Nope, I covered the real stuff up.
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The black U device is just the power supply, it injects power into the ethernet cable (PoE) to power the white device. That stays inside, it is not weather proof, it is fine where it is (it does not need line of sight to anything). The only thing you need to get outside (or somewhere that metal is not obstructing it) is the white U device and a single ethernet cable, that cable will carry both power and data (the beauty of Power over Ethernet).
Yes I suspect the cams on the outside of your shop are getting their signal from the house. If you were in a densely populated area, that would be a tough distance to get wifi over, but where it seems you’ve got some good space between neighbors, it probably gets a usable signal at that distance.
In theory the directional “U” devices could actually be set up to both do a link between the buildings and also serve those cams on the outside of the shop, but I highly doubt it was set up that way (it would be far from the ideal setup and only a few of their point to point setups support that anyway).
I’m a bit baffled as to why that U device would have been mounted up against a metal wall like that. That makes no sense. As you can see the red light is telling you you have a terrible signal, basically the lowest possible in order to have a link. Is there some sort of gap or hole in the metal there? I’m just trying to figure out the reasoning for mounting it like that (a gap or hole would not be enough, but maybe someone thought it would work). Ideally you want the right most green light lit, but the second to right will be fine also. Third from right will be borderline but might work, but if you can get that mounted outside and pointed in the general direction of the one in the attic, you should be able to get a very strong signal.
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Probably the worst network diagram I’ve ever made (do this for a living) but hey, what do you want for free? I suspect you just need to get “U2” into a proper location and all will be well. Click the picture to enlarge and see clearer.
Technically the cams on the outside of the shop using the home/ISP wifi isn’t ideal, but if they’re working and not causing issues then it is fine. They’re probably reducing the speed of your whole 2.4ghz wifi network in the house, but since most devices are using 5ghz these days (and ones that use 2.4 don’t need much bandwidth) then not a huge issue. If it ain’t broke (as far as those two cams are concerned) don’t fix it.
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Actually after thinking about it a bit, the metal walls of the shop are likely what is allowing the outside cams to connect back to the ISP router. Back in the early days of Wifi, some weird geeks (not me of course) would use a pringles can (which were pre-lined with aluminum foil), put the wifi antenna inside of it, and have a directional high gain antenna that worked surprisingly well. Called a “cantenna”, after some tweaking it could go surprisingly long distances. And we, I mean they, always had some pringles on hand.
Similar principle here, the metal walls are reflecting the signal essentially converting the omni-directional antenna in the cam into a directional one. As long as the wall is facing the house at least somewhat, it will boost the signal. The same principle that is keeping the trendnet wifi inside the shop and blocking the U wifi from connecting well is actually helping those outdoor cams.
If you do put that U2 device outside, just make sure you have a drip loop in it, to prevent water from tracking the wire into the U device or into the shop, another crude diagram below. The same thing should be done on anything outdoors (like the cams’ power cables).
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Wow. Thank you so much, dave27. You have really gone to a lot of trouble for me. But like I said earlier, I’m always amazed at the depth of knowledge all you Wyze contributors have.
You have given me a lot of information to process. I understand the small Ubiquiti device is a power supply. Just fyi, the Trendnet router has its own power supply – see the small black wire in the picture coming out the bottom of it. It seems like the Ubiquiti AP/Bridge unit in the shop needs to be connected to the Trendnet router via ethernet cable for the data to flow. But I couldn’t connect the Ubiquiti AP/Bridge unit directly to the Trendnet router with a single ethernet cable because the Ubiquiti AP/Bridge unit needs to get its power from somewhere. Right? That’s why there is one ethernet cable from the Ubiquiti power supply to the Ubiquiti AP/Bridge unit and another ethernet cable from the Ubiquiti power supply to the Trendnet router. Am I understanding this correctly so far?
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I think you’re correct in your understanding, and I poked around because your pictures and description made me wonder about the power adapter and the cables. Based on what I’m seeing online, the cables are connected correctly: In this image of your PoE adapter, the yellow cable to your Ubiquiti NanoStation is plugged into the adapter’s PoE port, and the white cable to your TRENDnet wireless access point is plugged into the adapter’s LAN port.
In a Quick Start Guide I found, I noticed that it says you should be using shielded cables for your Ethernet connections. I can’t really tell about the yellow cable, but the jacket on the white cable appears to say “UTP”, which indicates “unshielded twisted pair”. I wonder if using different cables would improve your situation, especially with so much metal around. I don’t know if it would or not, and I tend to agree with @dave27’s assessment, particularly regarding the signal LEDs that indicate signal strength to the NanoStation in your shop (but looking at the lights I’m also wondering why the power and LAN LEDs aren’t green; maybe that’s just lighting in the room).
The trendnet probably uses a standard directly connected power supply instead of Power over Ethernet, that’s fine, nothing needs to change there, that can all stay inside.
The Ubiquiti uses the black box to “inject” power into the ethernet cable going to the white unit, so it has to stay in the path. They use different markings on their ports (the ones I have say “LAN” and “POE” but others just have icons), just make sure to use the same ports. In this case all you really need to do is use a longer RJ45 ethernet cable between the black and white “U” boxes, just replace the current cable with longer and use the same ports. Everything else stays connected the same way.
