Can I use an ADSL router as a wireless access point only?

Soldato
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Following my thread here, i'm beginning to throw in the towel. We have Virgin broadband and a D-Link DI-524 that simply refuses to hold the wireless connection with my PC or my housemates laptop, now we are using WPA security.

I have a spare Netgear DG834G. Simple question, can I use it as a wireless access point? i.e. go from our Virgin modem -> Netgear -> wireless? :confused:

Many thanks.
 
Following my thread here, i'm beginning to throw in the towel. We have Virgin broadband and a D-Link DI-524 that simply refuses to hold the wireless connection with my PC or my housemates laptop, now we are using WPA security.

I have a spare Netgear DG834G. Simple question, can I use it as a wireless access point? i.e. go from our Virgin modem -> Netgear -> wireless? :confused:

Many thanks.

if you can connect a PC to it (the D-Link) via ethernet, then you can connect a router/switch or access point to it.

the DI-524 shouldn't care what you connect to it, as long as it has a MAC address and understands the IP protocol :D

the differences between cable routers and adsl routers end when the signal is received at the router. the signal it sends out the other end (the home end), is a standard signal, otherwise your PC wouldn't be able to understand it.

and I haven't yet come across a wireless cable/adsl router that couldn't be used as a pure access point (without the routing or the dsl being used).
 
I've just checked and our setup at the moment is:

wall ---> cable modem --[ethernet]--> D-Link

So surely I can just replace the D-Link with my Netgear ADSL router? There's no need to go through the D-Link, right?

EDIT: Bugger - I've just read up on the Netgear i want to use. It has:
* Power input.
* 4 RJ45 network ports.
* Reset button which can be held down for 20 seconds to reset to factory defaults.
* RJ11 port for ADSL line-in.
* Wireless antenna port. Antenna is detachable.
So the incoming port is RJ11, not RJ45. That wont work will it :confused:
 
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right :) I thought the DLink was your cable modem/ all in one. yeah you should have no trouble doing what you want to do.
 
right :) I thought the DLink was your cable modem/ all in one. yeah you should have no trouble doing what you want to do.
Hmn well i thought i could but the Netgear i have spare doesnt have an ethernet/RJ45 in. It only has RJ11 in (phone line). So i cant do it, can i? :confused:
 
If you connect the modem to one of the switch ports, you'll only be able to connect one device at a time though and it'll take the public IP the cable modem gives out.
 
Without going in to too much detail, yes, yes it will.

No it wont. Unless the router has some advanced routing capabilites you wont be able to do it. Really just buy a netgear/lynksis cable router, my experience of d-link has also been bad.
 
I have a spare Netgear DG834G. Simple question, can I use it as a wireless access point?

Yes.

My setup at home currently is Modem -> Linksys Router (Dual band simultaneous 2.4GHz & 5Ghz with Gigabit Switch).

Running off of the router is a few PCs and 20m of cat5e in the loft to another Gigabit Switch, which has a few more PCs running off it and an old Netgear DG834GT running as a wireless access point (with the same SSID as the 2.4GHz AP in the router but on a different channel). 2.4GHz devices just switch between the Routers AP and the DG834GT depending on the signal strength.

Wireless in my house is still crap, but that's because of the MOD nearby :(
 
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You can do this I have set it up before

From memory (there is a guide on the web for this) you need to disable DHCP within the Netgear and config it (the netgear) to use an IP address that is outside of the ip address used in your D-Link DHCP range.

When you connect devices wirelessly they will then get an address from the range on the D-Link - you'll control authentication from the Netgear though.
 
So I have to use the D-Link as well? I can't go straight from the cable modem to the Netgear?
 
You could, but:

So the netgear has its address assigned manually, and doesn't take the IP the ISP gives out, right... and basically acts as a switch, taking the ethernet signal and broadcasting it wirelessly?

So you wouldn't be able to access the netgears http based setup page once the client PC had used DHCP to get its IP from the ISP...

Am I understanding this right?

Then to access the netgear you'd have to give the PC an IP manually which falls within the subnet you'd manually given to the netgear, at which point you'd lose internet connection :D

I'd never have guessed that would work!
 
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