Very much. Wifi works in unlicensed and unregulated spectrum bands (2.4 Ghz, 5 Ghz and 60 Ghz in future). This part of spectrum is free for use. Nobody owns it and therefore you are legally free to extend the range of your home Wifi beyond the closed range of your apartment.
The common use cases for outdoor wifi are:
(1) You live in ground floor and have big courtyard/garden/backyard where you spend quite a good amount of time and would like to browse while sitting on iPad/Smartphone/laptop/Gaming console.
(2) You live in a penthouse and you need a very strong signal outdoor in your terrace area for same purpose as above
(3) You live anywhere in middle floors, but you sit, walk and spend a lot of time in the common area in-front of your apartment and would like to have your Wifi to reach there.
(4) Or simply want to set a free hotspot for community or guests.
So in order to extend your home wifi network, pick up a simple Outdoor Wifi AP (these are weather and dust proof, mostly powered by PoE) unit like:
(a) Ubiquiti (Loco) M2 or M5
(b) Tp-Link Outdoor Wifi AP (2.4 and 5 Ghz versions)
(c) or any other similar equipment
which features directional antennas and mount it in the balcony area facing the area which you want to cover (the signal will spread in a cone). The range will depend on the antenna Gain characteristics. Depending on the interference, distance and Line Of Sight between client device and AP, you may be able to get your entire Internet Speed (upto 100 mbps for 802.11n 5 Ghz band) at the outdoor location covered by the signal cone. For terrace or private garden/backyard, you may even use outdoor APs with omni-directional antennas as the area to be covered is small. The signal will not be able to penetrate thick walls and come oput on other side. So if you have a building in-front of your flat, do not expect the signal to penetrate and be strong or even visible on the other side of the building.
Both the ubiquity and Tp-link units are priced in the Rs. 3000-4500 range and therefor are not an expensive investment to make/trial out. Personally I have tested Ubiquiti Loco M2 and M5 models in LOS conditions upto 50-70m from my 6th floor apartment and am specially happy with the Loco m5 performance.
Infrastructure wise, you would need a LAN port at the outdoor mounting location in balcony/terrace and this is something you should have planned for in advance (or have to do modification otherwise). It is very rare to have planned for a LAN port in balcony/utility/terrace etc in advance though.
- Suman Kumar Luthra @ APRC-P3 Telecom Sub-Committtee
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