Wireless Joey range extension

[Billaban]

So I'm out of range with a Joey in a new building next to our house. DISH support says I can't move a WAP more than 15' from the Hopper with coax. That won't get the job done. I found a thread (several years old) here that discusses opening up a Joey and connecting a better antenna to the J1 connector. I'm looking for more info on what antenna people have used in this context and perhaps general metrics on how far the range extension could be.

I'm also told be DISH support that my (only?) other option is running coax from the dish to the other building and hooking up a Wally. Not real keen on burying that cable for an assortment of reasons including crossing our buried power lines to our home. Any other suggestions?

Thanks for any assistance....

 

[ethanlerma]

DISH support says I can't move a WAP more than 15' from the Hopper with coax.

A WAP does not connect to the Hopper with a coax cable, it should be using an Ethernet cable instead. Without intermediary devices Cat5e Ethernet cables can be as long as 100m (330’). If you can place the WAP in a window or somewhere else that is close enough for the Joey in the new building to reach then all you need to do is provide it power and buy a long enough Ethernet cord to reach back to the Hopper. Keep in mind that if you do this you also have to consider the range of other Wireless Joeys in the home, if you happen to have more then one.

 

[Billaban]

OK, thanks. So much for trusting DISH "tech support". Clearly I need to go take a look at my Hopper/ WAPs connection setup. And I probably need 60 or 70' of Ethernet cable. We have a B&B. One WAP supports the 3 TVs in the guest rooms on the west end while my new adventure with two additional TVs is on the east end of the house.

 

[HipKat]

OK, thanks. So much for trusting DISH "tech support". Clearly I need to go take a look at my Hopper/ WAPs connection setup. And I probably need 60 or 70' of Ethernet cable. We have a B&B. One WAP supports the 3 TVs in the guest rooms on the west end while my new adventure with two additional TVs is on the east end of the house.

If there is any coax anywhere near the closest point to the other building, you can splice into it with a Tap if it's the Hopper line or a splitter if it's a Joey line, add a HIC - Hopper Internet Connector and move the WAP to the HIC. It's called relocating the Access Point

 

[Billaban]

When I talked to tech support she indicated that the max coax length would be 15'....which is a fraction of what is required. The rest of that discussion was a moot point.

Thanks for the info.

 

[HipKat]

When I talked to tech support she indicated that the max coax length would be 15'....which is a fraction of what is required. The rest of that discussion was a moot point.

Thanks for the info.

Ummm, what?? She has no clue what she's talking about, obviously and typically

 

[Billaban]

Yep. My first experiment will be simply running ethernet across the house for the 60' or so and temporarily setting up an AP at that end to see what works. We live in the country (nowhere near any major retail markets) so I am just waiting on Amazon for delivery for the cable. We shall see.....

 

[HipKat]

Yep. My first experiment will be simply running ethernet across the house for the 60' or so and temporarily setting up an AP at that end to see what works. We live in the country (nowhere near any major retail markets) so I am just waiting on Amazon for delivery for the cable. We shall see.....

That will absolutely work. I’m still trying to figure out with the 15 feet of cable limitation was that your customer service person mentioned

 

[Billaban]

That will absolutely work. I’m still trying to figure out with the 15 feet of cable limitation was that your customer service person mentioned

I suspect that will remain a mystery.....

Cat5 cable arrived this morning. S/b doing my experiment later today.

 

[TheKrell]

I suspect that will remain a mystery.....

I think your CSR slipped a decimal. Surely they don't have 15' written down anywhere.

 

[HipKat]

I think your CSR slipped a decimal. Surely they don't have 15' written down anywhere.

I would venture to guess that a lot of them have “slipped a decimal“

 

[Billaban]

I think your CSR slipped a decimal. Surely they don't have 15' written down anywhere.

Perhaps. I ran the 75' Cat5 from the Hopper across the floor to a reasonable location for the AP and tested w/ the two TVs and got an adequate signal in both cases. Very cool since one is in a near but separate building, i.e., my new man cave. Permanent install of the Cat5 thru the crawl space under this ancient farm house is going to be a real PITA. So far in 7+ yrs here I have managed to avoid going in there.

I tested with one Joey that I moved from TV "A" to TV "B". I'm wondering if I can get DISH to send me another Joey and I can configure it myself or will I need to get a tech out which will obviously cost me. I suppose I need to call DISH again but not looking forward to that.....

 

[tagman31]

FYI with the joeys, you can run Ethernet directly them and they will work just fine. I did this when I moved my Joey to another room without coax. I didn’t want to deal with having a tech come and install wireless units. I used powerline adapters and it worked extremely well.

 

[ethanlerma]

I’m still trying to figure out with the 15 feet of cable limitation was that your customer service person mentioned

The distance between the WAP and WJ? Other then that I cant really think of anything. And then 15' is playing it really safe, even for 5Ghz.

 

[Jim5506]

Perhaps. I ran the 75' Cat5 from the Hopper across the floor to a reasonable location for the AP and tested w/ the two TVs and got an adequate signal in both cases. Very cool since one is in a near but separate building, i.e., my new man cave. Permanent install of the Cat5 thru the crawl space under this ancient farm house is going to be a real PITA. So far in 7+ yrs here I have managed to avoid going in there.

I tested with one Joey that I moved from TV "A" to TV "B". I'm wondering if I can get DISH to send me another Joey and I can configure it myself or will I need to get a tech out which will obviously cost me. I suppose I need to call DISH again but not looking forward to that.....

When you are running that cable under the house for the WAP include an equal length of nylon cord so if you need to replace anything you can use the cord to pull it next time (and when you pull the cord to replace the cable be sure to pull another cord at the same time).