Wireless and 1G wired home/office network kit

Hi all,

I'm looking to set up a home network, including a room to be used partly as
an office, with the requirements below. Can anyone please recommend a
suitable combination of networking hardware?

- Wired 1G connectivity for 8+ devices in the office room.

- Wireless, preferably high speed and dual band, throughout the home.

- All wireless connections must support WPA2.

- Some PCs outside the office room require wireless USB adapters.

- Broadband via a BT phone line, of the usual ADSL "up to 8MB" variety.

- BT line access point is *not* in the office so need a wireless bridge.

- Wired and wireless devices and Internet access all on the same network.

Reliability, compatibility and performance are more important than price,
within reason.

I have no interest in buying anything made by Netgear, who appear to have
completely lost the plot in recent years.

Many thanks in advance for your ideas/recommendations,
Chris

"Chris Newton" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:4d534f64$0$2534$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi all,
>
> I'm looking to set up a home network, including a room to be used partly
> as an office, with the requirements below. Can anyone please recommend a
> suitable combination of networking hardware?
>
> - Wired 1G connectivity for 8+ devices in the office room.
>
> - Wireless, preferably high speed and dual band, throughout the home.
>
> - All wireless connections must support WPA2.
>
> - Some PCs outside the office room require wireless USB adapters.
>
> - Broadband via a BT phone line, of the usual ADSL "up to 8MB" variety.
>
> - BT line access point is *not* in the office so need a wireless bridge.
>
> - Wired and wireless devices and Internet access all on the same network.
>
> Reliability, compatibility and performance are more important than price,
> within reason.
>
> I have no interest in buying anything made by Netgear, who appear to have
> completely lost the plot in recent years.
>
> Many thanks in advance for your ideas/recommendations,
> Chris

A certain amount depends on the construction of the building, but from past
experience I suspect you are going to have to have extensive wiring to
connect all the wireless access points and thus provide consistent blanket
high speed wireless coverage. Furthermore it sounds as though a single
internet connection is going to be quite inadequate for the number of
devices your questions indicate. It is not a job for an amateur at all and
requires someone with professional experience to specify construct and
install. Expect to spend into four figures.

Peter Crosland

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the reply.

> A certain amount depends on the construction of the building, but from past
> experience I suspect you are going to have to have extensive wiring to
> connect all the wireless access points and thus provide consistent blanket
> high speed wireless coverage.

Sorry, I should have described the house: it's only a fairly small detached
place, and one good wireless access point in a well-chosen location should
be entirely adequate for our needs. We manage this at the moment with just
what is built into our existing ADSL router, which is far from optimally
placed for a wireless AP.

However, with the main tech being moved into the office room upstairs, it
would make sense for the heart of the wireless network to be there as well
and to treat the ADSL modem as the oddity we'll need to bridge to. One of
my main sticking points is finding a wireless bridge that supports WPA2; a
lot of kit only seems to do WEP/WPA even today, which is no real security
at all.

The house is rented, so additional hard wiring is out of the question.
Fortunately, the connectivity requirement in the office room is only
because I happen to have a lot of networked devices, not because there are
lots of computers all requiring broadband access for different people or
anything along those lines. I just need one good box with enough ports to
plug them all into, a way to bridge wirelessly from that to the broadband
access, and a way for other wireless devices to join the same network.

Best wishes,
Chris

On Thu, 10 Feb 2011 15:26:13 +0000, Chris Newton wrote:

> Hi Peter,
>
> Thanks for the reply.
>
>> A certain amount depends on the construction of the building, but from past
>> experience I suspect you are going to have to have extensive wiring to
>> connect all the wireless access points and thus provide consistent blanket
>> high speed wireless coverage.
>
> Sorry, I should have described the house: it's only a fairly small detached
> place, and one good wireless access point in a well-chosen location should
> be entirely adequate for our needs. We manage this at the moment with just
> what is built into our existing ADSL router, which is far from optimally
> placed for a wireless AP.
>
> However, with the main tech being moved into the office room upstairs, it
> would make sense for the heart of the wireless network to be there as well
> and to treat the ADSL modem as the oddity we'll need to bridge to. One of
> my main sticking points is finding a wireless bridge that supports WPA2; a
> lot of kit only seems to do WEP/WPA even today, which is no real security
> at all.
>
> The house is rented, so additional hard wiring is out of the question.
> Fortunately, the connectivity requirement in the office room is only
> because I happen to have a lot of networked devices, not because there are
> lots of computers all requiring broadband access for different people or
> anything along those lines. I just need one good box with enough ports to
> plug them all into, a way to bridge wirelessly from that to the broadband
> access, and a way for other wireless devices to join the same network.
>
> Best wishes,
> Chris

How about using a couple of homeplug 200mb devives to get the connection
from the adsl modem to your office ??? rather tahn a wireless bridge

--
(º•.¸(¨*•.¸ ¸.•*¨)¸.•º)
<.•°•. Nik .•°•.>
(¸.•º(¸.•¨* *¨•.¸)º•.¸)

On Thu, 10 Feb 2011 15:26:13 UTC, Chris Newton
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

<snip>

> However, with the main tech being moved into the office room upstairs, it
> would make sense for the heart of the wireless network to be there as well
> and to treat the ADSL modem as the oddity we'll need to bridge to. One of
> my main sticking points is finding a wireless bridge that supports WPA2; a
> lot of kit only seems to do WEP/WPA even today, which is no real security
> at all.

Bear in mind that a lot of boxes that can't do this or that *can* do
it when loaded with Open WRT or similar.

<snip>
--
Regards
Dave Saville

Hi,

Ghostrecon wrote:
> How about using a couple of homeplug 200mb devives to get the connection
> from the adsl modem to your office ??? rather tahn a wireless bridge

Thanks, that's a good idea that we hadn't thought of. If we do that, we can
just use a decent switch and wireless AP in the home office, have the power
line connection to the broadband, and then a broadband modem with a single
ethernet port would do.

Does anyone actually make decent standalone ADSL2 modems any more?
Everything these days seems to be trying to be everything to everyone:
multiple wired ports, USB connectors for external storage, wireless access,
the works. Unfortunately, they are all priced to match, and all I want is
the input from the ADSL splitter, an RJ45, and the essential firewall stuff
in the software... If anyone has any suggestions, they would be welcome.

Cheers,
Chris

"Chris Newton" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:4d544201$0$2516$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi,
>
> Ghostrecon wrote:
>> How about using a couple of homeplug 200mb devives to get the connection
>> from the adsl modem to your office ??? rather tahn a wireless bridge
>
> Thanks, that's a good idea that we hadn't thought of. If we do that, we
> can just use a decent switch and wireless AP in the home office, have the
> power line connection to the broadband, and then a broadband modem with a
> single ethernet port would do.
>
> Does anyone actually make decent standalone ADSL2 modems any more?
> Everything these days seems to be trying to be everything to everyone:
> multiple wired ports, USB connectors for external storage, wireless
> access, the works. Unfortunately, they are all priced to match, and all I
> want is the input from the ADSL splitter, an RJ45, and the essential
> firewall stuff in the software... If anyone has any suggestions, they
> would be welcome.

The best performing ADSL modem is in my experience the 2Wire 2700HGV badged
as BT Business hub. You can buy one of these on eBay for under a tenner. I
just use a single port on it and disable the wireless tough the firewall is
quite adequate. I have all my wired and wireless network hung onto it. I use
Dlink DIR-825s but the Dlink range has other kit that should suit your
needs. I have found it reliable and well specified. Don't neglect the
wireless cards in laptops or desktops as they are a very variable item. I
mainly use Gigabyte ones that I get from Oxford Tec at
http://www.oxfordtec.com/uk/ but they have some other good makes. I have
also found Sparklan from the same source to be good. Living in a house with
solid brick internal walls means that I need three access points to give
consistent coverage and it all coexists well.

Peter Crosland