Getting tunes to the shop via Wifi

I have a similar setup. I got myself a Sonos system (wireless router and receiver) and listen to Pandora Radio on it. It KICKS ASS. I highly recommend it.

 

Looks like you might not have too much luck with external antennas - there's no reasonable way to connect an antenna to the iphone or your router. I have a similar situation & use a pair of ethernet over powerline adapters (you need 2) and a cheap router in my shop. The adapters just plug into a wall outlet, the one in the house connects to a LAN port on my router there, and the one in the shop connects to the WAN port of the cheap router in the shop. Works well for me - ymmv.

 

Yeah that! I forgot about those. Good suggestion.

 

This is a good permanent solution if you can drum up a cheap or free hand me down PC. Do you have an underground conduit from the house to the shop to pull Cat 5? It would live much longer than being exposed to the elements.
The other "hard wired" solution mentioned was the ethernet over a/c.



Motorola Surfboard, Wireless N, DOCSIS 3.0 Cable
802.11 a/b/g/n

Routers have different ranges. What is the range of your router? I work in the Cable industry and we use Netgear N300 in standard homes and long range N600 routers for large homes. If you have a standard range router, you may find a long range router will work. The steel shop buiding and closed doors are definately a factor in reception.

Netgear router chart;

http://www.netgear.com/images/Router Chart 9_1118-44305.pdf

 

I solved the problem with a high power fm transmitter off ebay. I have it plugged into the computer so I can listen to any streaming radio station from around the world and broadcast it to all the radios I own. I even take it camping and hook it to an ipod, then everyone camping with us can tune their radios in. You can also put a mike into it for drunken karaoke or if you are holding an event like a car show, you could broadcast dialogue over the airwaves. I've had it for several years and have been very happy with it and enjoy listening to WSM and the opry show while out in the shop. It has about a half mile transmitting distance. Really makes a difference out in the shop when you're listening to good tunes.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/LCD-Digital...US_Ham_Radio_Transmitters&hash=item256bc8f1ea

 

I don't like Wifi...it's just plain weak and subject to interferance. Downloading is so much better imo. Almost 100% of the music I listen to is downloaded as opposed to depending on a network. It takes some time to build up a library of music, but you totally eliminate connection issues. In addition, you have exactly the music that you like, and you can transfer it to the card in your phone or Ipod or a USB flash storage unit and take it everywhere with you. I bought a good radio for the shop...a big "boom-box" for about $300 that has input capability. I hook the phone or Ipod to the radio with a short cable and play various playlists I've made. Hours and hours of interuption-free music. No commercials, no buffering or reception issues, and only the music I wanna hear. An added benefit, is that you can also make a gift of music to friends.

Tips on downloading:

I used to use a file-sharing network to download music from...but that's limited on choices and prone to viruses...though if you have good protection, viruses shouldn't be a problem. But now, I mostly use Youtube. Even though Youtube keeps removing movies due to infringement rights, they don't seem to have a problem with music...especially the old stuff. I've been able to find pretty much anything and everything I want. What you do, is to first download a converter program that changes the FLV format on Youtube to MP3. It eliminates the video portion, keeping only the audio. Just search for "Youtube converter". If you don't wanna download a program, there are websites that'll do it online, but the downloadable program is small and safe. Then find a song on Youtube that you want, and copy and paste it to the converter. It's pretty fast...just a minute or two to download each song. One important tip...name and tag the file when you save it, so you can easily search and organize them later and make play lists according to name, artist, genre, year, etc.

I'd suggest to run a cable out to your shop...but that can be as expensive as the option I've suggested, and the longer the cable, the more degradation to the playback quality.

Good luck, Roothawg.

 

Saw modeleh's post after I posted. Sound like with the right equipment, Wifi doesn't have to be "weak", as I stated. 1/2 mile?...that's damn good.

 

I listen to the local am radio station, they play my kind of music.

Lee

 

I'm like Ricky, I have a 32gb Zune HD media palyer (fancy MP3, not quite an iPod). I have collected a pretty good library of nearly 4000 songs. I borrow cds as I see one, have a turntable that converts vinyl to digital (pops, cracks and all) and have used "other" means of downloading. everything from the B-52's to ZZ Top!

