Need Advice - Setting Up Wireless Router in Basement

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com hath wroth:

It probably won't work through the floors. If there's anything substantial in the floors, like concrete, 2.4Ghz will not penetrate.

I suggest you look into alternatives. Even if wireless can be heard through 2 floors, it will probably not be stable or very strong. Ideally, just run CAT5 cable between floors and just plug in (or add an ethernet switch on each floor). If added wiring is not an option, you can go over existing power lines, phone lines, or CATV.

Power Line networking:

Phone line networking:

CATV coax sharing:

Methinks Netgear 85MHz power line networking is about the easiest and most "affordable" (whatever that means).

I live in a 60 year old house made with plaster walls ... and my cable modem and router are in the basement.

I bought two access points .... and ran two cat 5 cables from the wired router ... one to the main floor on one side of the house, and the other to the second floor on the other side of the house.

They are set for diff channels ... and now I have full wireless coverage on each floor.

I used the cheapest access points I could find at the time ... D-Link DWL-G700 Access Points.

All works great!!

Thanks a lot. This is very helpful.

Wow. I thought the wireless signals were stronger than that and could go through the walls and floors of a house. Sounds like Wireless Networking for Dummies would be a good book for me.

The basement is unfinished, so there would be nothing more than wood and carpet between the wireless router and the upstairs. I was hoping there was a router that could get a signal through without having to run wiring etc.

Couple follow-up questions, if you don't mind:

1) Are you suggesting that I run network cabling from my cable modem to the upstairs, and position/hook up the wireless router there? (That would make a lot of sense.) 2) Would access points be required equipment even if you put the router upstairs by running cat5 cabling from the basement?

Thanks!

Actually do #1 first ... if it works - great. If #1 does not work - do #2 .... which does mean additional equipment.

As far as #1 goes - if you have a TV outlet upstairs ... try connecting the cable modem there ... and setup the router next to it and see if that works. If the cable signal is strong enough up there, you might be able to get away with a TV cable splitter (one to TV and one to cable modem) and not having to do a separate CAT 5 run from the basement to the upstairs.

It sounds like your most important connections are in the basement and you may want to connect multiple computers there. So you probably want your router in the basement in this case.

Try doing this in steps:

1) Get a Buffalo WHR-G125 and put it in the basement connected to the modem. Connect desktops by ethernet cable to the router there or use wireless if you prefer. Set the antenna at an angle so that the sides of it (not the tip) face the area you want to connect to upstairs. Then test upstairs. If all is well, then you are set.

2) If you don't get good enough reception or coverage in the rest of the house, but can get some marginal reception, then try adding a reflector to the antenna:

- make your own following this easy pattern:

3) If the reflector doesn't get you enough coverage, then use your AC outlets to extend your range with a set of these:

Then you can connect a second AP (same buffalo router) to the XE103 upstairs and set it on a different channel to cover your whole house.

In sum: solution #1 or 2: One router with or without reflecter $45 gets you partial coverage, possibly enough. solution #3 Two routers plus powerline adapters: $200 gets you total coverage.

Cheers, Steve

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Great advice. Thanks much to all. I feel like I know what to do and what kind of cost I'm looking at.