Can I Do This? How?

quarkrad

quarkrad

quarkrad

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new york
Apologies if this is too basic a question here. My son has an office at the end of his garden that is too far for a wifi connection (tried Home Plugs). However, there is an ethernet cable from the house to the office. In his office his laptop is wireless only so he needs a wifi connection. The ethernet socket in the house is far from the router so it will have to connect to the router via wifi. He is uk based and has a BT wifi disc which is a sort of wifi extender that also has an ethernet port on the rear of the device. Will I be able to put one of these wifi extender/disks at either end of the ethernet cable thus allowing him to connect his wireless laptop to the router (via wireless)? If the router has an ip address of 192.168.1.254 (standard BT router) and lets say an SSID called RDVES1234 how would all this hang together? I have connected devices to routers via wifi or 802.3 but not both together like this. Thank you.
 
Just to clarify it would be BT wifi disk in office -- wired to BT disk in house then wireless to BT router? .Worth trying, I know a few mesh networks that allow a mixed method of repeating but not sure about the BT one. Could always setup homeplugs in the house from the router to the cable that then goes to the office. So essentially its wired all the way back to the router then if it doesnt work without the connection.
 
Move the house closer to the office.

Son has already got a cable going there so they need an access point for Wi-Fi only connected to the Ethernet socket.

Alternatively for 1 connection buy a usb to eithernet adaptor.
 
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GaryTheSnail - not sure what you mean. There is no usb. In the office there is a mac laptop which only has wifi and the ethernet socket from the cable. In the house there is the other end of the ethernet cable and the router that is in another room. Not possible to physically connect the router to the 802.3 socket with a cable - hence in the house there will be a wifi connection to the ethernet socket (unless the Home Plugs work - I did not try that scenario). Assuming I have either these BT Discs (if they can work that way) or some sort of wifi/802.3 adapters would I see the RDVES1234 SSID as a wireless device on the office laptop? I.e. are these wifi/802.3 adapters 'invisible' in terms of the laptop talking to the 192.168.1.254 router?
 
Dave85. Your topography is correct. For some reason I did not test the Home Plugs in the house :(. This obviously would be better as it is part wired. I'm not sure about the wifi/802.3 adapter interface in terms of what the laptop will see in it's list of devices. (I.e. will it see the RDVES1234 SSID?)
 
quarkrad said:
GaryTheSnail - not sure what you mean. There is no usb. In the office there is a mac laptop which only has wifi and the ethernet socket from the cable.
Click to expand...

Either get a WiFi access point or get an adaptor to make the laptop have ethernet. It's just a dongle.

You don't want a router plugged into the office if there is already a router on the other end. There is specific devices you need to make this work correctly.
 
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Ideally you want an access point on the office side, connected to the ethernet port. I've no idea of the BT discs have an ethernet port to allow it to function as an access point though. If it does you can give it a try.

Do you still have the home plugs/powerlines? You could use that to connect the router to the ethernet port in the house side. Then assuming the BT disc does have an ethernet port, it should cost you nothing. As for the laptop and any other devices, it'll be the same SSID on both the main BT router and the BT discs, so to the laptop it won't really see any difference and should be able to roam between the two without issues.
 
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Omada AC1200 Wireless MU-MIMO Gigabit Wall Plate Access Point

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£80 and you’re 100% sorted.
 
How I read the layout:
Router - GAP1 - Ethernet Socket in house - GAP2 - Ethernet Socket in office - ideally WIFI to laptop

IMO:
Easiest option is
GAP1 - ethernet cable to router
GAP2 - wifi access point

'cable free option' - this should work but I've not tried it due to no real need in my case.
GAP1 - a wifi client (I'm using a TP Link TL-WA801N in client mode to connect to a wifi router to my wired network)
GAP2 - a wifi access point. My TP Link TL-WA801N can also run in access point mode.
Essentially you'd plug 2 TL-WA801N in, one at either end of the ethernet ports and then set the indoor one to client mode and the office one to access point, set them to their own different fixed IP addresses in the same 192.168.1.xxx range (disable dhcp on both, let the router handle it) and then set up wifi connections. I'd do different wifi names on the wifi access point to save conflicts etc.

Having said all that...how far is the office from the house, you could potentially wirelessly connect with just an extender placed in the right place (the TL-WA801N does this too...)

For reference: The TPLink TL-WA801N goes for about £20quid and it works fine with my 80Mbit internet.
I have no idea how the BT extender works, it might be able to do some of the above but I wouldn't be able to say one way or the other because I've always had my own hardware.
 
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The ethernet plugs did not work unfortunately so I tried, in the house, using a BT Disc. On the back of the Dsic I connected the ethernet port into the ethernet socket in the lounge (the other end is in the garden office) and the Disc connects to the home router via wifi. This appears to work in that if I connect a laptop with an ethernet port into the 802 socket in the garden office I get internet connectivity. The broadband speed is largely the same as that in the house. My only problem is that my personal laptop does not have an 802 port, only wifi. Having another BT Disc I connected that to the 802 port in the garden office and I have got it to work - but over time it seems to lose it's connection and just glows disconnected Red. These devices are not designed to work this way so I'm not too surprised. As I have a steady 802 connection in the office I 'see' no reason the TP Link Access device should not work if I plugged one in. The only thing I'm not sure of is the SSID and password that my laptop would pick up in the garden office. Because the TP_Link box is configured as an access point would it present the same SSID and need the same password as the home router?
 
Thank you. Sorry, yes by 802 port I mean ethernet port. If you set a different ssid and password for the (TP) Access Point is there not a conflict at the router end re passwords?
 
quarkrad said:
GaryTheSnail - not sure what you mean. There is no usb. In the office there is a mac laptop which only has wifi and the ethernet socket from the cable. In the house there is the other end of the ethernet cable and the router that is in another room. Not possible to physically connect the router to the 802.3 socket with a cable - hence in the house there will be a wifi connection to the ethernet socket (unless the Home Plugs work - I did not try that scenario). Assuming I have either these BT Discs (if they can work that way) or some sort of wifi/802.3 adapters would I see the RDVES1234 SSID as a wireless device on the office laptop? I.e. are these wifi/802.3 adapters 'invisible' in terms of the laptop talking to the 192.168.1.254 router?
Click to expand...

So get a wireless app and give it a different SSID and password.

You are overthinking it.
 
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