Powerline product question need wireless expansion

Hi, I have a Linksys Router (WRT54GS0) upstairs and signal is not strong enough downstairs in my house even with 14db antennas. I do not want to burn any new third party firmware in the router and adjust power output.

Note I did have a Linksys WRE54G wireless extender downstairs to amplify the signal but it was problematic and did not have a strong enough or consistent signal. It has since been tossed.

I would like to have wireless access downstairs for laptop use (will buy this year), and streaming audio to a stereo (via a Squeezebox unit I possess).

I would like to run a connection from my router upstairs to some sort of Powerline adapter upstairs.

--->>Then downstairs I would like to pick up the signal through the electrical system via another Powerline adapter BUT I want the signal to be wireless...

What is the best bet or choices/combinations of products to accomplish this?

I guess I could use Ethernet Powerline adapters on both end and perhaps plug in another AP but perhaps there is a better way to do this.

Thanks in advance for all suggestions... Patty

Reply to
pattyjamas
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Greater "dB" is not always the answer. The radio signals radiate in a pattern. With omnidirectional antenna this pattern is more or less 'donut shaped'. The higher dB antenna make that donut shape pretty flat vertically. Using one inside a house rarely buys you any improvements.

What often works is to turn the antenna so it's pattern better covers the desired area. This might mean turning the antenna horizontally to turn the donut on it's side. It also sometimes helps to add a reflector as they also help to adjust the coverage area.

Why? They work.

Just run a segment of CAT5 wire. By the time you buy powerline adapters it'll no doubt be cheaper to have just run the wire.

Reply to
Bill Kearney

Thanks. Tried turning antenna and such, no help. Have a wireless detector as well as other things and just need to get signal downstairs with some decent strength. This is a fairly new home and I am not about to run Cat5 or have someone do it. Would have to run it outside and back in and such... And if I did that, I still need perhaps an AP on other end.

Looking for Powerline alternative to make it wireless or Powerline with AP recommendations...

Thanks though Patty

Reply to
pattyjamas

You might try experiment with rotating one of the antennas horizontal and seeing if the pattern changes ? Like the other person said, a vertical antenna radiates like a donut sitting over the stick.

What are you using with the WiFi now ? Can you walk around and see the "signal strength" ?

I was thinking of using the powerline stuff for the same reason... The WiFi access point is upstairs in one extra bedroom/den, and the family room is at the diaganol opposite end of the house behind the garage. The signal is ok - but not great -

BTW - in our family room we added a wireless "bridge" and small Ethernet hub to connect - TiVo + Xbox - But, if you go powerline, you could have a small hub for any local stuff, and then also add another WAP for downstairs WiFi.

It might be a challenge to get both the upstairs + downstairs AP's working together ?

Reply to
P.Schuman

Thanks a lot.

I think I will probably get 2 XE104's and then if I need to I will add a wireless AP to the downstairs XE104 which I read can be done and will work. 100% of the time, I am not sure.

I am going to use it for TiVo connectivity, streaming audio and wireless.

The WRE54G range extender from Linksys did work but craped out about

2x a month and signal was not strong as repeaters usually 1/2 the signal.

So I will give the XE104 a shot as opposed to using a Powerline with wireless adapter. Read on Newegg and Amazon that these units have failed quite a bit and they get hot.

There is a Powerline adapter (low bandwidth) in my boyfriends house which has worked form day 1 without an issue. But of course his house is a ranch all on one floor. But I do know that the circuit breakers are different for the 2 outlets.

Thanks again Patty

Reply to
pattyjamas

we have used the Netgear Ethernet series before - but not the wireless....

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Reply to
P.Schuman

If it's a new home then it's even EASIER to run new wire. It's older homes that have lots of trouble.

You do yourself a great disservice discounting this idea. Wire is cheap, installing it is cheap, and it's far more reliable over time. Sure, your upfront cost is higher but your headaches are virtually non-existant over time.

Sure, and that way you get to set up wireless coverage at both locations in a way that's best for each. No trouble with trying to stretch one coverage area across the spaces and making for lousy signal at both. AP are cheap these days.

