Wireless in a large house - what hardware?

retribution

retribution

retribution

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23 May 2004
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Location
Southampton/Beverley
I'm currently using a Netgear DG834PN router, on bulldog, to give my student house with 8 people wireless access. The router isn't great; the connection drops fairly regularly, and the signal strength in some areas of the house is very low/none. I've spoken to my landlord, and he says he will pay for new wireless :cool:

So, what is the best solution? Increased converage is my main concern. The DG834PN doesn't support WDS, so I'm guessing the best bet would be a new router/modem combo, and another access point, both supporting WDS? Any recommendations? How easy is WDS to setup?

Any advice much appreciated,

Rob
 
I'm using a Linksys WRT54GL running tomato firmware, ours is a similar house, 3 storey with 7 students. Works fine as you can boost the signal, and I then have a SMC AP repeating the signal to cover the whole house. :)
 
Yeah, I was looking at the WRT54GL. Does the signal get boosted significantly (enough that I wouldn't need an extra AP)? Also, the router doesn't have a built-in modem, right? Any recommendations on a good modem to accompany it?

Or would it be better simply to buy a router with a built in modem, then another AP?

Thanks for the reply
 
I found that boosting the signal on my WRT54GL caused it to overheat fairly often and require turning off for 30 mins before it would maintain steady connections again.
 
M0T said:
I found that boosting the signal on my WRT54GL caused it to overheat fairly often and require turning off for 30 mins before it would maintain steady connections again.
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I haven't had any problems yet, I'm running tomato with the signal at 200 :).
retribution said:
Yeah, I was looking at the WRT54GL. Does the signal get boosted significantly (enough that I wouldn't need an extra AP)? Also, the router doesn't have a built-in modem, right? Any recommendations on a good modem to accompany it?

Or would it be better simply to buy a router with a built in modem, then another AP?

Thanks for the reply
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It would get boosted enough, but it's more likely to depend on the tx power of the computers connected to it (laptops being the biggest issue) one of the people on the ground floor gets -60dbm tx, with the router being on the top floor, and she uses a crap bt pci card, the girl next to her gets 85dbm on her laptop with a mpci card (which is why there's now a repeater in the middle)
#Chri5# said:
What about using PowerLine wireless units to provide wireless at the furthest locations? Devolo do a kit.
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It's a **** load cheaper to use WDS ;).
 
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Thanks for the replies. The Powerline units are a bit too expensive really. Phnom_Penh, almost all the wireless connections will be from laptops, so signal strength is really an issue. I'm leaning towards just getting a router/modem and an extra access point. Any recommendations?
 
retribution said:
Thanks for the replies. The Powerline units are a bit too expensive really. Phnom_Penh, almost all the wireless connections will be from laptops, so signal strength is really an issue. I'm leaning towards just getting a router/modem and an extra access point. Any recommendations?
Click to expand...

I've usually found laptops have better aerials...
 
Thread resurrection :)

Just got off the phone with my landlord who's given me a budget of around £100 to sort out the wireless in the house. So I'm looking for a router/modem that supports WDS, and another access point that also supports WDS. Any suggestions?

Also, how easy is WDS to setup?

Thanks in advance
 
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