I have a set of inexpensive computer speakers that I can move as needed from house to shop that I just plug into the Zune and instant tunes. At work, I have a Zune dock hooked to another set of speakers, just drop it in and enjoy!

 

I may just rent the trencher and bury the cable, along with extra cat 5 for an alarm, video surveillance etc.

 

If you go that route you need to make sure you use flooded cable. It is rated for direct burial.

If I were renting a trencher I would put me a couple of 1" PVC conduit in the trench. It gives you easy access to make future changes or additions and the conduit is around $20 per hundred feet. You would still need flooded cable.

 

well i aint laughin. i still use a old 8track and a cassette player..and did you know that they call my music classic rock.wtf...when did that happen..lol anyway you guys are talkin shit i dont know anything about. to me im lost....i know my 8tracks and cassettes and albums and fm radio. after that im lost...i just cant seem to wrap my brain around any of it...i just bought my first cd not long ago and now people tell me they are outdated.again wtf.....lol

 

I added this to my garage. It works great and I can use everything I need in myy shop. For music I just have a remote out there and I can play anything thats in my house, from cable tv, sirius, ipod, cds, dvd, am/fm. But I have a Control 4 system set up

http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/

 

I have an ancient AM radio hanging from a nail by my bench and I listen to talk radio and baseball games during the season. My only complaint is the TIG welder causes static but other than that I am as happy as a clam, an old clam for sure.

 

I've got about 600 oldies on an old i-phone that I use as an i-pod. It's jacked into my audio receiver/speakers. I just put it on "shuffle" and let it rip. At my age, I can never remember the last time I heard the song that's playing so it never seems like a repeat.

Bob

 

There's a right way and a wrong way to do this.

Hardline is always better than wireless- bit wireless doesn't need to be flakey.

However, to the OP, (and while I think you've already solved your problem with a powerful fm transmitter) - the right thing to do would have been to put up a pair of directional antennas - one near your access point, and then another at your shop at the shop.

Like this: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=281628&CatId=374

Then, you could put another wifi ap right in the shop and have wifi throughout, at decent speeds for streaming music or whatever.

Your iphone's wifi antenna isn't that powerful- and there is NO way to set up an external antenna for it.

 

Root, over the past few years I have lived in an aluminum sided 5th wheel while on the road working. I had the same problem. I would have to go outside to make a call or recieve one. I contacted verizon sales and they set me up with an external antenae for my phone. It had about 10 foot of lead. I attached to side of trailer up high and ran lead through window.Good thing $17.00

 

Sweet. what kinda phone TP? How have you been? I haven't seen ya round in a while.

 

I'm using a Stromberg Carlson tube amp/tuner for tunes in my garage. It adds some heat too. Before I moved the truck home, I used this curb side find (slightly modified el84SE stereo amp, Klipsch and iPod).

 

My shop is about 200 ft away from the house and I tried the repeater/extender things but they have limited power and the metal sided building is blocking the signal also. I was only getting about 1 Bar of signal strength best case at 150 feet. I decided running CAT 5 or fiber cable to the shop and adding a remote WIFI router is probably the way I will go.

 

linksys makes a signal booster that worked for me, 30 bucks on amazon

 

I faced the exact same situation. I had my ip come and bury a cable from my house router to my shop and put in another router. Now i have wifi anywhere in my shop. Real handy with i pad. Pandora kicks butt!

 

Where is your router located? It needs to travel though the least amount of walls as possible.
I live on 2 acres and have a asus router with 3 ant. And I get service just about everywhere , even in my wood shop that is 300 feet away. Now I did run cat5 out to the shop when I built it so I can add another asus, now when I build my big shop later, I will get the web all over.

For music, take a look at sonos. That what I use and I can control my whole house of music from anywhere i get wifi at home from my phone. Once you use one you won't know how you lived without one.


Jeff

 

Rickybop good tip on the downloading from You tube. Always wondered how folks do that. I now rely on my Iphone for many things and having a docking station in the garage and in the house keeps it really simple to listen to my tunes. Hit shuffle and listen to over 2000 songs.

Interesting about the wi-fi and a few things to chase to improve mine. Only use an old laptop in the garage for HAMB and watching pinstriping and airbrush tutorials on you tube. Mostly okay, not a very strong signal and has a wobble everynow and then.

Good post, you have to have tunes in the garage.