Extending wireless range in house

[ellisz]

Hi all,

I have been doing some reading on wireless repeating and WDS and I am confused. I recently replaced a WRT54g running Tomato 1.21 with a Netgear N600 (WNDR3700) I was able to boost the linksys but my house is pretty big so coverage was spotty. I am doing some upgrades so I bought the Netgear N600 and a gigabit switch.

I found that the Netgear routers wireless range is really no better than the WRT54g. I then thought about using the WRT54g to extend my wireless signal from the Netgear. I am getting confused on what I can do though.

I tried using the WRT54g in wireless ethernet mode and was able to connect to the Netgear but it appeared that only the lan ports were usable. It was connected but my wireless signal was not better downstairs. I have read on using the WRT54g as a repeater but I am not real sure on how to do this and seems like there are some speed and reliability problems associated with it. The Netgear was a repeater mode but it appears that if you use it, you have to run you network open or using WEP. Not sure this would be worth it.

Does anyone have any suggestions or links they could point me too? I could run the WRT54G off a wired switch or link to the Netgear via the wireless so hopefully this gives me more options.

Thanks for any help you can give

 

[ViviTheMage]

Are you 100% sure you cannot hook up an ethernet drop for your second AP (WRT54G)?

 

[ellisz]

I can hook up the WRT54G to a hard line via the gigabit switch. The Netgear is upstairs and the switch and WRT54G will be downstairs. I could hook up the WRT54G to the switch but I need the wireless to be available downstairs. It does reach some what via the Netgear but I would like it to reach outside to a patio. The only thing that will use the wireless off the WRT54g will be smartphones or laptops. I won't be doing anything major with it. Might stream netflix or similar. I try to keep most devices on the hardlines(xbox, etc.)

 

[ellisz]

Well, I might have figured it out.

I turned off DHCP and Wan on the Linksys router. I changed the IP address and set the router as an Access Point with the same WPA/WPA2 encryption as the Netgear. I was able to connect in an area where signal was always non-existent before.

I plugged the router into an open port on my switch attached to the netgear. I don't have a good way to tell how well it is working but when I disconnected the the network cable, the internet quit working. My netbook and android phone were connected via the wireless prior to that.

Thanks