I've never found powerline devices to be reliable enough to put up with their added expense and hassle. No thanks.

Reply to
Bill Kearney

Depends on if you want it simple or complicated.... There are various types/manufacturers of powerline stuf, some expensive and some cheaper, but the netgear stuff I use works as an ethernet bridge over a powerline (powerline ethernet adapter

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about $140 for two/a pair).. I have one hooked into my wap/router/cable modem, and the other plugs into the router side ((not the wan)) of a Linksys wrt54g (under $50 at walmart) and one of the netgear powerline bridge things... gives me both wired and wireless wherever I plug the stuff in (usually downstairs, but when nice out, in the backyard by the gazebo/hammock... gotta relax when surfing! :)

They (netgear) do make a combo ethernet bridge/access point

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however they are hard to find, so you may want to consider a plan B and go for stuff that is reasonable cost but available easily.....

Reply to
Peter Pan

Breakers have absolutely NOTHING to do with it (in actuality things have to be on the same circuit/leg off the TRANSFORMER, *NOT* breakers in a breaker box)

Not sure how same leg off the transformer got changed to same circuit breaker, but it a lie... once again, does *NOT* have to be on the same breaker...... Suspect it has something to do with how something is wired... Power in is usually 3 wires (two hots and a neutral, hot to neutral gives you 120, and hot to hot 240.... suspect some people/electricians attempt to "load balance" and wire some circuits to one hot and some to the other, in effect that is a seperate "leg")

Just an aside on which unit/speed you need.. The actual internet connection speed will determine how fast you can access the internet from anywhere (ie if the cable/dsl modem is only 8Kb max, then the low speed(cheaper) stuff that can do 14Mb is faster than you can do the internet, only need the higher speed powerline stuff if you want to transfer files locally (from machine to machine) and most computers have a max speed of 100, the 200 Mb units ONLY work at speed higher than 100 if you have gigabit ethernet stuff).

Reply to
Peter Pan

Reply to
Airman Thunderbird

I've installed the Netgear powerline adapters in homes with real good success.

They consist of an injector installed at the router that connects the router to the powerline via plugging it into a ac outlet and into the router.

Then you have an access point plugged into the wall in another room. The only requirement is that both units are on the same power feed (the same power panel of the house).

I've installed up to 5 of the extenders in a home and had good success with everyone having internet access.

The only problem is that the throughput of the units is max'ed out at about 3-4 mb. They work great for streaming audio and video, normal internet access, but NOT for file transfers.. real slow because of the throughput limitations.

Bob Smith Robert Smith Consulting

Reply to
Bob Smith

Bob Smith fired this volley in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

....

The old ones were low bandwidth. They have 85mb/s units, too.

And, not "on the same power panel", but on the same leg of the incoming service. It's the same with any carrier-current device.

LLoyd

Reply to
Lloyd E. Sponenburgh

Thanks Bob, I ordered 2 Powerline adapters today from Newegg. I ordered the ones that allow you to put 4 in your house. Did not order the highest capacity one. I ordered 85 Mbps unit, model XE104. Decided not to order the Powerline unit with a wireless unit at other end. Read that they got hot, slow and are problematic.

Of course one side will be connected to my Linksys WRT54GS router via Ethernet.

Is there a problem with putting perhaps a Wireless Access Point (recommend one??) at the far end of the Powerline?

Will use for for internet web surfing on upcoming laptop purchase (when Penryns are fully deployed) and streaming audio from PC to Squeezebox unit to stereo.

Thanks Patty

Reply to
pattyjamas

I think that you have got a good plan if running ethernet is definitely out. I think that you are wise to avoid the wireless G powerline for just the reasons you found. I do have one and it works still, but does get amazingly hot. I have used the 102 and 103/104 series and they are good. I had read somewhere that Netgear went with the wrong choice on the newest line, the "HD" as there are two competing systems and one works better than the other, but in any case, you went with the good one.

For wireless AP, you have the right idea too. Since you are not using it as a fancy router or looking for maximum range, I'm going to suggest you just get a cheapo. Truth is, there are $40 ones that can work as good as the $100 ones.

