Wireless Network Confusion - Nlc

[enxrjm]

Hi folks,

 

After several years my wireless router has packed up and won't respond - something seemed to kill it last night and now it wont recognise when I plug anything into the upload port!

 

I'm looking to replace it but don't know the best way to go. First to describe the system - I have 2 PC's and 2 Macs all with ethernet ports. Also have a PDA with WiFi. My current wireless router is ethernet only (from my days at uni ... oh the fast connection). I'm now on ADSL so had to buy a new (very cheap) router which took ADSL uplink and put out RJ45. This is in the bedroom with one long ethernet cable running round the house to where the computers are and plugs into the upload of my wireless router so that all PC's mac's are plugged into the outlets and my PDA has its wireless access.

 

For the new system I was thinking of buying a wireless ADSL router for the bedroom so the PDA is happy. I've got a switch which can link all the wired computers already. Is there a wireless bit of kit that I can plug into the uplink port of the switch to pick up the router and give all the computers outside access (hence no long ethernet cable anymore)? If so, what would be recommended? Looking obviously for cheap solution but am getting fed up with bargain bucket kit which seems to use up my entire weekend trying to fix things.

 

Unless anyone can think of a better way! (I wish my phone socket wasn't in the bedroom)

[mambosasa]

Not sure whether or not there is such a kit, but have you considered just buying a wireless card for one of the pc's, use the other NIC for internet shearing and connect it to the switch. The only downside that I can think of is that the nominated PC will have to stay 'up' continuously. Just a suggestion.

[ipanter]

I'm not quite sure what you are after but available choices are:

 

Wireless Access Point (WAP) - this will plug into an ethernet switch and provide wireless capabilities to an existing network, they usually just have one ethernet cable port going in.

 

Wireless ADSL Router - this device connects to the internet and passes on the internet connection to any computers which connect to it. They usually have 4 ethernet ports on them to allow non-wireless PCs to connect to them.

 

Lynksys (a division of Cisco) are good and pretty cheap.

 

Try www.insight.com/uk for the hardware, not sure if you need an account, but i have one if you want to order anything.

 

If you want to know anything else i'm happy to help.

[ipanter]

ok, i've read the post again and i think what you may want is a wireless bridge, not 100% sure as i've never used them.

 

I'll look into it...

 

BRB

[ipanter]

yep, wireless bridge.

 

look here http://uk.insight.com/apps/productpresenta...t_id=LNKNA042RK

[random_guy]

Hi folks,

 

After several years my wireless router has packed up and won't respond - something seemed to kill it last night and now it wont recognise when I plug anything into the upload port!

 

I'm looking to replace it but don't know the best way to go. First to describe the system - I have 2 PC's and 2 Macs all with ethernet ports. Also have a PDA with WiFi. My current wireless router is ethernet only (from my days at uni ... oh the fast connection). I'm now on ADSL so had to buy a new (very cheap) router which took ADSL uplink and put out RJ45. This is in the bedroom with one long ethernet cable running round the house to where the computers are and plugs into the upload of my wireless router so that all PC's mac's are plugged into the outlets and my PDA has its wireless access.

 

For the new system I was thinking of buying a wireless ADSL router for the bedroom so the PDA is happy. I've got a switch which can link all the wired computers already. Is there a wireless bit of kit that I can plug into the uplink port of the switch to pick up the router and give all the computers outside access (hence no long ethernet cable anymore)? If so, what would be recommended? Looking obviously for cheap solution but am getting fed up with bargain bucket kit which seems to use up my entire weekend trying to fix things.

 

Unless anyone can think of a better way! (I wish my phone socket wasn't in the bedroom)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You may as well buy a new ADSL router - 802.11G is fastest standard, and backwards compatible.

DLink & Linksys are popular reliable makes.

[Scott_Mac]

Agreed, for the difference in price between an Access Point (or bridge) you may aswell reaplce the standard switch etc with a 4 Port Wireless ADSL Router - and maybe even with built in ADSL Modem to remove all cables.

 

Personal recommendation is Netgear, but Linksys are also rated (if a little "odd" looking)

[enxrjm]

Cheers for all the advice so far - bit more detail - I intend to get a new wireless ADSL router for where the phone point is anyway. I also need to connect 4 wired computers which are next to each other but nowhere near the router. Want to somehow link them wirelessly to the router the otherside of the house. Could buy cheapo wireless card for each machine but was just asking if it was possible to plug anything into the uplink port of my switch to do the job. The bridge sounds like the part I need but if anyone has a cheaper solution please feel free to contribute.

 

Scott - are you suggesting getting two wireless routers?

[ipanter]

There are cheaper bridges available see here.

 

I'm pretty sure that if you are buying a new Wireless ADSL Router you wil be able to connect a bridge to it wirelessly. If you go for the same make it will probably make it easier.

 

I don't see why you couldn't get two routers, as you can set IP addresses for them so aslong as they have IP addresses for the same network it should work..

 

I think though that bridges are meant to be cheaper than routers as they have less functionality, however there is a much larger market for the routers so they are quite cheap themselves.

 

HTH

 

Ian

[enxrjm]

I've been running two routers up till now (when the wireless one broke) The problem with two routers is they both have to be configured, both have firewalls, both block ports etc. so really want to avoid that. The bridge seems the best bet so far, but would simply plugging a wireless access point into the switch work?

[ipanter]

That is a good question

 

I've had a good think.

 

WAPs are normally plugged into switches anyway, and i don't think that wireless devices differentiate between PCs/Laptops/WAPs etc. So the WAP would be happy to pass a signal to the router, because to the WAP the router is just another IP address that it can send and recieve a signal from.

 

Therefore, as long as you can set an IP address to the WAP, it might just work!

 

Though you may not want the WAP plugged into the uplink port on your switch, and you would probably have to set IPs to all the PCs and Macs that are on the network, instead of using DHCP. (unless the WAP has DHCP)

 

I would be interested to see if it would work, but i cannot say for 100% that it will.

 

Coming from another angle, i'm sure you could pick up a phone socket box and 20m of phone cable for probably no more than £20, you could add another phone point to where the PCs are located, you'd probably even be able to get a 'man' to do it for you for the price of a wireless device.

 

Back to the IT angle, these may interest you Clicky only 11b but cheap as chips.

 

HTH

 

Ian

[random_guy]

Right - get a hub (10/100), get a wireless access point, plug AP into hub, cable other PCs from hub.