New Wireless Network

[nathan_m_2005]

Currently I have a network across my house that is connected by ethernet. But I really don't like having the ethernet running through my hallways and rooms like it is. And my son is currently looking into getting a laptop, so I would like to be able to use a wireless connection to share files between all the computers. Here is the current situation in depth:

Computer 1: This computer has a modem that connects to the internet. It also has a hard drive that has a lot of information on it that I access a lot from the other computer. Printers and hard drives are shared through this computer.

Computer 2: This is basically a workstation that connects to the internet through the shared connection on the other machine. I also print a lot of photos through the shared printers on this machine. It accesses the information on the secondary drive of the other machine.

Last year I tried using a wireless network. This was right when the wireless G products were coming out. The wireless B products were really cheap right then, so I decided to try those. But I had a lot of problems with connectivity through the house. The house is only about 40-50 ft in length. I would say the computers are about 30 or so ft apart. One of the computers is on a lower level, and the other is on the next floor. I had a wireless card in one machine, and a wireless switch by the other. I tried lots of different things to get this to work. I moved around the switch and the card around. I even switched them around between the computers. I just couldn't get it to work well at all. But I really like the fact that I can move the switches around a little bit, and that really isn't a problem for me. So what I was wondering is would it be possible to have 2 wireless network switches instead of a wireless network card for the workstation? I might also be putting another workstation in the other room, and those computers would be pretty close together. Also, would I need to by switches or routers for this?

This whole thing just crossed my mind because Best Buy has a great price on a router, and just thought I would look into it

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1051384665075&skuId=5250854&productCategoryId=pcmcat25300050001&type=product

Thanks
Nathan

[nathan_m_2005]

And also, the products I was using before were made by D-Link.

[nathan_m_2005]

I have looked into this a little more now. Basically all I need to know is if I can have 2 of these routers and turn off all the dhcp stuff and routing capabilities and just use them as 2 access points for going across my house.

[tantone]

Kind of. The access point will still need to be cabled into something to provide it when network connectivity. As far as I know, the SOHO routers/AP's don't have the ability to use wireless for the uplink connection: that would still require a cable.

So, the kind of part comes in to play in that you'd need a cable for each of the AP's you set up.

[cat5e]

May be this can Help:

Link to: http://www.ezlan.net/Wireless_Hardware.html

Link: Wireless Network - Configuration Modes. (http://www.ezlan.net/Wireless_Modes.html)

Link to: http://www.ezlan.net/Distance.html

Link to: http://www.ezlan.net/bridging1.html

:cool:

[kwebb]

You could setup the primary wirelss router and then use an AP that will repeat or has WDS functionality. I recommed Buffalo's products if this the way you want to go. I am not a big advocate of repeaters however as long as you don't need really high bandwidth on the machines that will be associated to repeaters it will work and I just setup a Buffalo WLAN with this configuration about a week ago for a customer. Wiring to the second AP was not an option. Very expensive and old house. Wiring was prohibitive. The network works nicely, at least so far. I've been impressed with the Buffalo gear. It is somwhat of a bridge between the high end stuff (Cisco, Proxim, etc..) and the budget gear (Linksys, DLink and so forth). I think the bundle for the router/AP and WDS bridge/repeater was about 130 bucks off NewEgg.