WiFi in the garage for zwift

I use Google Nest WiFi and that works for me. Bonus is that the WiFi extender points double as speakers/assistants.

Powerline extender will work and use Cat5 to laptop/pc in garage or indeed the wifi.

Also best to run 2.4g in my experience for distance.

Check your neighbours channels to make sure there's no overlap. You can get an app.

After I'd done all of this zwift worked good in the garage on WiFi.

Will never be as good as wired though.

How far is it?

Having tried with a few power line / mesh networks the only solution that has been bomb proof for me has been to run an Ethernet cable, and then put a wireless Access point in there. For an easier setup, some mesh solutions allow you to use an Ethernet cable instead of creating a wireless mesh (I know the BT discs do this, as it is what my parents have setup) and that is also solid.

(Edit) also slightly depends what you do on Zwift - just training? You can get away with a less stable connection, all you’ll probably notice is that sometimes everyone else disappears. When racing this can make a huge difference as you’ll get dropped from the bunch without even realising!

It might be worth giving us an idea of your layout.
How far to the garage, does it have a separate consumer unit etc. will all affect what will work.
Powerline adaptor might work. I use. TP-Link Mesh system that more or less works seamlessly. I say more or less as it's been rock solid until last week, but then had a ride where it dropped out twice. Not happened since so hopefully just a blip.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B088M7T5WY/ref=pe_27063361_487055811_TE_dp_1

I bought this and it works. Router downstairs, maybe one bar and frequent dropouts on the 2nd floor of the house. Put this on the 1st floor landing and now it's been fine - full signal and less excuses when I get dropped.

On a side note. Mrs uses Zwift and our old iPad no longer plays nice with the app. What newish cheap tablet do folk recommend? Doesn't need to cast to TV so largish screen. But will just be a zwiftpad .

Powerline into the garage then run an access point off it?

Had mine set up this way for the last couple of winters, it's also given us the benefit of decent WiFi in the garden.

I've run Zwift on 4G before. its not too bad, uses about ~100mb/hour from memory.

onehundredthidiot

On a side note. Mrs uses Zwift and our old iPad no longer plays nice with the app. What newish cheap tablet do folk recommend? Doesn’t need to cast to TV so largish screen. But will just be a zwiftpad .

Assuming you mean an Android tablet, by 'what newish cheap tablet.....', you need to be a little careful when it comes to Android tablets here.
There are certain chipsets that will not run Zwift - the app doesn't even show up in the Play Store.
I didn't realise this when I bought my last tablet - luckily it did work with Zwift (Samsung S6 Lite) but my Wife's slighty more budget Galaxy Tab A will not run it.
I am not sure if Zwift has a compatibility list or not.
Probably worth choosing one in your budget and then Googling something like "will the Blah blah model tablet run Zwift and see if you find any hits.

As an aside - how much are you thinking of spending? I got a really good Zwift PC for £200. I already had a monitor & bought a cheap wireless keyboard/trackpad for it. It will run in the highest quality setting (Ultra, i think) whereas a tablet will be pegged back to Basic. Definitely worth considering, although I understand the added clutter & stuff is not for everyone.

I've got TP Link AV500 Powerline adapters, one in the study connects by wire to the router then there's a few receivers around the house which act as wireless access points.

It's fairly robust, the only glitch in it is in some rooms your phone will still have 1 bar connection to the last place it was and until you reset the wifi connection it'll not jump to the next one. Works perfectly if they're either significantly overlapping or far apart that you actually lose connection though.

But....

I'd just get some Cat5e cable, some ends, and drill some holes in the walls and run the cable around the outside of the house then put an access point in the garage. Maybe even put a little network switch in there instead so you can plug everything in with wires if it's a permeant setup.

As an aside – how much are you thinking of spending? I got a really good Zwift PC for £200. I already had a monitor & bought a cheap wireless keyboard/trackpad for it. It will run in the highest quality setting (Ultra, i think) whereas a tablet will be pegged back to Basic. Definitely worth considering, although I understand the added clutter & stuff is not for everyone.

+1

IIRC a GTX1050ti/1650 is all that's needed to run in the top settings. You can google it, various people have published tables of what will generate what settings. But basically the graphics card dictates the visuals, and the processor is generating the other riders positions. The graphics (even on ultra) are simple enough by modern game standards that even a 1050ti/1650 is capable of churning them out at 4k/60fps, the framerate only drops when the processor is struggling to keep up with what's going on (e.g. at the spawn locations, big races etc).

And thanks to crypto finally doing the decent thing and Foxtrotting Oscar components are now actually realistically priced.

Is an Apple TV still considered one of the cheapest ways to run Zwift?

Is an Apple TV still considered one of the cheapest ways to run Zwift?

I’ve run Zwift on 4G before. its not too bad, uses about ~100mb/hour from memory.

[edit to correct my above post, there's a new higher setting than ultra apparently that needs a 1080 or rtx20xx card to run)

cheapest (dedicated – obviously you could use an existing tablet or even phone!) and least hassle.

I was going to disagree, but the price of apple TV boxes has dropped as well.

I still enjoy the PC graphics, but that's a nice to have and not essential.

Surely Zwift must see a market for a 'premium' tier version that does all the heavy lifting their end and streams the results straight to a TV with no hardware required? It'd work so much better for racing in particular.

Re. Apple TV, I picked a cheap 4th gen up on eBay as the iPad I was using was running low on memory and couldn't update.

Think I paid about £50, cheaper than a new tablet or capable PC and it runs fine.

Takes a while to get used to the remote though!

Takes a while to get used to the remote though!