Wifi Loft installation_safety concerns

Slightly Kwackers · 08-09-2024 12:40pm #1

Has anyone looked in to the fireproofing of powered boosters that are loft mounted?

I have not so far had one catch fire, but a recent repeater purchase when I installed it lasted two weeks before blowing a feed resistor in the power supply. It arced and made a mess on the board.

This is not uncommon and I have had four phone chargers do the same thing, the phones were branded BT too and not cheap.

Now the loft is tinder dry, so no risk is acceptable.

Atex is out of the question, it would be cheaper although very difficult to build a plasterboard enclosure, this would attenuate the signal also.

I have several JB's that would contain the booster, all plastic though. Now I would be happy to fit one of those to accommodate electrical couplings, I don't know how they would fare with a faulty device that could dissipate a lot of Watts under fault conditions.

Any practical advice would be welcomed.

drury.. · 08-09-2024 1:01pm

Theres arc fault detection devices available now

Needs a rec to fit those

Also there's flame retardant enclosures

None of those is the solution really to fitting dodgy equipment in the wrong place

drury.. · 08-09-2024 1:06pm

https://ie.rs-online.com/web/p/general-purpose-enclosures/7733139

https://www.se.com/vn/en/home/renovation/home-protection.jsp

..

LambshankRedemption · 08-09-2024 1:09pm

You've had a repeater and 4 phone chargers burn out?? There is something dodgy with your electrics. I have more tech running in my place than the average person and in the past ~10 years I've had one laptop charger short out and… I think thats it.

I wouldnt put a booster or repeater in the loft for one very simple reason: They all need a reboot from time to time, and so need to be easily accessible. Could you not just put it on a side board or something instead of hiding it away?

Slightly Kwackers · 08-09-2024 2:17pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122594540#Comment_122594540

Over the years I have had rather a lot of computer and comms gear. The repeater that burnt out was in the greenhouse with a long run of cable. This cannot really be the problem though as it had no reference to ground.

The loft is easy to power down, it has a dedicated breaker and the reasons for loft mounting are simply I'm in an old house with very thick walls.

Incidentally I have got through two or three laptop chargers, alas in time and with use they do go open at the entry points for the cables.

I never throw anything out, although my DOS and Win 3.1 device has indeed hit the bin.

An old Win 7 laptop was in use recently for the TV as I couldn't use a VPN direct. Sadly Iplayer have sussed the VPN approach though.

The AFDD route seems good. I never was comfortable with the power although I wired it myself. I should have used Atex JB's as the wiring is not inspectable without a major upheaval. I always was a little concerned about a connection coming loose or water ingress into the loft, a short or leak to ground is not a problem, but arcing or LN leakage will produce heat. When working in industry these expensive little bits were often thrown out when upgrades were performed or indeed were ordered incorrectly and "lost" in the forgotten shelves in the stores rather than errors admitted.

My only alternative is to put an ethernet cable outside the house, not an easy job at all, in fact exterior power is only available through some kind person putting a vent in the wall that I did not want, but I might actually be in line for another as I found vermiculite in the flue.

Slightly Kwackers · 08-09-2024 2:25pm

No equipment is dodgy when fitted.

Basically it's why a company will pay very considerable sums for Atex gear.

I know of no one that specifies such gear for home use and from experience of the old intrinsically safe Pye Pocketphones that hit the market when the UK mines closed down, the user could shout almost as far as the signal reached.

The risk is extremely low, but if I can significantly reduce it yet further for a hundred euro or less, it's better than the alternative hardwiring approach.

Charles Babbage · 08-09-2024 3:39pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122594540#Comment_122594540

They sometimes need a hard reboot. But my router can be soft rebooted remotely by logging on to it.

LambshankRedemption · 08-09-2024 4:16pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122594709#Comment_122594709

I've had a lot of comms and computer gear in my home since my teens. I currently have 2 servers, 3 laptops, and a plethora of other stuff and as I said a burn out is rare.

I imagine the reason for the repeater burning out in the greenhouse was due to the humidity in the green house.

