Wireless Woes!

simonmc7

simonmc7

simonmc7

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Joined
1 Nov 2004
Posts
178
Location
Southampton
Hi guys, I thought I knew the basics of wireless networking, but I have been doing some reading and have totally confused myself!

I thought I would explain my situation and hope your collective brilliance could suggest a solution! Sorry in advance for the length of the post!

I have recently moved into my student house in Bristol, which was previously used as a hotel and isn't your standard student house. All rooms bar two have an on-suite bathroom for example! The house has four floors, and I would guess it was of Victorian construction.

Before our group tenancy, the house had been rented to individuals, and there are fibre optic and ethernet cables in every room. Most of the previous tenants had their own individual BB connections through this. The ethernet cabling is strange though, and I originally thought this could be used for a wired network around the house. However I have absolutely no idea where these cables lead, and nor does our agent (I also asked the Telewest engineer to no avail).

So I had the cable modem installed in my room from the fibre optic cable in my wall (I was the only person in the house at the time). Since then my mates have gradually been moving in, and as we are sharing the cost of the internet they have been demanding access. I upgraded my PC recently, and have temporarily been using my new motherboard to share the internet. It is a P5W DH Deluxe and we have been sharing the internet successfully using this in wireless AP mode. However it is not the most practical of solutions and means I have to leave my computer on 24/7. The biggest problem with this is the fact the signal is barely good enough on the 3rd floor, and cannot be used on the forth.

As a result of this I have been searching for a more permanent solution, and my first thought was to have a stand-alone wireless router in my room, with a booster (if such a thing exists!) on the third floor which receives the weak signal and then sends out a boosted version. What do you think would be the best configuration for the house? Would investing in the more expensive RANGEMAX or n-type wireless devices be advisable, even though replacing individuals wireless cards to RANGEMAX cards is not an option (too pricey)?

Our agent said he would foot the bill if we provided a permanent solution which could be left in the house after our departure.

Any comments, suggestions or questions are more then welcome!

Thanks

Simon.
 
Thats a tricky one, netgear offer a range of pre-n routers which do increase the signal range, although last time i checked "n" standards havent been finalised. I have used an Asus board with an onboard Wi-Fi on AP mode, the aerial was quite piddly mind you (yes i said piddly, it may be a word)

If it were me I would buy a high end router with a repeater for the 3rd floor, or see if you can move your router onto a centeral floor might help.

Its a tricky hard to say what will work without seeing the site, I would try googling the spec for the N standard and see what the range is, I guess if your agent is forking the bill its probably worth it. However i would say a normal AP with repeater would be your best bet
 
I would find out where all the ethernet cables go and have a look at geting a switch in and share the network that way as by the sounds of it the wireless will need a repeater on each floor to make it accessabel to everyone..
 
i'd say forget the wireless option as Bigboy said fine where the ethernet cables lead and then get a switch. job done and internet permanent!

Otherwise you could actually get a switch and plug the ethernet cable that you use into the switch and get other ethernet cable to connect the other computers through that switch. That would work i think. But ideally find the source:) If you do it through your ethernet cable get everyone else to connect to your switch otherwise you would get unfair bandwidth amongst you all. the switch distributes the bandwidth evenly hence why i say do it all through that.
 
As above.

If all the ethernet cables lead to one place likelyhood is that it will be a basement/unoccupied room/place out of the way. In which case it might be worth investing in a higher end networking switche(s) (with more ports, obviously :p).

You may also need a minirig to act as a DHCP and NAT Router as windows XP pro only supports 10 computer connections for resouce sharing and XP home only supports 5. <edit> Unless you buy a hardware router </edit>

HTH
 
Freakish_05 said:
As above.

If all the ethernet cables lead to one place likelyhood is that it will be a basement/unoccupied room/place out of the way. In which case it might be worth investing in a higher end networking switche(s) (with more ports, obviously :p).

You may also need a minirig to act as a DHCP and NAT Router as windows XP pro only supports 10 computer connections for resouce sharing and XP home only supports 5. <edit> Unless you buy a hardware router </edit>

HTH
Click to expand...

In fact i would probably set up a linux box to do the dhcp and routing as well as QOS especialy with more than 10 users on the one cabel/Dsl line.
 
Theres the slight issue that no-one knows where the ethernet cables lead. I have searched the house high and low. Apparently they were used individually a long time ago- but it still appears to me that they must meet together somewhere...
 
On another note, is it at all possible to use an ADSL router without ADSL?

I dont think there is, just thought I would check.
 
Is it not possible just to have a wireless router in my room downstairs, and then boost the signal on the third floor with another wireless deivce of some sort?

What sort of hardware would I need to do this?

Simon
 
have you tryed connecting two devices to the ethernet cables and seeing if the connect to each other? do any lights come on on the nic in your comp when you plug the cable in?
 
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