No WiFi in the mamad? How to get internet into the safe room
If your phone loses WiFi the moment you walk into the mamad (the reinforced safe room), that is not a fault in the network. It is how the room is built. This guide explains why it happens, what you can do without harming the room’s protection, and how to choose between the options.
Why does WiFi not reach the mamad?
WiFi does not get through because the mamad is built to stop blast and shrapnel, and the same materials also stop radio waves. According to the Home Front Command, the mamad is built as one solid block of reinforced concrete, with walls that go all the way down to the building’s foundations. Inside the concrete there is a grid of steel bars, and the door and window are made of steel.
You can think of it as a partial Faraday cage. A Faraday cage is a metal shell that electromagnetic waves cannot pass through. The mamad is not a fully closed cage, because there are gaps between the steel bars. But the combination of thick concrete, steel inside it and a steel door absorbs and reflects most of the signal. The 5GHz band weakens more along the way than 2.4GHz, which is why sometimes only the slow network is left in the mamad.
Another point that is easy to miss: when you test the reception on a normal day, the door is usually open. The Home Front Command instructs you to close the sealed door when an alert is received. In other words, exactly when the family is in the mamad and wants to get updates, the signal is at its weakest.
What must you never do in the mamad to bring in internet?
Never drill into the walls, ceiling, door or window of the mamad to run a cable. The room’s protection matters more than the internet.
- Do not drill holes in the mamad’s walls without first checking the Home Front Command’s guidelines. We did not find an explicit guideline about communication cables on the Home Front Command website, so the safe rule is not to drill at all. According to the Home Front Command guidelines quoted on ynet, drilling into the mamad door is forbidden and the window must not be altered.
- Do not run a cable through the ventilation pipe. The pipe has to close and seal in an emergency, and a cable running through it leaves an opening.
- Do not run a cable through the door or window so that they no longer close all the way. A flat cable under the door looks harmless, but a door that does not seal is a door that does not protect.
- Do not hang heavy equipment on the walls. The Home Front Command instructs you to make sure there are no shelves or heavy objects that could fall. A small access point is better placed on a low shelf or on the table.
If you are not sure whether something is allowed, contact the Home Front Command hotline or a professional who specializes in protected spaces before you do anything.
What about a mamak or a building shelter?
A mamak (a shared protected space on the building’s floor) and a shelter belong to all the residents of the building, so any change to them, including installing fixed equipment, has to be coordinated with the building committee and not done on your own. There, the practical solution is usually cellular backup, or a portable access point that you bring in only when needed and plug into an existing power outlet.
What is the best solution?
The best solution is an access point inside the mamad connected by a network cable, without drilling. An access point is a device that broadcasts WiFi and gets its internet from a cable. That way the signal is created inside the room, and the walls no longer get in the way.
Many mamads have a communications outlet (telephone, TV or network) that was installed during construction, and its wires arrive through existing conduit. In such cases a technician can sometimes feed a network cable through the existing conduit, using a pull wire, without touching the concrete. Whether the conduit is free and where it leads can only be known by checking on site.
Bezeq presents on its website a solution called FTTR, an optical fiber that runs to an additional room in the home, and explicitly mentions the mamad. On the Mesh Fiber page it is marked “coming soon”, so it is worth checking with Bezeq whether it is available where you live. Here too, the installation has to go through existing conduit and not through the mamad wall.
What if there is no conduit?
If there is no outlet or conduit, there are three options without a cable, and each of them works in some homes.
1. A Mesh unit right next to the mamad. Place a unit in the hallway, as close as possible to the door or to the mamad wall from the outside. It will not pass through the wall easily, but this way the signal that does get in is the strongest possible. If you have a second unit, you can try it inside the mamad. The difference between a range extender and a Mesh system matters here: a regular extender that receives a weak signal will not help.
2. Powerline network adapters (Powerline, PLC). One adapter connects to the router and a power outlet, and a second adapter to an outlet inside the mamad. The data travels over the electrical wiring, which already enters the room. This only works if the wiring allows it, and usually works best when the outlets are on the same electrical panel. Plug them directly into the wall outlet, not into a power strip. Some models have built-in WiFi and broadcast directly inside the room.
3. Cellular backup. A small cellular router, or a hotspot from your phone, can serve as a backup. But cellular reception also weakens in the mamad. Check the reception inside, with the door closed, before you rely on it.
How do you choose?
| Situation in the mamad | What to try | What not to do | When to call a technician |
|---|---|---|---|
| There is a network outlet in the wall | Connect an access point or a Mesh unit to the outlet | Do not buy a range extender before checking where the outlet is connected | If you do not know where the outlet leads |
| There is a telephone or TV outlet, no network | Check whether a network cable can be fed through the existing conduit | Do not drill to bypass a blocked conduit | Almost always, because the conduit has to be checked |
| No communications outlet at all | Mesh right by the door, or Powerline adapters | Do not run a cable under the door or through the ventilation pipe | If neither solution gives reception with the door closed |
| Reception only when the door is open | A unit inside the mamad, by cable or Powerline | Do not rely on a test with the door open | If the whole home network needs planning |
| You only need a backup for emergencies | A cellular router or hotspot, after checking reception inside | Do not assume cellular reception will be good | Usually not needed |
Where to place the unit inside the mamad?
Place it in an open spot, at table height or higher, not on the floor and not behind a cabinet. The mamad is small, so one unit inside it usually covers the whole room.
- Next to the outlet, if it is connected by cable or Powerline, so that no cables run across the walkway.
- On a low shelf or table, not hanging on the wall.
- Not in the path of the door, so that neither it nor any of its cables prevents the door from closing all the way.
- Not inside the emergency equipment box, where it suffocates and the signal weakens.
What happens in a power outage?
When there is no electricity, the router and the access point shut down, and the WiFi in the mamad disappears anyway. That is why home internet cannot be the only source of information in an emergency.
The Home Front Command recommends including a battery-powered radio and portable phone chargers in your emergency equipment. In addition, you can connect the router to a small UPS (an uninterruptible power supply, a backup battery for electricity), but it only helps if the provider’s equipment outside the home keeps working too. The safe approach is to treat WiFi in the mamad as a convenience, and a phone with a full battery and a radio as the backup.
How do you check that the solution works?
Test under alert conditions, not normal-day conditions.
- Close the mamad door and window as you would in an emergency.
- Run a speed test on your phone from inside the room.
- Try a short video call, because it is more sensitive to dropouts than browsing.
- If children or elderly people will be staying in the room, check their devices too.
When to bring the computer to the lab
Here the problem is in the home, not in the computer, so the solution comes to the home. It is worth calling a home technician when the existing conduit needs to be checked or a cable fed through, when Powerline and Mesh do not give reception with the door closed, or when you want to plan the network for the whole home together with the mamad. If you want to connect a router you already have as an access point, there is a guide to connecting a second router to the provider’s router.
Did it not work?
The goal of this guide is for you to bring internet into the mamad yourself, without harming the room. If you have tried the options and there is still no reception with the door closed, we will come, check the existing outlets and conduit, and propose a solution that does not touch the walls. The details are on the WiFi that reaches every room page.