Network ideas - help!

robjf · 28 Apr 2009 at 11:21

Morning guys. At home we currently have a Linksys WAG54GS in my room (front of the house, upstairs) right in the corner of my room where the phoneline comes into the house. The only problem being is my dads computer room (on completely the opposite side of the house) has problems picking up a reliable signal from this, which i think is being caused by the thick walls and huge chimney breast in the way!

Now aswell as the WAG54GS i have a BeBox (thompson 585 v7) and was wondering how you guys would overcome this problem. Not really had a massive amount off experience with anything other than router/switch networks so could you guys suggest some ways to improve our network!

In my room I have 3 devices which need ethernet connections and 2 wireless devices.

Thanks for any advice

Rob

s0ck · 28 Apr 2009 at 18:39

Run a cable to his room or use those power plug adapter things.

J.B · 28 Apr 2009 at 19:02

I imagine most people will suggest using powerline.

You could run a cable to somewhere the attach the bebox to that, but you might as well carry on running the cable to your dads PC.

robjf · 28 Apr 2009 at 22:09

Well at the moment its pretty unfeasable to run cable to the other room. Could i use the bebox as an access point up in the loft above the ceiling of the computer room?

s0ck · 28 Apr 2009 at 23:05

The best solutions are always a pain in the ass

J.B · 29 Apr 2009 at 01:09

robjf said:
Well at the moment its pretty unfeasable to run cable to the other room. Could i use the bebox as an access point up in the loft above the ceiling of the computer room?

Yeah, that would work if you can run a cable up through the loft.

robjf · 29 Apr 2009 at 09:41

So i can use a bebox just as an access point then? this is where my knowledge runs out!

tolien · 29 Apr 2009 at 10:30

It's already working as an access point. Just connect a cable to one of the switch ports and disable DHCP.

robjf · 29 Apr 2009 at 10:36

Anything i need to do with the wireless settings on it to prevent any funny business?

tolien · 29 Apr 2009 at 11:12

Nothing beyond the usual use of encryption, making sure they're not on the same channel etc.

robjf · 29 Apr 2009 at 11:30

So same SSID, same wpa key, but different channel?

tolien · 29 Apr 2009 at 14:58

No reason why not, though it likely won't switch between them seamlessly anyway.

robjf · 29 Apr 2009 at 15:41

Ok i will give that a go! Thanks for the help!

J.B · 29 Apr 2009 at 19:33

Biggest thing to remember is to turn DHCP off on the second router.

robjf · 29 Apr 2009 at 22:41

J.B said:
Biggest thing to remember is to turn DHCP off on the second router.

Done and it works after a lot of messing about, SSID's are different so i can differentiate between which is connected and it works, now to get a cable fed through to the other side of the house to make it worthwhile!