outdoor/indoor use. In my country the Deco system with 3 APs costs 219€ at Amazon, while 3 EAP225-Outdoor cost 223€. You can also buy only one Deco AP for 75€.

I see no difference in prices.

 

Powerauditor wrote

500sqm on 3 floors is not small and if the house is built of solid bricks and armored concrete ceilings then I have my doubts that an EP (even if its as good as the EAP225 outdoor) mounted outside on one side of the building will provide a decent signal strength at the other end inside the house. 

 

Powerauditor, that's absolutely right.

 

Let's get practical. My house is ~12.5m × 7m × 2 floors (~170m²). To entertain my neighbors :-) there is an EAP225-Outdoor mounted on the terrace directly in front of a large window with (uncoated, thus microwave-friendly) glass. There is only a steel beam in the way depending on my position indoors:

 

 

I did a quick measurement with NetSpot analyzer for the ground floor and the basement. Since on the ground floor is another AP and on the basement there are even two more which I can't turn off at the moment, measurement will show somewhat worser results as if only the EAP225-Outdoor would be active, but the measurements show a pretty good coverage of the Outdoor AP's signal on both floors.

 

Thick black lines in the layout below are walls, material is either concrete or plastered bricks depending on which wall it is. Red lines are wooden doors, green lines are windows.

 

In the ground floor I get a pretty good signal-to-noise ratio (SNR):

 

Signal level is very good, too (else the SNR would be worser) except in the upper left room where the signal is somewhat weaker (-70dBm @2.4 GHz) meaning only slower WiFi speeds can be achieved. This is the result for the ground floor (minimum signal level for heatmap coloring is set to -80dBm, maximum level to -40dBm):

 

BTW: from the last measuring point in the upper right room you can see very well what difference a free line of sight to the EAP (on the lower right) makes even if there is a window in-between. Signal levels at this last measuring point are -38dBm @2.4 GHz and -60dBm @5 GHz.

 

Now, on the basement (not measuring machine and boiler rooms) I get this SNR:

 

 

The signal level on the basement is still acceptable, albeit probably with reduced WiFi speeds in the leftmost rooms (-75dBm @2.4 GHz, none at all @5 GHz):

 

Actually, when deploying the EAP225-Outdoor I was expecting a weak signal in my office on the basement, because there are two strong obstacles – a wall and the terrace floor – in-between the line from the office to the EAP and the desk in the office is located directly underneath the EAP. But I still get a good connection there.

 

Without knowing kcato 's house it's not possible to predict what signal level and SNR will be achieved, but one should always be prepared to deploy further EAPs to eliminate blind spots, especially if there are walls made out of material such as ferroconcrete. I guess that's why the Deco system includes 3 or 5 APs in a set.

 

The efficiency and coverage of an EAP225-Outdoor also depends on the signal power allowed in your regulatory domain/region and on several environmental parameters. You can find out real-world values only by setting up an installation for testing and by doing measurements. If you want to find the best mounting position you even have to change the mount location and repeat measurements until you get a good coverage.

 

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Re:Can EAP225-Outdoor cover both inside and outside a house?
2020-01-06 22:27:15

@R1D2 

 

Forgive me guys, I forgot to thank you for the amazingly detailed responses. Thank you!

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Re:Can EAP225-Outdoor cover both inside and outside a house?
2020-01-06 22:37:54

@kcato, you're welcome. How did your project worked out? Did you set up EAPs and do they cover your area?

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Re:Can EAP225-Outdoor cover both inside and outside a house?
2020-01-06 22:45:53

@R1D2 unfortunately we still didn't get around to complete it due to some other issues that we are trying to fix. One of the issues is quite strange. When we use push button switches for light inside of the house our TV blacks out. And it only happens when we are watching cable, not when we're watching Netlfix or YouTube. Several electricians inspected the issue and the cable company sent their people as well, but no one was able to figure out what's happening.

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Re:Can EAP225-Outdoor cover both inside and outside a house?
2020-01-07 00:08:32

@kcato, that's indeed strange.

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Re:Can EAP225-Outdoor cover both inside and outside a house?
2020-06-21 12:05:33

@R1D2 

 

Thanks for this, very informative indeed. 

 

I positioned my eap outdoor approximately 10m (32ft) above the ground on a metal tube. I tilted the 2 antenna's 45 degrees pointing at opposite directions. I surveyed the area but I am only getting -89 dBm even at 100m from the antenna location. There are some trees and bushes around. In my own understanding if I position the antenna higher, I would avoid the interference an in the end users would be able to get good coverage. 

 

I need your input. Thanks in advance. 

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