Wi-Fi repeater setup help.

mast3r · 20 Jan 2010 at 23:23

Hello All!

I need some advice, I need to get Wi-Fi through the whole house and Barn (Gym), I have 11 Sonos Audio stations, for those that don't know Sonos, they are like a Sling box, they "Piggy back" off each station, the stations act as a Wi-Fi multi point repeater but cannot carry an internet connection with them, I have a very large house, an Old Coach house with a hell of a lot of wooden beams and thick stone walls, the signal is weak to none in each room, thus, I need to add Wi-Fi Repeaters, I am looking at the Linksys WRE54G OR D-Link Air Premier DWL-2200AP, 7 of them, along with a Netgear DGN2000 ADSL Router.
Because of Sonos System, I have a 160Mtr Length of cat5 running down to the barn at the bottom of the garden, I THINK I have a spare length running underground, IF I do, I shall be wanting Wireless down in the barn. Here is the issue.

How do I get Wi-Fi in the barn, the cat5 doesn't enter the house its ran to the Garage which is adjacent to the upstairs office.

CAN I, Have a Wi-Fi Repeater connected to the Router via Wi-Fi and then share the internet DOWN the length of cat5 to the barn and into another Repeater OR DSL Router, Short of some High Gain antennas on the side of the house I can't see any other option?

Many Thanks

Martin

Azuse05 · 20 Jan 2010 at 23:38

You want a bridge connected to oen end and a regular router on the other.

Router > bridge > cat5 > router > and repeaters.

mast3r · 20 Jan 2010 at 23:47

Ok, Just to claify,
i only want one AP or one Wifi point in the barn, the rest are all in the house and are all going to be in range of each other, so i will be bridging off each AP to the router.

Will the same apply?

Router in Office - WIFI > Bridge in garage > down cat 5 to barn > into a dsl Router with DHCP Dissabled and same SSID set?

Any idea on the kit i would be best off getting? for bridge etc.

Ryan111 · 20 Jan 2010 at 23:56

WRT54G with custom firmware are generally regarded great for bridges. You wouldn't need a router in the Barn, just a switch and an AP.

mast3r · 21 Jan 2010 at 16:13

I have a WRT54G atm but not got the opensource FW on it, i have to keep things "Out of the box" for ease of support, i work away a lot so will need to be able to tell the missus how to sort it out.

MarkW7 · 22 Jan 2010 at 22:53

Do you need WiFi in the barn, if not you can add a network switch.

Or an access point, i don't know if another router will interfear.

Azuse05 · 23 Jan 2010 at 13:36

Yes i should have said that originally, idk what i was thinking :confused:

You only need one router, everything else can be a switch/repeater/bridge.

Routers in the house, so you need a bridge from the house to the garage, what you use in the house is up to you. A bridge connected to the lan would be easiest however a repeater would work while increasing the wireless signal in the house. It's more a question of distance really. If you need to use directional antennas go bridge, otherwise repeater. How far is it?

Which ever you choose you need to attached the garage end to a switch, which in turn is attached to the ca5, which runs to the barn where you place a wireless access point, usually a cable router (since it's flexible) but an access point will do too. You have wireless in the barn.

The reason you'll see so many say wrt54gl + tomato (preferably raf mod) is simple. They can act as both bridge or repeater, 2 antennas give them good wireless range, they are incredibly reliable because the firmware fixes so many bugs - 300+ days uptime is quite common, they're flexible and they're cheap. Although shop bought go with linksys every time

So in short, you need a bridge (2 units, 1 house, 1 garage), a switch and an access point. If you want wireless in the garage just plug an access point into the switch, if you find the signal is weak in either the house or barn just add wireless repeater where ever you need a better signal. Placement of those is trial and error mostly.

Ryan111 · 26 Jan 2010 at 19:37

Simple answer tbh, within the house you just need repeaters (or access points if you can cable them and set up some sort of roaming?)

For the barn;

Netgear DGN2000 (or whatever router you pick) ---- (Wired) ---- Linksys WRT54G/GS/GL (set up in Access point mode) >>> (wireless) <<< WRT54G in bridge mode in the garage --- (Wired) --- Cat5(e?) --- Network Switch with AP and any devices connected to that.

You want the two 54G's to have a line of sight view to guarantee the best signal. You could just use one in the garage if you get good enough signal though.