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How to create a wireless network at home with two separate routers/switches and one Internet connect

Author
15 Feb 2009 10:31 AM
Polaris431
Hi,

I live in a large house. I have a DSL connection that comes into a
room on the floor where I live. The router is a Fritz!Box WLAN. People
on the floor above me share my Internet connection by using the WLAN
connectivity of the router. Unfortunately, the house is so large that
the Wi-Fi signal is only adequate for the floor directly above me. I
want to avoid installing cable. My idea is that I would install a
wireless router or switch on the floor above me. The signal strength
would then be strong enough to cover the floor above. I have a few
problems though in understanding how this will work. First, my router
acts as an Access Point and currently the users on the floor above me
use wireless adapters to connect to it. Now if I install a wireless
router or switch, it isn't clear how they connect to my Internet
connection. I am not sure if I need a wireless router or just a
wireless switch (if such a thing even exists). I do understand that
some wireless routers can be setup to act as a switch. Regardless
whether it's a switch or router, it probably needs to be configured to
connect to my wireless network and route traffic to those who connect
to it. What does the IP address and Gatway need to be set to on the
router/switch? Do the user's PCs need to have fixed IP addresses or
are they retrieved from the wireless router on their floor or from my
router? I'd appreciate it very much if someone can clearly indicate
what steps I need to take to get the floor above me to share my
Internet connection using an additional router or switch. There are
not that many users on the floor above me (about 4 or 5 users).

Thank you.
Johann

Author
15 Feb 2009 6:04 PM
James Egan
On Sun, 15 Feb 2009 02:31:28 -0800 (PST), Polaris431
<polaris***@gmail.com> wrote:

>Unfortunately, the house is so large that
>the Wi-Fi signal is only adequate for the floor directly above me. I
>want to avoid installing cable. My idea is that I would install a
>wireless router or switch on the floor above me.

What you want is a repeater bridge. dd-wrt firmware on popular linksys
(or other)  routers or dgteam firmware on some popular netgear routers
will do the trick

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Repeater_Bridge
http://dgteam.ilbello.com/


Jim.