Extending range with pair of Wi-Fi routers

Archived from groups: alt.internet.wireless (More info?)

The only way you could connect them wirelessly would be
to connect a wireless ethernet bridge. You should be able to connect with a
cable if both
have a wired switch. One of them would need to have an uplink port, if not
though
you can build a crossover cable to connect them.

Dennis
"J.David Williams" <jdwill@telus.net> wrote in message
news:TZhPc.13180$yT2.12126@clgrps13...
> To All;
>
> I've been lurking here for some time for a possible soulution to our
> problem, but no one seems to be in our exact situation. Here's the
picture:
>
> We're in a remote Canadian setting with a satellite internet service
> that is accessed from a bunkouse by an SMC2804WBR 'G' wireless router.
> Everything works great and everyone's marvelling at the convenience of
> Wi-Fi..
>
> Just out of range is an office building that we also want to access
the
> same internet service. To do that we picked up a Linksys WRK54G wireless
> router. We've located the router about midway between the office and the
> bunkhouse - that should easily eliminate the issue of range. To turn the
> Linksys router into an access point, we figured that the Linksys has to
have
> DHCP disabled and the SSID assigned the same as that of the SMC.
>
> Right?
>
> But we're confused about the rest:
> Do the two routers need to be physically connected by a LAN cable? If so,
> that would be no problem, but we're not clear on which connections to
make.
> Or maybe this topology won't work at all (?)
> Would we be better off standardizing on a single equipment manufacturer?
>
> Hope you can help.
>
> David
>
>

Archived from groups: alt.internet.wireless (More info?)

J.David Williams <jdwill@telus.net> wrote:
> But we're confused about the rest:
> Do the two routers need to be physically connected by a LAN cable? If so,
> that would be no problem, but we're not clear on which connections to make.

If you can easily run cable to that second access point, that would
probably be the best solution.

http://makeashorterlink.com/?K2E3155E8
"How do I connect a Linksys Wireless router to a regular Ethernet Linksys"

--
---
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8-122.5

Archived from groups: alt.internet.wireless (More info?)

"J.David Williams" <jdwill@telus.net> wrote in message
news:TZhPc.13180$yT2.12126@clgrps13...
> To All;
>
> I've been lurking here for some time for a possible soulution to our
> problem, but no one seems to be in our exact situation. Here's the
picture:
>
> We're in a remote Canadian setting with a satellite internet service
> that is accessed from a bunkouse by an SMC2804WBR 'G' wireless router.
> Everything works great and everyone's marvelling at the convenience of
> Wi-Fi..
>
> Just out of range is an office building that we also want to access
the
> same internet service. To do that we picked up a Linksys WRK54G wireless
> router. We've located the router about midway between the office and the
> bunkhouse - that should easily eliminate the issue of range. To turn the
> Linksys router into an access point, we figured that the Linksys has to
have
> DHCP disabled and the SSID assigned the same as that of the SMC.
>
> Right?
>
> But we're confused about the rest:
> Do the two routers need to be physically connected by a LAN cable? If so,
> that would be no problem, but we're not clear on which connections to
make.
> Or maybe this topology won't work at all (?)
> Would we be better off standardizing on a single equipment manufacturer?
>
> Hope you can help.
>
> David

There are many solutions to this problem. One will work with the equipment
that you have.

Using the SMC and Linksys routers, you will have to connect the devices by
Cat5 cable. There is no approved standard for a Distribution System yet
(802.11F is coming), so with few exceptions APs must be the same brand to
cooperate in the same Extended Service Set. If you set the SSIDs in the two
APs to the same value, they will still represent two different ESSs (like
having the same SSID as your neighbor). In your case that's not so bad,
since you don't really care which AP your computers associate with. If you
do care, make the SSIDs different.

You probably want the Linksys (couldn't find mention of WRK54G on the web)
to act as just an Access Point and not a router. To do this, connect the
Cat5 cable to LAN ports on both routers. The Cat5 cable should be the
crossover variety (since you're connecting like ports, MDIX-MDIX), but it
doesn't really matter since the SMC2804WBR LAN ports have auto-MDI/MDIX.
The Linksys's WAN port will go unused. Disable the LAN DHCP server on the
Linksys; the SMC will provide addresses to all users.

Ron Bandes, CCNP, CTT+, etc.

Archived from groups: alt.internet.wireless (More info?)

J.David Williams wrote:
> Just out of range is an office building that we also want to access the
> same internet service. To do that we picked up a Linksys WRK54G wireless
> router. We've located the router about midway between the office and the
> bunkhouse - that should easily eliminate the issue of range. To turn the
> Linksys router into an access point, we figured that the Linksys has to have
> DHCP disabled and the SSID assigned the same as that of the SMC.

I don't have the distance problem you do, but I do have several wire lath
and plaster walls in the 50 feet between my WRT54G and a WET54G bridge
(feeding a 5 port switch) in my office. Adding a simple and cheap
parabolic reflector (the X12 model - <www.freeantennas.com&gt;) made from the
sides of an aluminized cardboard coffee bean boosted the signal strength
there from 50% to 81%.

At www.linksysinfo.org there's info on firmware (Sveasoft?) enabling the
relatively cheap WRT54G router to be used as an access point. I wish I'd
seen that before I bought the bridge to feed the switch.


--
Steve
Bush fooled ya once, shame on him.
If he fools ya twice, shame on you!
(And look out, Nelly!)