Large House WiFi Setup

I am about to move into a new (larger) home and would greatly
appreciate some assistance with my home WiFi setup. My current
(bachelor) apartment needs are fulfilled with a D-link DSL G604T but
the new (marital) home has six bedrooms spread over three floors and a
'den' at the end of the garden circa 80ft from the main house; in
that space I need connectivity for 5 desktop computers and 2 laptops
(all connected via WiFi) I am hoping that I just need to add a
gateway on one of the upper floors but readers of this group may have a
better solution; technology advances and there may well be something
more powerful than the G640T on the market these days. Regards David

"BT" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) oups.com...
> I am about to move into a new (larger) home and would greatly
> appreciate some assistance with my home WiFi setup. My current
> (bachelor) apartment needs are fulfilled with a D-link DSL G604T but
> the new (marital) home has six bedrooms spread over three floors and a
> 'den' at the end of the garden circa 80ft from the main house; in
> that space I need connectivity for 5 desktop computers and 2 laptops
> (all connected via WiFi) I am hoping that I just need to add a
> gateway on one of the upper floors but readers of this group may have a
> better solution; technology advances and there may well be something
> more powerful than the G640T on the market these days. Regards David

Wireless coverage depends on factors not necessarily obvious to the naked
eye; there is no substitute for a survey. That said, I think you'll be lucky
if your router alone is up to the task. There is a chance if it is located
somewhere on the middle floor.

The main problem is that Access Points (APs) seem to only work wirelessly
with other identical APs, presumably because there is no standardisation and
so proprietary protocols are used. In particular, that means an AP will not
be able to communicate wirelessly with your router.

Basically, wires between the router and additional AP(s) you may need would
make life much simpler. Is that an option?

Alex

On 13 Sep 2005 [sometime], "BT" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>in that space I need connectivity for 5 desktop computers and 2
>laptops (all connected via WiFi)

all connected *to what* ? I'd think that they could be cabled together
cheaply and easily, and would pass data faster if they are used for file
transfers one to another... if you're linking them all to the internet on
a router inside the house, they might all work, but you're perhaps asking
a bit much for them all to be working at once, and all to have good sigs.

Is a (phone or ethernet) cable to the end of the garden, impossible ? I
would expect it to be a more reliable option for voice calls too, than a
VoIP connection via this (possibly unreliable) wireless link. BICBW and
it may all work properly... having used cabled LANs for 20+ years might
be some distrust of this overcoming rational thought :-) Peter M.

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Alex

Wires are possible but they would have to be surface mounted and I have
the feeling that my partner would object strongly! If I read you
correctly; I should be OK if I purchase a D-Link AP - is that so ? I
see that D-Link have a device called a '108 Mbps SuperG MIMO Wireless
Router' but cannot see if it is compatible with my G640T

Peter

My wife is going to throw a wobbly if I run cable through the house -
it is a very old house, solid walls, so everything would have to be
surface mounted. I was hoping to connect all the computers plus a
couple of network printers via WiFi

On 13 Sep 2005 [sometime], "BT" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>My wife is going to throw a wobbly if I run cable through the house

sorry, I must be mistaken - I assumed the shed was the space into which
there would be these umpteen computers... My mistake.

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| runbox.com - 1000 MB of mail storage and 100 MB for files...
| 30 day free trial... <http://web.vfm-deals.com/runbox/>
| Can accept mail for your domain and apply filtering...
| Point your MX record to mx.runbox.com and use POP/IMAP...

"BT" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) oups.com...
> Alex
>
> Wires are possible but they would have to be surface mounted and I have
> the feeling that my partner would object strongly! If I read you
> correctly; I should be OK if I purchase a D-Link AP - is that so ? I
> see that D-Link have a device called a '108 Mbps SuperG MIMO Wireless
> Router' but cannot see if it is compatible with my G640T

I doubt it; no AP that I know of claims to be able to communicate wirelessly
with any (wireless) router - only an identical AP. But you could disable the
AP functionality on your router, wire it to a nearby AP, and have another
(identical) AP located elsewhere operating as a repeater.

Alex

On 13 Sep 2005 06:02:24 -0700, "BT" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>
>Wires are possible but they would have to be surface mounted

powerline networking is another option, thread hereabouts.

Phil
--
Remember - Global Warming is only a weather forecast :-)

BT wrote:
> I am about to move into a new (larger) home and would greatly
> appreciate some assistance with my home WiFi setup. My current
> (bachelor) apartment needs are fulfilled with a D-link DSL G604T but
> the new (marital) home has six bedrooms spread over three floors and a
> 'den' at the end of the garden circa 80ft from the main house; in
> that space I need connectivity for 5 desktop computers and 2 laptops
> (all connected via WiFi) I am hoping that I just need to add a
> gateway on one of the upper floors but readers of this group may have a
> better solution; technology advances and there may well be something
> more powerful than the G640T on the market these days. Regards David
>

I haven't read all the other replies, but consider 85mbps Powerline
networking adpaters around the house/den.

You could use those for a transit link, say between main house and
out-house, or for placing Wifi access points at different locations in
the whole setup for better coverage. I guess WDS might even properly
work as all access points would be connected to the same wired bit.