I prefer the Buffalo but they are not sold in US now due to lawsuit. I have not used any of these, but suggest you might try this one :

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Read the reviews and note that many people give bad ratings due to trying to use as a repeater. Nothing works consistently well as a repeater and you don't care.

or this:

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or this router used as an AP (easily done):

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Read the reveiws and make your own choice.

Steve

Reply to
seaweedsl

The way the units are set up is as follows:

  1. wireless router is in utility room where there 'entertainment/tv/telephone utility panel is located.

  1. The home plug adapter (XE-102) is located next to the router It has a cat5 plug that you use to connect the adapter to the router LAN port.

  2. The home plug extenders (WGX-102) are located throughout the house.

  1. There is no connection on the extenders to enable you to connect a wireless router to. They are just a 'plug in' unit with three lites on the surface.

I've attached a pdf to this post showing how I set it up, this should help you.

I also used the 102 variety because I heard about the heat problem.. The unit is only about 3" x 4" and does get hot. I used a netgear wireless router but turned off the wireless portion because I was using the extenders. I set all the extenders on FIXED IP addresses because I didn't want the problem of them getting a DHCP IP when the power fails in my part of the world, which happens about 6-10 times each winter.

I don't think you can turn off the wireless on the Linksys router . I gave each extender an SSID of the room where it was located. IE: BEDROOM, KITCHEN, etc. I used the extenders instead of the router wireless because of the setup of the house, 1 story, no attic to speak of and really streeched out(about 500' from one end to the other and in the shape of a streeched out 'L" . I also ran on piece of cat5 from the router to a HP all-in-one printer that I set at a fixed IP of so everyone could print via the wireless to the printer.

Everything works great and the owner is happy. He works for Adobe and told a few people at work and guess what, two different people from Adobe Tech Support called me and asked about it because they had similar problems with a streeched out house and didn't want to run cat to wireless access points.

The install is real clean with just a small box plugged into the wall, no antennas, power wall wart cords, etc. After you get the units plugged in take your laptop and walk your house to be sure everything works. The neat thing is that if you need a little better coverage, just unplug the unit and move it to a different wall plug.

I've watched the owner be on the internet watching a video on his laptop, his daughter streaming audio on her laptop and his wife using webmail. They have a std DSL connection (1.5mb/256kb) and the internal home system works great for what they need, at the right price point,,

hope it works for you the same way,

Bob

Robert Smith Consulting Fort Bragg, California

Reply to
meme_meme

If the PDF doesn't make it through the news server, drop me an e-mail at

na6t at na6t dot com

and I'll send a copy to you,,

Bob

Reply to
Bob Smith

I certainly thank you for your recommendation and great info. A pdf would be great via email.

Thanks Patty

Reply to
pattyjamas

If you don't mind non seemless wireless routing (I don't and don't use it), just pick up another linksys wrt54g at walmart (under $45, the gs is about twice as much), plug the output from the netgear into the router part (not the wan input), set as desired, don't now about your other stuff, but as I recall you said you had tivo, and tivo only supports wep rather than any other type of encryption... If you want wireless access to it change the starting IP address to something different than the one you have (i use

192.168.1.200.... default is 192.168.1.1). I have the ssid's on mine mine set to PPinMD-Private and PPinMD-Public (private uses wpa2, and public uses wep)
Reply to
Peter Pan

Thanks Patty

Reply to
pattyjamas

To: Peter Pan, Thanks, Should I get a Wrt54g or GS instead of perhaps a Wireless AP?

I am a bit dumb when it comes to connecting a router to a router. I know you can connect an N router to a G router so you have both signals. But did not know I could plug in the Powerline into my WRT54GS router and then on other end plug in another router.. thought it had to be an access point (not sure what diff between an AP and a router is actually). And I guess I would have to change the IP of the router so I can configure both of them when I get second one. How can I change the login IP of one router from 192.168.1.1 to something else to access admin panel? I know when you said 192.168.1.200, that is the starting address I think of the IP's the router hands out... Thanks Patty

Reply to
pattyjamas

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