Wi-Fi in a finca: why repeaters fail against stone walls

In short

A 60 cm stone wall attenuates a 5 GHz signal by 20 to 30 dB — that is a factor of 100 to 1000 in power.
A repeater halves your throughput, because every packet crosses the same radio link twice.
What reliably works: several access points, each connected by cable.
Where no cable can be run, an outdoor point-to-point link beats an indoor repeater almost every time.

A typical finca has exterior walls between 50 and 80 centimetres thick, often natural stone set in lime mortar, with solid brick interior walls and reinforced concrete floors. Exactly this construction is what keeps the house pleasant through the summer — and what stops a single router in the living room from reaching the rest of it.

What the wall does to the signal

Radio power is measured in decibels, and the scale is logarithmic: 10 dB of attenuation means one tenth of the power, 20 dB one hundredth, 30 dB one thousandth. The figures we regularly measure on Mallorca fall in this range:

Obstacle	2.4 GHz	5 GHz
Plasterboard partition	3–4 dB	4–6 dB
Solid brick wall, 12 cm	6–10 dB	10–15 dB
Stone wall, 60 cm	15–20 dB	20–30 dB
Reinforced concrete floor	15–25 dB	25–35 dB

Two things stand out. First: 5 GHz loses considerably more than 2.4 GHz. The very band that delivers the high speeds is the one that struggles most with thick walls. Second: two such walls in a row are enough to push a usable signal down to noise level. Your phone still shows a bar, but the connection drops during every video call.

Why a repeater makes it worse

A repeater receives the Wi-Fi and sends it out again — using the same radio, on the same channel. Every packet therefore travels through the air twice. Usable throughput is halved by the principle alone, before any wall enters the picture.

There is a second problem: a repeater can only pass on what it receives itself. Place it where the signal is already weak and it distributes a weak signal further, just with a full bar on your phone. That is where the familiar sentence comes from: "I have full Wi-Fi, but nothing loads."

And third, many devices stubbornly cling to the station they first chose. They are still attached to the repeater long after you have sat back down next to the router. This behaviour is known as a sticky client, and it can only be fixed on the network side, not on the device.

What works instead

Access points rather than range extension

The dependable answer is unspectacular: instead of passing a signal along, you install several transmitters, each with its own cable. Every access point covers its area at full power, all of them share one network name, and your device switches over automatically as you walk through the house.

A rule of thumb for a finca: one access point per floor, plus one for every part of the building separated by an exterior wall. A guest house in the garden always needs its own. The units draw power over the same network cable (Power over Ethernet), so one line per point is enough — no socket in the ceiling.

When there is no cable

Retrofitting cable into an existing building is often more involved on Mallorca than in Germany: it means chasing, plastering and painting. Two routes work well in practice:

Around the outside instead of through the inside. A cable run along the façade or underground in conduit bypasses the wall entirely. Usually the simplest and most durable solution.
A directional point-to-point link. Two antennas with line of sight — from the main roof to the guest house, say — cover several hundred metres without difficulty, because there is no wall in between. Unlike a repeater, such a link runs on its own path and costs no throughput inside the house.

We deliberately mention powerline over the mains last. In older buildings with several circuits, long cable runs and solar inverters, results are hard to predict. Usable as a stopgap, not as the foundation for a house.

The outside is usually forgotten

On Mallorca a good part of life happens outdoors — and that is exactly where the Wi-Fi often ends, at the terrace door. For pool, terrace and garden the rule is: an outdoor access point belongs outside, not behind the glass. Modern windows are coated, and that metallic layer attenuates radio about as much as a brick wall.

Also check the manufacturer's temperature rating. A unit sitting in full summer sun under a roof overhang easily reaches 60 °C and beyond.

A short checklist before you buy

How many exterior and interior walls sit between the router and the problem area?
Is there a route for a cable — outside, in conduit, through the loft?
Are the guest house, pool or garage separate structures? Then each needs its own access point.
Is your internet line fast enough to begin with? Better Wi-Fi will not speed up a slow line.
Who looks after updates? Access points need maintenance like any other device.

What this means in practice

In almost every finca we take over we find the same history: first one repeater, then a second, then a third — and finally a network in which nobody knows which device is attached to what. Replacing all of it with two or three cabled access points usually solves not just the coverage problem, but also the dropouts that had been blamed on the internet line.

If you are unsure how many points your house needs, that can be measured on site in a good hour. Afterwards you will know what is necessary — and equally, what is not.