What is (in principle) the cheapest way to add a single wireless point to a wired network?

I need to add a single wireless access point to a small wired network
in order to reach a caravan located 10 meters away from a window
(under which is conveniently located an ethernet socket and a power
point).

I cannot cross a wire to the caravan and, since this is going to be a
temporary situation, I also want to spend as little as possible.

Any idea on what equipment I should be looking at?

The PC in the caravan will be a Centrino laptop

TIA

Lorenz

[L.]

[L.] wrote in
(E-Mail Removed):

> I need to add a single wireless access point to a small wired network
> in order to reach a caravan located 10 meters away from a window
> (under which is conveniently located an ethernet socket and a power
> point).
>
> I cannot cross a wire to the caravan and, since this is going to be a
> temporary situation, I also want to spend as little as possible.
>
> Any idea on what equipment I should be looking at?
>
> The PC in the caravan will be a Centrino laptop

A quick check on www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk suggests that the cheapest AP on
the market at present is the Dlink DWL-900 which is a 22 Mbps one. This
means that it will be usable at up to 11 Mbps with a non-Dlink wireless
adaptor in the laptop. This may be sufficient if the laptop will be used
mainly for internet (web+email) access and therefore high speed between
laptop and other computers on the network is not required.

10 metres line of site should be within the capabilities of any AP and
wireless adaptor. Some double-glazed windows have a heat-reflecting metal
coating which can attentuate the signal quite a bit: certainly too far to
cover about 100 metres with trees in the way; when my neighbour was
investigating providing wireless broadband to the estate before BT
broadbanded the exchange, he found that an external aerial on the windowsill
outside gave a usable signal but the same aerial on the inside of the window
could not see a signal.

Martin Underwood wrote in
43c266da$0$63053$(E-Mail Removed):

> [L.] wrote in
> (E-Mail Removed):
>
>> I need to add a single wireless access point to a small wired network
>> in order to reach a caravan located 10 meters away from a window
>> (under which is conveniently located an ethernet socket and a power
>> point).
>>
>> I cannot cross a wire to the caravan and, since this is going to be a
>> temporary situation, I also want to spend as little as possible.
>>
>> Any idea on what equipment I should be looking at?
>>
>> The PC in the caravan will be a Centrino laptop
>
> A quick check on www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk suggests that the cheapest
> AP on the market at present is the Dlink DWL-900 which is a 22 Mbps
> one. This means that it will be usable at up to 11 Mbps with a
> non-Dlink wireless adaptor in the laptop. This may be sufficient if
> the laptop will be used mainly for internet (web+email) access and
> therefore high speed between laptop and other computers on the
> network is not required.
> 10 metres line of site should be within the capabilities of any AP and
> wireless adaptor. Some double-glazed windows have a heat-reflecting
> metal coating which can attentuate the signal quite a bit: certainly
> too far to cover about 100 metres with trees in the way; when my
> neighbour was investigating providing wireless broadband to the
> estate before BT broadbanded the exchange, he found that an external
> aerial on the windowsill outside gave a usable signal but the same
> aerial on the inside of the window could not see a signal.

I've just noticed that the DWL-900 has a built-in DHCP server. I think quite
a lot of other free-standing APs also have this. You probably want to
disable this DHCP server and let the router's DHCP server allocate addresses
on the wireless as well as the wired LAN.

On Mon, 9 Jan 2006 13:49:12 -0000, "Martin Underwood" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>Martin Underwood wrote in
>43c266da$0$63053$(E-Mail Removed):
>
>> [L.] wrote in
>> (E-Mail Removed):
>>
>>> I need to add a single wireless access point to a small wired network
>>> in order to reach a caravan located 10 meters away from a window
>>> (under which is conveniently located an ethernet socket and a power
>>> point).
>>
>> A quick check on www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk suggests that the cheapest
>> AP on the market at present is the Dlink DWL-900 which is a 22 Mbps
>> one. This means that it will be usable at up to 11 Mbps with a
>> non-Dlink wireless adaptor in the laptop. This may be sufficient if
>> the laptop will be used mainly for internet (web+email) access and
>> therefore high speed between laptop and other computers on the
>> network is not required.

Thanks. Sounds interesting.

Any idea on the issues about adding a second router to the network?
The prices are pretty much the same, but I need a minimum of hassle,
and the lowest possible impact (in terms of changes) to the existing
network.

TIA

Lorenz

[L.]

[L.] wrote in
(E-Mail Removed):

> Any idea on the issues about adding a second router to the network?
> The prices are pretty much the same, but I need a minimum of hassle,
> and the lowest possible impact (in terms of changes) to the existing
> network.

When you say "a second router", are you intending the router mainly for the
wireless access point that's built into it, in place of a standalone access
point?

Are you planning to replace a non-wireless router with a wireless router?

If you explain in a bit more detail what you're planning, I'll see if I can
help you further.

On Mon, 09 Jan 2006 12:55:47 +0000, "[L.]" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Any idea on what equipment I should be looking at?

a £20 wireless access point off ebay.

Phil
--

Usenet spam eaten by a Hamster http://www.tglsoft.de/
No more cable clowns :-))
Please do not feed or re-quote the trolls.