Instead of a repeater in the loft, would you consider Power-line plugs? Ive had them in the past and they work great.

https://www.currys.ie/computing/networking/powerline

They sometimes need a hard reboot. But my router can be soft rebooted remotely by logging on to it.

Most routers can be rebooted by logging into them - until its frozen and needs to be unplugged and plugged back in which can happen from time to time.

drury.. · 08-09-2024 4:45pm

Easy to solve the hard reboot problem with a switch below

Slightly Kwackers · 08-09-2024 4:55pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122594945#Comment_122594945

I have a powerline unit.

It's a branded device, Netgear or some such.

All that I can say in its favour is that they connect.

The ring the router is on is fixed and the speed is unacceptable on the same ring. The idea was to provide a signal to the shed. The shed which is a spur and ring from the same house CU, never gave a connection.

No filters of any sort are used in any mains wiring supply feed either.

These were on offer when I bought a pair, I didn't have high hopes and was not surprised that performance was poor.

The units are in an ever filling box of old PC cards, hard drives and TV set top boxes

LambshankRedemption · 08-09-2024 7:39pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122595022#Comment_122595022

Trustpilot gives NetGear a score of 1.3. From my tech support days, I remember NetGear stuff as being somewhat notorious for being, well crap.

Ive had a few Powerline adaptors and got great results. Maybe the netgear ones you got in the bargain bucket were not the best ones to experience for the first time.

blackbox · 08-09-2024 9:48pm

Would you consider placing the device on some fireproof material, such as a slate.

Slightly Kwackers · 08-09-2024 9:50pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122595426#Comment_122595426

Many thanks.

I can see no problem with the electrics and have put them on another ring, so you are seemingly correct.

I saw the link to Currys, they seem good value, if I don't get going via wireless, I will try that route before I go to the extreme of cabling outside the house

I had a Netgear wifi dongle years back, it was terrible at dropping out and had a very weak signal.

I should have returned it, but I thought it might be my failure somewhere along the line.

I think you are right on the greenhouse repeater incidentally. It crossed my mind that it could be water, but I saw no obvious marks inside.

I have another twin repeater so I will drop it in a plastic bag with some silica.

It's nice to be able to name all the weeds I should be shifting :-)

Thank You

niallb · 08-09-2024 10:45pm

Hi.

The right network cables could be the answer in both these areas. It might seem awkward, but your biggest issue is the problems never staying fixed.

Could you share a little more detail on the equipment that's letting you down?

What device are you using in the loft?

What was the model of repeater that burned out in the garden?

What model exactly is written on your Netgear plugs? What cables are you using to connect them to what? If you plug them in beside each other in the same room can you pair them successfully?

If you bought bargain bon powerline adapters some years ago they were probably already old then. The first two generations of these were very inferior to anything since. Different generations rarely work well together

LambshankRedemption · 09-09-2024 8:25am

I saw the link to Currys, they seem good value, if I don't get going via wireless, I will try that route before I go to the extreme of cabling outside the house

In the link I included there is ethernet to ethernet but there is also ethernet to Wifi for slightly more.

So you can have: Router to powerline plug < - > Powerline plug with Wifi AP, so you will have wifi in that room.

The right network cables could be the answer in both these areas

Absolutely! A dodgy cable will drive you bananas because it will work some of the time.

I used to do a fair bit of dumpster diving and found many great things. One was a roll of about 300 metres of CAT5 cable, so for several years, if I had any connection issues, my first port of call was a freshly crimped cable, which fixed the issue many times.

If you bought bargain bon powerline adapters some years ago they were probably already old then. The first two generations of these were very inferior to anything since. Different generations rarely work well together

For network or comms stuff, bargain bin is the last place you should look unless you really know what you are looking for. As for powerline stuff, nevermind different generations, the early ones even different models didnt always sync up.

There is a fresh thread in After Hours today on stuff that it's worth spending money on. Pardon the pun, but I would say, don't crimp on network gear.

Wifi Loft installation_safety concerns

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