General : Extending wireless

[loll_l]

I am wanting to use my wireless internet connection on a few different devices in my summerhouse which is about 30 metres away from my house where my modem and router are based.

I need the internet connection in my summerhouse to be as strong as possible and after receiving advise from a friend I think I know the best way.... I just want to check with you guys first to make sure there isn't a better way.....

My friend has advised me to run an ethernet cable from the back of my router (which supports both wireless and wired) into another identical router in my summerhouse... I can then connect the devices to the router in the summerhouse wirelessly.

Is this the best way to get a strong wireless signal in my summerhouse or is there a better way? And how much signal can I expect to lose both in my house and summerhouse with this set up?

[Kushan]

Originally Posted by loll_l

I am wanting to use my wireless internet connection on a few different devices in my summerhouse which is about 30 metres away from my house where my modem and router are based.

I need the internet connection in my summerhouse to be as strong as possible and after receiving advise from a friend I think I know the best way.... I just want to check with you guys first to make sure there isn't a better way.....

My friend has advised me to run an ethernet cable from the back of my router (which supports both wireless and wired) into another identical router in my summerhouse... I can then connect the devices to the router in the summerhouse wirelessly.

Is this the best way to get a strong wireless signal in my summerhouse or is there a better way? And how much signal can I expect to lose both in my house and summerhouse with this set up?

Yes, this is by far the best way to extend your wireless - alternatives like homeplugs and wifi extenders are just a poor alternative.

You don't need an identical second router, you can use a completely different make/model if you like and it won't affect things. All you need to do is set up the second router to use a different IP address (The router's default will be something like 192.168.0.1 and both can't have the same) and disable DHCP on it, so it doesn't conflict.

You will not see any loss in signal quality from either router doing this.

[loll_l]

Originally Posted by Kushan

Yes, this is by far the best way to extend your wireless - alternatives like homeplugs and wifi extenders are just a poor alternative.

You don't need an identical second router, you can use a completely different make/model if you like and it won't affect things. All you need to do is set up the second router to use a different IP address (The router's default will be something like 192.168.0.1 and both can't have the same) and disable DHCP on it, so it doesn't conflict.

You will not see any loss in signal quality from either router doing this.

Thanks for the reply. I'm just curious to know how the signal strength will be on both routers? If I have an 8mb internet connection does it mean it will split it so that 4mb goes to each router? or does it depend on how many devices I connect to the routers? eg. if I only have the 2nd router connected to the 1st router (ie. no devices connected wirelessly to the 1st router) and I only have one device connected wirelessly to the 2nd router - will that device benefit from the full 8mb connection or will it be diluted due to it being passed through 2 routers? hope my question makes sense!

[Kushan]

Originally Posted by loll_l

Thanks for the reply. I'm just curious to know how the signal strength will be on both routers? If I have an 8mb internet connection does it mean it will split it so that 4mb goes to each router? or does it depend on how many devices I connect to the routers? eg. if I only have the 2nd router connected to the 1st router (ie. no devices connected wirelessly to the 1st router) and I only have one device connected wirelessly to the 2nd router - will that device benefit from the full 8mb connection or will it be diluted due to it being passed through 2 routers? hope my question makes sense!

Your question makes plenty of sense, don't worry. Your connection is not "diluted" or split in any way, shape or form. The only thing that will affect how much of your connection you can use will be things like who else is also currently using the connection.

Having a second wireless router plugged in is no different than having two PC's plugged in to the router - if only one is in use, it'll make full use of the connection, if both are in use, they'll both use whatever bandwidth is available at the time.

Try to keep in mind that when it comes to wireless, the strength, range and stability of your wireless connections (that is, the communication between a device and the router over wireless) has absolutely no relation to your internet connection. The connection between your wireless router and your internet connection is what affects that - and as it's just an Ethernet cable, the router will make full use of what it can.

To put it another way, how fast your device goes on the internet will depend on the "slowest" part of the link. So your device might connect to the router (wirelessly) at 75Mbps. That router will plug into another router with an ethernet cable, hopefully at 1.0Gbps (depending on your router and cable) and that router will plug into your modem, again, hopefully at 1.0Gbps - but then the modem might connect to the internet at 50MBps.

So in all that, the "slowest" link is the modem at 50MBps, so the fastest your device can go online is 50MBps - even though it's going through two routers to get there, it doesn't matter because the link between them has loads of bandwidth. However, if you're transferring a file off of a PC that's connected to either router, you can go as fast as 75MBps*


*Wireless speeds are always incredibly varied, so keep in mind that what your device reports its speed as will not be realistic to what you can actually achieve. Sorry!

[loll_l]

ok that's all I need to know... thanks very much for your help

[Jumping]

You don't need a second router, all you need is a switch in the summerhouse to connect the devices there to your current network.

[loll_l]

Originally Posted by Jumping

You don't need a second router, all you need is a switch in the summerhouse to connect the devices there to your current network.

is a switch a better option than a router?

[tweetiepooh]

Switch will not give you wireless in the summer house.

One thing I do is to set the main router to only offer IP's in a specific range .100 - .199 then I can set devices like printers and network equipment outside that range. It can even use DHCP to get an IP but I fix the address it gets. So my main router is at .1, the second router is at .2, the printer is .254 and it's wireless bridge is .225. This may be too much detail for you so just KISS as you need to.

[Jumping]

Originally Posted by loll_l

is a switch a better option than a router?

Ooops sorry didn't see you wanted wireless in the summer house, imho get a Wireless access point instead of a router as you don't need another router.

Now if you happen to have a spare wireless router kicking around by all means use this and just turn off the routing stuff to use it as an access point.

[qasdfdsaq]

Thing is, wireless access points cost more because they aren't as mass market as a crappy home router. Plus, the latter can function as the former simply through switching off the router part, the former can't function as the latter.

[Skie]

Most routers also come with a quick and simple way of turning them into an access point so if you have a spare (or can find a cheap one) it will do the job. It can also be a good time to upgrade and use the older router to extend the network.