So many garden buildings are being built or transformed into garden home offices and additional leisure spaces for family and friends. Internet access whether for work or fun is a must but wifi is often unreliable. And who needs stress when it can be avoided?

Most of our customers put a reliable internet connection into their garden office or shed as a primary requirement for both work and family life.

Solutions are simple, with options being:

CAT6

A physical cable that runs between your router and your new garden building for reliability that matches your provider. If using the internet for work, gaming or streaming, this is your best option. The cable has rugged protection as sited outside and we normally install it above ground (so you know just where it is and to avoid it when gardening). The installation will also involve running through part of your house to your router, so some redecoration may be needed.

Costs start at as little as £150 but the cable length and any redecoration will be a factor. Below-ground cabling of power or CAT6  is possible but will need an extensive and deep trench to comply with regulations for safety.

Wi-Fi

Wi-fi is one of the simplest services. This is simply an extension to your home Wi-Fi into your garden office. Just like ripples from a pebble dropped into the middle of a pond, the wifi strength gets weaker the further your device is from the router. This could result in a weaker or unreliable wifi service. Running multiple devices will also reduce the bandwidth or capacity which will affect service.

If you already have Wifi, then you need to pay no more.

Boosters

No, not Covid, this is a device that your internet provider or other retailers will be able to provide. This collects your wifi signal and boosts it further into your garden, making for a more reliable service. This can often be worth a try before you invest in CAT6 (which will cost considerably more). Some internet providers such as SKY often offer these at subsidised costs to customers.

Costs from £90 but if you ask your current broadband provider, you may see a substantial discount in order to keep your custom.

Wifi dongle and Mobile phone hotspot

Dongles with loadable data are the best value. Phone hotspots could be more expensive to run but are ideal for when an internet service drops. Using a mobile provider you can use your phone or dongle to provide internet service for garden room devices. An ideal fallback that you could also use for an internet service for a  laptop and other devices when travelling to other locations.

This is a dongle that saves us a lot of mobile phone data costs. We bought one to use for internet access when visiting our son in Australia.

Cost from £40 but allow a regular or top-up purchase for data usage.