Ganging two wireless access points together

[DaveC426913]

I have an *extra* Linksys Wireless Access Point Router kicking around (in additon to the one I use for my home network). Both are model BEFW11S4 2.4GHz.

Is there a way to use the extra to boost the strength of the signal in my house? There are spots where my connection drops out, and other spots where my signal strength is low.

 

[turbo]

I have wondered the same thing. I have a Linksys wireless router that is not being used because when I signed up for DSL, the phone company gave me a DSL modem with four Ethernet ports and wireless capability, too. I'm thinking that if I wanted to use wireless capability in my (someday) backyard observatory, I could run cable to the rear of the house, mount the the Linksys under the eaves and have only about a 75' hop line-of-sight to the observatory. I think that the only trick would be to be to sort out which of the two "available" wireless routers you wanted to talk to on the laptop and configure that as the default connection. It's not as transparent as I would like, with Windows XP, but I think its do-able.

 

[DaveC426913]

1] I found out that you can connect 2 wireless routers by network cable but not wirelessly.

2] I went out and bought a set of high-gain antennae that designed to solve this problem. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[Pengwuino]

You can either get a newer router or you can buy a Repeater such as http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Product_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1130267578138&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper

I swear they made a 802.11b version though... you should get a better router :)

 

[DaveC426913]

I swear they made a 802.11b version though... you should get a better router :)

That's what I have.

 

[Pengwuino]

I meant that repeater states its a 802.11g repeater... not sure its backwards compatible however and you should get a better router :P

 

[DaveC426913]

I meant that repeater states its a 802.11g repeater... not sure its backwards compatible however and you should get a better router :P

I can't see any reason to. My DSL is only 1.5Mbps at best. My 802.11b runs at 11Mbps. What is the point in upgrading? Am I missing something?

 

[Pengwuino]

802.11g has, most importantly, a larger range and allows for faster transfer inbetween computers on the same network (which doesn't matter if you're the only computer on the router of course). Of course, that's theoretical, someone on this forum has to have had some real world experience with 802.11g vs. 802.11b. I've never seen a tech site say 802.11g doesn't live up to expectations, however, so i assume the tests for the range of 802.11g came out well. They're fairly cheap as well... and probably will be cheaper when 802.11n comes out. I also know that they're backwards compatible with 802.11b