Help setting up second router/wireless access point

I have a cable modem at home, and a switch with a wireless access point (Linksys 54GL with dd-wrt). It sits in my office at the back of the property, wireless covers the house but signal strength is only ok. I want to put a switch into my lounge, so my TV and PS3 have internet access, and I figured I might as well put another WAP in there too. I don't really do gaming, I just want to stream media from the internet and the PC.

I bought a D-Link DIR-615 switch/wireless access point and a 25m ethernet cable. Cable is probably the best way, but it may or may not be possible to get it under the house. I'll probably have to get a builder to do it, just because of how my weird old house is laid out. Until I get the cable under the house it can run inside, but that's a bit of a pain.

There are two ways to configure the network, and i'm not sure which to do, or really the details of how to do either:
1) Run the cable under the house, plug it into the router, and configure the new router to really just be a relay and a wap. I'm not sure if I just plug it in and let it do its thing, or if I have to configure it so it plays nicely with the main router.

2) Set up a wireless network bridge between the two routers, and use it as a switch for the ps3 and tv. This would be very handy, and if I can get 25Mbps that would probably be enough speed. If the router could be both a bridge and a regular wap that I can use down there, awesome. I don't really know how to set the router up for this either.

Which option sounds good to people who know about networking? I'm quite technical, and I understand networking ok, but i'm not an expert.

How would I set up those two options - just plug it in and hope for the best? I poked around in dd-wrt (which can be installed on the D-link router) and it looks like you can set bridging up... somehow.

Little help?

NB: I had a home powerline network and I managed to get 8mbps out of it, but that wasn't quite enough for reliable streaming, so I returned it.

NB2: i'm photographing a wedding Friday NZT so i'll not be on the net much until after that.

Sorry Tim , can't give you all the answers but it won't just be plug and play, you will need to configure the second router for Bridge-repeater mode, you will also need to change the IP address of it to match your existing routers IP range.

You'll need to disable DHCP on the second router too.

Take a look here
http://www.dd-wrt.com …index.php/Repea​ter_Bridge

There is a screen shot that shows the settings that need altering here

I have an Airport Extreme Base Station (802.11n) connected to my DSL modem and an Airport Express as a repeater. It was pretty simple to set up, but not cheap (~US$250).

That link and diagram are awesome, thanks James. I'll make the dd-wrt router the secondary then, a repeater bridge would be perfect. I'll have a play this weekend if I get time.

Tim -

I've used a configuration where an ethernet cable runs out of the back of of one router and plugs into the input of a second router at a good distance from the first. It works just fine, so long as you make sure that the base IP address of the second router is different from the first.

Looking at the diagram, there isn't any reason the Wireless Bridge Link has to be wireless - it can be wired as well.

Thanks Henrey, yeah the wired bridge would be trivial to set up, the only issue with that is getting holes drilled through the floor/walls. I don't have a drill bit that big, so i'll have to get someone else to do it for me. A wireless bridge is just easier for now, but i'll probably go with cable once I get to it just to reduce latency and give a more reliable connection. I'll probably switch to VOIP instead of a home phone so latency could matter.

tim wrote in post #11273649
Thanks Henrey, yeah the wired bridge would be trivial to set up, the only issue with that is getting holes drilled through the floor/walls. I don't have a drill bit that big, so i'll have to get someone else to do it for me. A wireless bridge is just easier for now, but i'll probably go with cable once I get to it just to reduce latency and give a more reliable connection. I'll probably switch to VOIP instead of a home phone so latency could matter.

Well, temporarily, you could just throw the ethernet cable across the roof.

BTW - No need to turn off DHCP on the second router. It works either way.

Well I set it up just like the guide said and it worked first time! I'm getting about 18Mbps between my two routers, one B/G, one B/G/N, through three walls and about 20m away. That's pretty good, considering it reserves 1/2 the bandwidth for receiving and 1/2 the bandwidth for transmitting. It's faster than my powerline network, which got about 8Mbps.

It's fast enough for now, standard def streams fine most of the time, but high def won't work. Fortunately I don't need to stream high def. In the future I can either upgrade to wireless N on both routers, for around 50-60Mbps, or I can just run the cable under the house and get 100Mbps.

Thanks again to James and Henry for their help

tim wrote in post #11280626
Well I set it up just like the guide said and it worked first time! I'm getting about 18Mbps between my two routers, one B/G, one B/G/N, through three walls and about 20m away. That's pretty good, considering it reserves 1/2 the bandwidth for receiving and 1/2 the bandwidth for transmitting. It's faster than my powerline network, which got about 8Mbps.

It's fast enough for now, standard def streams fine most of the time, but high def won't work. Fortunately I don't need to stream high def. In the future I can either upgrade to wireless N on both routers, for around 50-60Mbps, or I can just run the cable under the house and get 100Mbps.

Thanks again to James and Henry for their help

Thats great Tim, I get around 145Mbps with my laptop to router wireless N so maybe upgrading your primary router would do the trick..

*Jayrou wrote in post #11281067
Thats great Tim, I get around 145Mbps with my laptop to router wireless N so maybe upgrading your primary router would do the trick..

Yeah it would help, and so would changing the remote router to be just a bridge for the switch rather than a repeater bridge. That should double performance, so long as the wireless signal from the office is strong enough for everyone in the house to use... should be

Home depot has an entire section of tools for this type of thing. They have the long (2ft or so) drill bits that I have seen the Cable Techs use to drill a hole though the floor and inside the walls of the house. but it has to be an INSIDE Wall to do this. If you have an inside wall where there is a crawl space below the floor or a basement it should be easy to get the cable though the floor. I watched the cable installers do this at my house and at my mother's house. The long drill bit is flexible and can be maneuvered into the wall and down though the floor at the bottom of the wall. This way you can put a cable junction box cover over the hole in the wall and make it look like a professional job. When they were done it looked like an electrical outlet cover on the wall but only with a stub for screwing the cable connection onto it.

The guy that installed my cable modem at first did it on an outside wall and had to drill a hole in my kitchen floor about 3" out from the baseboard. I wanted to strangle him for doing it that way. I have a cable coming up out of my kitchen/dinning room floor now and am stuck with this.

Yeah I just have to get to the hardware store (home depot is USA only AFAIK), or get my builder to do it for me.

Would a powerline network be an option? No drilling required.

ecub wrote in post #11295816
Would a powerline network be an option? No drilling required.

tim wrote in post #11263975
NB: I had a home powerline network and I managed to get 8mbps out of it, but that wasn't quite enough for reliable streaming, so I returned it.

Good idea, but I mentioned in the first post I only get 8Mbps over the power line network I tried. The wireless gets 18Mbps, so more than twice as much, and wireless N would double or triple that again.

I'm finding the repeater isn't hugely reliable. After it's been idle for a while you can connect to it but you can't connect out to the internet.

It turns out the coverage of the router in the office isn't too bad, so I might change the remote router from a repeater/bridge to a simple bridge. If I wanted a better signal I could also get a directional antenna for the router, if I could find a compact one, which could help a lot too.

I know your question has been ANS; but what about the roof?; tried going up there, and not under the house?
(Ive lived in houses all with cement ground, and its near impossible to go under that)