On Wed, 11 Jan 2006 10:47:07 -0000, "Martin Underwood" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>[L.] wrote in
>(E-Mail Removed):
>
>> Any idea on the issues about adding a second router to the network?
>> The prices are pretty much the same, but I need a minimum of hassle,
>> and the lowest possible impact (in terms of changes) to the existing
>> network.
>
>When you say "a second router", are you intending the router mainly for the
>wireless access point that's built into it, in place of a standalone access
>point?
>
>Are you planning to replace a non-wireless router with a wireless router?
>
>If you explain in a bit more detail what you're planning, I'll see if I can
>help you further.
>

Yes, you are right.

I have a wired network at home which is working OK. Three PCs
connected to a Vigor 2600Plus (wires only) through a
"pseudo-structured" wiring.

Strong of the maxim "If it ain't broke..." I do not want to do
anything to it.

There is a very occasional need, however, to provide network access to
a caravan, parked in line of sight opposite a window which is just
above an ethernet plug and a power socket.

This will be for a few hours, half a day perhaps, maybe once a month
or thereabouts.

Since the need for wireless access is so limited, I am a bit reluctant
to spend a lot of money and time on it.

Looking at the prices, I noticed that APs cost only marginally less
than full fledged wireless routers, and the idea occurred to me that I
could add a second router to the existing network, but I don't want to
spend a lot of time on changing settings to the existing network when
I plug the wireless router in or unplug it.

So, this is the story. Don't spend too much time thinking about it,
however, as the need is not terribly urgent.

Thanks

Lorenz

[L.]

[L.] wrote in
(E-Mail Removed):

> On Wed, 11 Jan 2006 10:47:07 -0000, "Martin Underwood" <(E-Mail Removed)>
> wrote:
>
>> [L.] wrote in
>> (E-Mail Removed):
>>
>>> Any idea on the issues about adding a second router to the network?
>>> The prices are pretty much the same, but I need a minimum of hassle,
>>> and the lowest possible impact (in terms of changes) to the existing
>>> network.
>>
>> If you explain in a bit more detail what you're planning, I'll see
>> if I can help you further.
>>
>
> Yes, you are right.
>
> I have a wired network at home which is working OK. Three PCs
> connected to a Vigor 2600Plus (wires only) through a
> "pseudo-structured" wiring.
>
> Strong of the maxim "If it ain't broke..." I do not want to do
> anything to it.
>
> There is a very occasional need, however, to provide network access to
> a caravan, parked in line of sight opposite a window which is just
> above an ethernet plug and a power socket.
>
> This will be for a few hours, half a day perhaps, maybe once a month
> or thereabouts.
>
> Since the need for wireless access is so limited, I am a bit reluctant
> to spend a lot of money and time on it.
>
> Looking at the prices, I noticed that APs cost only marginally less
> than full fledged wireless routers, and the idea occurred to me that I
> could add a second router to the existing network, but I don't want to
> spend a lot of time on changing settings to the existing network when
> I plug the wireless router in or unplug it.


OK. I'm still not sure what extra functionality you think a wireless router
will give you over a single access point in your situation.

I'd say that adding an access point (AP) to your existing network would be
the cheaper (even if not very much) and easier to configure solution than
adding a second router.

If you were planning to *replace* your existing router with a wireless one,
that's a different matter - but it's probably overkill for what you want to
do, and it would mean that the router was restricted to being in the place
where all the existing cables terminate, which may not be within radio range
of the PC in the caravan that you want to access wirelessly.

One of the problems with adding a second router is that you don't really
want it to behave as a router or an ADSL modem. You can only have one ADSL
modem on a given phone line. You don't want the NAT (network address
translation) between the single public IP address that your ISP allocates
you and the multiple private IP addresses (eg 192.168.0.x) that are
allocated to your PCs, because the first router is already doing this
translation. Also, you would need a router that had an Ethernet input rather
than an ADSL input; this is not the case with "normal" wireless routers such
as the Netgear DG834G/GT. The Ethernet ports on a normal router are outputs
only: you can't feed a signal *in* to one of them from one of the outputs of
your existing router and expect it to replicate that data on the rest of the
outputs and on the wirless. Instead you'd want a more specialised (ie lower
sales volume / higher price) router with Ethernet input - and then you'd
want to turn its routing function off, leaving you with effectively just an
Ethernet switch and a wireless adaptor.


I hope I haven't missed the point of what you're trying to do. Is my diagram
http://www.martinunderwood.f9.co.uk/...r%20Router.png a
summary of what you're trying to do? I've shown the AP in solid blue, with a
dotted connection in red to a second router used in place of the AP.


If you do decide to use an access point, I think all you'd need to do is:

- connect to its web interface - the instruction manual should tell you the
IP address to point your browser to and the username/password to supply
- turn off the AP's DHCP server (if present): probably just unticking the
relevant box
- define the SSID (wireless network name), the encryption type (I suggest
using WPA-PSK) and the WPA encryption key (I suggest using a short phrase
such as a line from a poem)
- it might be a good idea also to change the AP's web interface password to
something other than the default value


Having done this, go to the laptop and scan for available networks. You
should be able to see the network that you've just defined (ie the value of
SSID); it should show as "encrypted". If you press "Connect" you should be
prompted to enter the WPA encryption key (twice) - enter it exactly as you
defined it on the AP. Hopefully everything will then spring into life. This
paragraph assumes that you are using XP on the wireless PC and than you are
using Windows to control the wireless adaptor; if you are on an older
version of Windows and/or if you are using the wireless adaptor
manufacturer's software, you'll need to read their documentation.