Silly question about networking...

[panyan]

I have a router in the house, but would like to have wifi in the garage/man cave (at the end of the garden).

They are too far away to get wifi directly, so I am planning to put an ethernet cable from one to the other over the next week.

But I am confused about how I set up the garage:

1) do i need a router or an access point?
2) what settings do i need to set up the garage one as a secondary access point to the main router?
3) on the garage router, do I use the LAN or WAN port with the ethernet cable?
4) how do I set up the SSIDs? Can they mesh together? is it advised?

 

[panyan]

1)Essentially it should be an access point but I'm yet to find a router that can't be an access point.
2)Stick it into DHCP client or set a static IP not in your LAN, let it bridge the network and you won't have any double NAT problems (make it an access point not a router).
3)Depends on what access point you use, some you can use any, some are specific.
4)You can duplicate the SSID and have a "nearly" seamless network (nothing like mesh). Use the same SSID, password, encryption type and make sure you use different wireless channels. Stick to the common channels 1,6,11 and you'll be fine.

awesome, thanks

I have a Billion 7800DXL that I would like to use for this.
Your answers are a great foundation and I am doing some research into the next steps.
Some online suggestions say to disable DHCP - can you shed some light on what this is please?

You should be able to do this.

1. First setup the 7800N wireless side eg SSID, security
2. Now disable the DHCP server on the 7800N (don't forget to save your settings)
3. Plug either a ethernet connection to one of the LAN ports on the 7800N from your Sly router
4. The 7800N should now work as a dumb wireless hub/switch.

So with this setup everything all IP requests should be done by your Sly router.

 

[panyan]

A big thank you to you all!

I got it set up and working in no time at all (which feels a bit weird! )