So the cabling will be Trendnet → Black U box → White U box and really only the second “→” probably needs to be replaced.
In reality the posts are just an overly wordy way of saying move the white box somewhere it has a line of sight without metal to your attic. If needed, extend that one ethernet cable. Just figured it would help to know the details of what is actually going on with the setup. Still a bit of a head scratcher why it was mounted in that location/fashion…..
They recommend that because they assume the device will be mounted outside and there is some risk of lightning. Running standard UTP is fine as long as it isn’t up high on a roof etc, it isn’t hurting the connectivity at all.
Yes it would be ideal to have STP but then you need to ground it properly, add an ethernet lightning arrestor, etc, and in reality a direct lightning strike is still going to fry everything regardless. Not a big concern.
I replaced the short yellow ethernet cable with a much longer ethernet cable and set the Ubiquiti AP/Bridge just outside the shop pointing directly at the garage where the other Ubiquiti AP/Bridge is (in the attic). The shop Ubiquiti AP/Bridge has a red, orange, and one green light on when it’s sitting outside. I have been doing some testing but it’s inconsistent.
Is there a way to test the Ubiquiti AP/Bridges to see if they are both working? Is there a way to test the Trendnet router to see if it’s working?
I don’t have these, but the Quick Start Guide I linked above describes how to access the Web-based interface for the Ubiquiti devices. It doesn’t go into great detail, so you’d likely want to consult Ubiquiti’s online help for more information about settings are available and what kinds of self-checks the devices are capable of performing. I’d expect something similar with the TRENDnet equipment, which has its management URL on the label in photos you’ve shared.
One green should be sufficient. You may be able to get a bit more by checking the attic one and making sure it is pointed back in the same direction and angle. You want the faces as close to parallel as you can get.
For testing, the easiest would be to just plug the cable currently going into the trendnet into a laptop and run a speed test on the internet and see how it does. Then do the same thing using wireless to the trendnet.
One thing you may be running into is that having the same network name in both locations could be causing things to connect to the wrong one. For the most part the metal walls of the shop should prevent that, but little bits can leak through and confuse things. But I wouldn’t think that would be an issue for stuff that is permanently in the garage, it should always see the trendnet as a strong signal.
The only other variable is how exactly that ubiquiti link is set up, if it is configured as point to point or access point and client (which if it is using the same network name in the second mode, could cause even more confusion).
I’d start with the two speed tests and see how they are.
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I understand unplugging the cable that is currently plugged into the Trendnet router and plugging it into the ethernet port on a laptop. I would be interested to see if the laptop even has internet at all, since I’m not sure the 2 Ubiquiti AP/Bridges are working. But I don’t understand what it means to do the same thing using wireless to the trendnet.
I’m already in way over my head in this connectivity/communication stuff and I’m trying to keep my nose above water. I’m not ready to start poking around in the settings for these devices. Maybe someday.
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Oh, I think I figured it out. Assuming I have internet on my laptop when connected to the Ubiquiti AP/Bridge via ethernet cable, and after I do the speed test, disconnect the ethernet cable from the laptop and I should be getting internet wirelessly from the Trendnet. If I’m not, the Trendnet is not working. If I am getting internet wirelessly from the Trendnet, do a speed test.
Yup exactly (just remember to plug the cable back into the trendnet after the first test).
Just to ensure you’re not trying to connect to the wireless during the cabled test, turn on “airplane mode” on the laptop which will disable wireless. Then after moving the cable back to the trendnet, turn airplane mode back off. If you’re using windows, you can bring up airplane mode by clicking the icon in the bottom right of the screen, should be one of the options in there.
That’s fair, and I don’t have this particular equipment, so I’m just speculating that they might have their own diagnostics or at least some kind of status page that might give you some clues if you just logged into each device’s internal Web server.
Well, there is no internet getting to the shop. I plugged a laptop into the Ubiquiti in the shop and got no internet. So I went to the garage attic and unplugged the ethernet cable from that Ubiquiti and got internet. So the signal is getting to Ubiquiti #1 but not getting to Ubiquiti #2. So one (or both) of the Ubiquiti units isn’t working or one (or both) of the Ubiquiti units isn’t hooked up correctly. My search continues.
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Science! You got a result! 
I appreciate your taking the time to post an update.
It looks like there should be a power supply for each Ubiquiti. I see the one in the shop but I do not see the one for the Ubiquiti in the attic. Is there a way for me to test to see if there is power in the ethernet line coming from my house router to the Ubiquiti in the attic?
There probably is, but it’s not something I’ve ever done. While I was trying to figure out the other day what equipment you had, I recall seeing some specs about power (I linked to a separate section of this same document in a previous post). I imagine you could test voltage across the correct contacts with a multimeter, but I think first I’d just be looking at the LEDs on the back of the transceiver in the attic while the Ethernet cable is plugged into that to ensure that it’s getting power. I also wonder if a Wi-Fi scanning app on your phone would show if the attic device’s radio is operating.