Wireless Relay?

Use another wifi router in your house to rebroadcast the signal. That is, connect wirelessly as a client to the office. Wire a connection to another wifi router. Connect wirelessly to that.

You can configure something like WRT54G using DD-WRT firmware to allow it to act as a client.

Yep. Get a WRT54GL and put DD-WRT on it. From there, you could use it as a repeater bridge and cable up to five computers off of it's ethernet ports as well as repeating the wifi from that point.

Or better yet, as Bill suggests, wire an AP (yet another device) and cable from the (now setup as a) client bridge to the AP which is located in a more optimum position for the pcs in your house.

Method #1 (repeater bridge ) is cheaper, but with more limitations. Method #2 (client bridge >ethernet cable> AP) requires more devices, more likely to function and cover well.

Steve

Yep. Get a WRT54GL and put DD-WRT on it. From there, you could use it as a repeater bridge and cable up to five computers off of it's ethernet ports as well as repeating the wifi from that point.

Or better yet, as Bill suggests, wire an AP (yet another device) and cable from the (now setup as a) client bridge to the AP which is located in a more optimum position for the pcs in your house.

Method #1 (repeater bridge ) is cheaper, but with more limitations. Method #2 (client bridge >ethernet cable> AP) requires more devices, more likely to function and cover well.

Steve

Method 2 2nd'ed

I have setup several installations just like this.

For 80 quid, you could get a LinkSys WRT54GL £45 in the UK from Amazon. Then any el cheapo AP for the 2nd part. Cable is very cheap to connect the pair together.

For Method 1, A single WRT54GL will do it, but will be slow

Personal email received on this topic:

Quote (from OP? - not sure):

I think method one sounds best as I dont think there will be a problem with signal in the house. I dont want ANY cables in the house, just the one from the external antennae to the reeater device

I have had a look at the WRT54GL. It has two antennae. Can I connect one to a cable to the outdoor antennae and rely on the other one for the indoor signal?

Answer from me:

No, it does not work in the way you are imagining. The diversity antennae both need to work with the same signal at any given time - if you seperate them in some way, then they will get confused an things will go weird. If you want to connect an antenna cable to the router, you can simply use one of the connectors and remove the other. Then, in the router software, disable the disconnected antenna. Or let it choose automatically, it should be fine.

On the other hand, referring to the idea of using the WRT54GL as a repeater is still equally workable. It's just that it has nothing to do with the number of antennas. Other routers with one antenna will do the same.

The most important part for a single device repeater is that the antenna (or antennas) have to have be able to "see" both sides of what they are repeating to. You must find a location that sees the main router and also covers your local area to be repeated to. I'm struggling to make that work right now for a client. It's easy to get a view to his house, but then the view to the main router is blocked, and vice-versa.

With the two device system (as suggested by Bill and TheDragon), you can optimize the type and location of the antenna for the client bridge for seeing the main router and then you run an ethernet cable to the indoor AP and put that where it works best for the pcs in that area. Each can do their own job better.

The cable can be just long enough to come inside the house or can be up to 100 meters long. It does not have to run to every computer, just to one central Access Point.

Or, if you are willing to spend more, get a pair of powerline adapters (search this group) to run the signal from the client bridge to the AP via your power sockets instead of using an ethernet cable.

Another comment: I don't know what the length or type of outdoor antenna you are planning to use, but one should be careful about signal loss in antenna cables. It's an often overlooked problem. Best to locate the router where the antenna needs to be, or else make sure you are using a low loss cable for your given length.

Final comment. Single radio repeaters cut throughput in half and things get messier as you add clients. That's the short story, Jeff L or others can fill you in. It's not a fatal problem, but I'd only use a repeater like that for one or two clients, not more.

To sum things up: If you want, go ahead and use the WRT54GL on DDWRT as a single radio repeater IF you can see both sides of the network from where you locate it. Do not try to use two antennas to somehow compensate for needing them in different places.

If this won't provide the coverage you need, then get a second router/ AP (cheapo will do) and run an ethernet cable from one to the other instead of an antenna cable.

Hope this somehow makes things clearer.

Steve

One more comment: I'm not positive that the DDWRT enhanced router will allow you to use WPA security (highly recommended) when repeating (repeater bridge mode) from a non-DDWRT router. You might want to go to the DDWRT site and research that.

As a client bridge, it should work fine.

Steve

Not tried WPA in repeater mode, but it defiantly works in Client bridge & client router modes.

I've got WPA working in repeater bridge mode with V24, but it's repeating from a ddwrt router/AP. There is a tutorial somewhere for "universal repeater" settings on ddwrt, which is where I'd look first to sort it out.

Steve