For my somewhat large home, I’m currently running a Balance 20X and an ethernet-connected AP One AX Lite. With the house being somewhat long and narrow, the router is towards one end and the AP the other which gives good to excellent coverage throughout the house depending on where you are. My garage and shop are in an outbuilding about 100 feet away. With stucco walls and concrete tile roofing, the signal that gets there is only fair. So I decided to add an AP One Mini to beef up the garage/shop. To that end, I bought a used Mini, hardware version 1.
Given the used equipment, a reset was the first task, then plugged it into my 20X to pick up the mesh settings and to do a firmware update. Looking at what it was doing with WiFi Explorer with my Mac sitting next to the Mini, all VLANs were there broadcasting the proper frequency, so far so good.
The mesh performance of the Mini is where I’m having problems. Taking my Mac to the garage/shop, it sometimes connects to the router’s AP, sometimes the AX Lite as the signal strength from each is about the same. An Ookla speed test yields a download speed of 70Mbps give or take. (My ethernet connected desktop Mac pulls 350Mbps.) In the garage/shop, If I plug in the Mini and put it right next to my Mac, unsurprisingly the Mac connects to the Mini with a strong signal, but a subsequent speed test yield 10Mbps or less - and that’s with the mesh set to use 2.4GHz. Setting the mesh network to use 5GHz and I get an error that I’m not connected to the internet. For whatever reason, the Mini’s mesh connection is very poor.
Moving the Mini inside the house in between the 20X or the AP Lite yields a better result. If I unplug the ethernet cable connecting the AP Lite to the 20X and plug that into the Mini, the Mini does better still. The problem seems to be the mesh connection that supports the Mini especially in my garage/shop.
I’m hoping I’m missing something, maybe a mesh setting or whatever, that will yield a better result. If I could get an ethernet cable to the garage/shop to connect the Mini, obviously that’s a better solution, but pulling that cable would be very difficult if not impossible.
So suggestions are welcome, and if I’m expecting too much from the Mini, that would be good information too. I’m honestly a bit surprised that the Mini’s radio doesn’t yield at least as good a result in my garage/shop as the Mac gets when connecting back to the house APs.
A quick, first impression: It sounds like the connection between the garage/shop and home is the main culprit - if that connection is fair to bad, then your overall connection from the shop to the world will be no better.
Rather than having a mini (with an omni antenna) connecting to the home access point(s) (with their omni antennas) I’d look to equipment with directional antennas.
E.g., the AP One Flex (which you can mount outside if you want to avoid the wall getting in the way).
Or a pair of Ubiquiti NanoStations (or the like) that would establish a non-cable connection to your garage, then connect your mini to the garage NanoStation endpoint. (FWIW, the NanoStations may also be mounted outside the house/garage, if that is an available option.)
I think the signal getting to the garage is fair if not poor, which of course is why I was looking to beef it up somehow. Devices with directional antennas isn’t something I was considering - I’ll have to take a look at that.
Another thought was using an ethernet power line extender. Garage power comes from the house, so there is an A/C wire connection. A/C wiring from my router to the garage would be at least 200 feet though - have no idea if that’s any kind of issue? Plus I didn’t like the security consideration of putting my LAN “out there”, where it will follow the wires as far as it can. No idea if those things work well or not.
I feel your pain. We have been through this one countless times. ;<) Personally? I would not rely on “mesh” in the environment you have described. It has “its place” but not when the power budget between APs (router and Mini in this case) is a mess. Hence, @zegor_mjol 's good suggestion. Our general approach would be to get a good path between the building as a first priority. Essentially, your options are:
A wireless link, as @zegor_mjol has suggested (indeed, that may be the preferred solution.)
Use a AC/ethernet bridge as you suggest. There are three caveats in this: First, the throughput is not likely to be stellar; second, recognize the security issues involved (and please don’t pick some low-$ junker with weak or no encryption); and finally, know that if your shop/garage is on a different AC phase it’s not likely to work (these devices need to be on the same phase) so some experimentation may be indicated.
Just pull a direct-bury ethernet cable between the buildings. Sometimes this can be done with a “slitter” rather than burying conduit. Many options there.
But whatever you do … please don’t use a wifi-extender. ;<) (BTW, that’s sort-of what a 2nd AP is when in Mesh mode.)