I have two home offices, and it would be nice to have a wireless router in each office that has 4 ports that I can plug wired ethernet connections into (or wired routers). One of the two offices has the broadband connection (DSL).
I've been looking at the products sold by Best Buy and other stores, and it is unclear what is the best way to do this.
For the remote office not connected directly to the broadband DSL line, would it make any sense to use a real wired router and then connect that wired router to a "wireless access point"? "wireless bridge"? or ???
how far apart and other details ? quick suggestion - can you run Ethernet cable between them ? or - could you run some Power Networking using the AC outlets to connect the 2 offices and their respective Access Points ?
I can see you're not familiar with the marketing buzzwords. What you want is a "wireless client bridge" or "workgroup client bridge". It's essentially a wireless ethernet extension cable. They usually have only a single ethernet jack, but you can plug an ethernet switch or hub into this port to expand the number of plug in connections.
Here's a partial list of probable candidates:
The most important specification is that it has the ability to bridge multiple MAC addresses. This is often not specified by the manufacturer and difficult to determine. The one's listed as "multi" have allegedly been determined to do this. Watch out for "game adapters" which will work, but often will bridge exactly one MAC address. Also, some boxes, specifically the DWL-2100AP handles multiple MAC addresses on some firmware versions, but not on others. Yeah, it sucks, but it's the best I can do with available data.
You can also use the various open source router firmware such as DD-WRT in the client mode to do the bridging.
Also, search for Cisco or 3Com "workgroup bridge", which are wireless client bridges limited to 8 or 16 machines plugged into the device.
I forgot to mumble something about WDS (wireless distribution something).
It allows the use of a wireless "device" simultaneously as a wireless access point and client bridge. Many wireless routers have a WDS feature built in. However, since compatibility of this feature is not certified by the Wi-Fi Conglomeration, operationg between dissimilar manufacturers and even among different product lines from the same manufacturer, is not guaranteed.
The function is the same as a "wireless client bridge" with the added ability to act as an access point for wireless clients. That means you'll be able to use a wireless laptop around this device, without plugging in, or trying to connect to the main wireless router 50ft away. However, your maximum wireless speed is cut in half doing it this way, and connections tend to be somewhat erratic.
Since you didn't bother to supply any makers and model numbers for your existing hardware, I can't offer any specific hardware suggestions.
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