House → Farm
Getting Internet Across Your Farm
Whole-farm networking — barns, arenas, pastures, pole barns. Hub-and-spoke point-to-multipoint + outdoor APs.
Whole-farm internet is different from a single outbuilding link — you typically need to get signal to multiple destinations (barn, equipment shed, arena, hay barn, pump house), sometimes at different distances. The right architecture is hub-and-spoke: one high-gain radio at the house serves as a 'base station', and a smaller radio on each building points back at it.
Ubiquiti calls this 'point-to-multipoint' (PtMP). A sector antenna like the Rocket 5AC Prism with an AM-5G series antenna covers 60° or 90° of sky and can serve 8–20 client radios. Each outbuilding gets a NanoStation or LiteBeam pointed at the sector — same gear as a point-to-point install, just aimed at one shared base.
For pastures and open areas, add outdoor APs (TP-Link EAP610-Outdoor, Grandstream GWN7664LR) fed from the nearest barn. Gate openers and water pumps tend to be the specific devices that drive the design.
What you'll typically use it for
- Multi-building farms with barns, arenas, hay storage, equipment sheds
- Pasture Wi-Fi for GPS-tagged livestock systems
- Irrigation and well-pump controllers
- Gate openers and automated barn doors
- Remote camera arrays
What to think about
- Design as point-to-multipoint (one base, many clients), not a daisy-chain of PtP links
- Use 5 GHz for the trunk links, 2.4 GHz for things that need penetration (gate openers through foliage)
- Mount the base radio as high as you can — water tower, tall building, or a mast
- Plan for lightning — grounding and surge protectors on every outdoor run
Best solutions for this scenario
Ranked by typical best-fit for this kind of building and distance.
- 1Point-to-Point Wireless BridgeA pair of directional radios, one on each building. The default answer for distances where running a cable is impractical.
- 2Outdoor Wi-Fi Access PointWeatherproof access points for coverage outside a building — pastures, driveways, pool decks.
- 3Direct-Burial FiberFor long runs (over 300 ft) and future-proofing. More work to terminate, but no distance limit to speak of.
Gear commonly recommended here
Ubiquiti NanoBeam 5AC Gen2 (NBE-5AC-Gen2), 2-Pack
Step up when you need more reach or cleaner signal.
Dish-style airMAX radio with 19 dBi gain and a dedicated management radio. Noticeably better throughput and stability than the Loco at longer distances or in noisy RF environments. Same configuration workflow as the NanoStation.
Best for: Runs from 500 ft to ~3 miles, or anywhere with heavy Wi-Fi interference.
- Higher gain = more margin for rain/foliage
- Dedicated management radio
- Gigabit PoE port
- More expensive per pair
- Narrower beam — aiming matters more
- Band
- 5 GHz
- Gain
- 19 dBi
- Range
- Up to ~15 km
- PoE
- 24V passive (included)
TP-Link Omada EAP610-Outdoor Wi-Fi 6 AP
Weatherproof AP for outdoor barn / pasture Wi-Fi.
IP68-rated outdoor Wi-Fi 6 AP. Use this if you need coverage in and around the barn — paddock, riding ring, driveway. Omada controller (cloud or self-hosted) or standalone. Works fine alongside UniFi gear on the network, just managed separately.
Best for: Outdoor Wi-Fi coverage outside the destination building.
- IP68 outdoor rated
- Wi-Fi 6 AX1800
- PoE powered
- Managed separately from UniFi gear
- PoE injector usually separate
- Wi-Fi
- Wi-Fi 6 (AX1800)
- PoE
- 802.3at
- Rating
- IP68
Ubiquiti UniFi Switch Lite 16 PoE (USW-Lite-16-PoE)
16-port managed switch with 8 PoE+ ports. Barn-scale workhorse.
16 gigabit ports, 8 of them PoE+ (802.3at) up to 45 W total. Powers APs, cameras, and another PtP radio without needing separate injectors. Silent, wall-mountable, managed via UniFi. The default switch for any barn/outbuilding that needs more than a handful of ports.
Best for: Barn, shop, or ADU with several PoE devices.
- 8 PoE+ ports in a silent box
- Managed under UniFi with your router
- 45 W PoE budget
- Total PoE budget is modest — not for heavy cameras/APs everywhere
- Ports
- 16x GbE (8x PoE+)
- PoE budget
- 45 W
- Mgmt
- UniFi