I have a Linksys Wireless router and because of the wiring in my condo there is only one cable jack where I can get a good signal. Unfortunately it is in my living room. So, for the past two months I have had a card table set up in the living room where I have my PC.
What I want to do is move all of my computer operations to one of my bedrooms that I have set up as an office. Of course I realize that I could buy a wireless card for my PC and work that way, but I also have a laser printer hooked right into the router and the printer does not have a wireless card.
What I need to know is whether there is some type of device that I can set up back in the office that will act as a wireless receiver that then has several hard-wired ports that I can jack into. This would solve the problem in two ways because I would be able to plug both my printer and PC into that device.
I suspect that there are devices like this, but I just don't know what they are called or who makes them.
Any particular reason to not disclose the model number Linksys router? If it's a secret, could you at least disclose whether it's a wireless router or just an ethernet router. Perhaps it's a WCG-200 cable modem, router, and wireless in one package?
My detective wizard decodes that this means you only have one PC and that it's not a laptop. I love mysteries, but I do wish you would offer better clues.
Ahah, a clue. The router has a printer port. Well, that eliminates a large number of possible devices. No printer port on the WCG-200 so that's not it. None of the other Linksys wireless devices have a printer port, so it's probably not a wireless router. Of course, you didn't specify the model laser printer or whether it uses USB or parallel, so that still presents a problem. None of the other routers shown on the Linksys router web page have a printer port, USB or parallel, so I'm lost. Are you sure it's a Linksys router? If the model is secret, what color is the box so I can continue guessing?
I'm not sure why you have the printer plugged into the router. It probably makes more sense to plug it into the computah if you only have one computah. However, if you have more than one computah, then I guess using the router as a print server makes sense.
If you want to go wireless, you'll probably end up plugging the laser printer into the computah. That means you can plug a wireless card into your computah, connect to whatever you have sitting on the end of the CATV cable, and be done with it. Depending on how many walls you have to go through, it should work.
However, if you just want to get it out of the living room, it might be better to install a splitter at the TV, and run a 2nd RG-6/u coax cable from the splitter to your cable modem. Then, you can have everything in the office, exactly as you have it in the living room. Be sure to use a 5-950Mhz or higher splitter to insure that it works with the cable modem.
It is possible to play wireless extension cable between the cable modem and your router. It's called a bridge or more specifically, a transparent bridge. You will end up buying two radios at about $70/ea. I'm not sure this is such a great idea as I don't have a clear understanting of what you are trying to accomplish and what you have to work with.
Ok, so I'm not perfect. I kept rewriting my comments and fumbled. My appologies.
Trick question: Which one of these Linksys wireless routers has a printer port?
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I don't understand is why most people seem to feel that the make and model are not needed to answer a question. One would not go to a mechanic and ask for advice on their vehicle without disclosing the make and model. Same with just about any consumer appliance, product, or contraption. Yet, computahs seems to be unique as such information is commonly withheld. I've tried to answer three questions today and all three were lacking in product details. Why?
I kinda like to spell things the way I say them. It also makes it easy for me to catch my recycled quotes with Google. In case you missed the obvious, it's computer spelled the way most people pronounce it.
"I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way." -- Mark Twain
kstahl wrote in news:PLOdnXRbOuV6jgvfRVn- snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:
If it were me, I would hire someone or do it myself and string some wire using the RJ45 jacks from the room where the router was at to the office/bedroom and connect that wire to a LAN port on the router. Then I would get one of the things in the link and plug the other end of the wire with the RJ45 into the device to extend the network and relocate part of it.
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One can plug the printer into them too along with the computers. It would be the same as everything being connected directly to the router. The switch would be the better of the two.
Got it. No dedicated USB or parallel printer port. Knowing what you have to work with is important.
Ok. You have 3 computahs which explains why you need a networked printer.
Try HL-5170DN.
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printer with built in ethernet print server.
True. However, nobody else is doing any better. My apologies for being unable to decode the topology from your description. I'll have my sorcerer inspect my crystal ball and see if it needs a tune-up.
It matters what type of interface is used. USB, parallel, ethernet, IrDA, fiber, wireless, etc. If you had said "network laser printer", I would not have complained or asked.
As a general rule, it's a good idea to supply:
What problem are you trying to solve, or what are you trying to accomplish?
What do you have to work with? You did ok on the first but were lacking on the 2nd. I find it difficult to answer questions if either is missing.
Now that we've established that it's all my fault that I couldn't decode your description, methinks we can blunder onward.
You haven't indicated if you'll consider running a coax or ethernet cable between the existing location and the office. If a cable is acceptable, then you can run either coax cable (as previous described) to move the entire system, or CAT5 (as others have suggested) to connect between the cable modem and the WRT54GS. Personally, I would run the coax cable so I could have a TV in the office.
The WRT54GS supports WDS (wireless distribution service) which can be used to extend the system into the office. The cable modem and existing WRT54GS stay in the living room. An additional WRT54G or WRT54GS is installed in the office and configured to act as a WDS repeater. This should help with the setup: |
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allows your routers to simultaneously act as a wireless transparent bridge and as a wireless (infrastructure) access point.
You can connect your laptop client radios to either access point. (They'll both be on the same RF channel and have the same SSID, so switching between access points may be a challenge). There will also be a difference in maximum performance. Wireless client connections to the office access point will be limited in speed by the store and forward nature of a WDS repeater. Every other connection (direct ethernet to either WRT54GS, and wireless to the living room WRT54GS), will run at full speed. It may not be an issue unless your cable modem is running at perhaps over 6Mbit/sec.
There's one more combination of hardware that might be worth considering. Run CAT5 from the living room router and connect to a WRT54G router wired as an access point. To do this on the 2nd router, you should:
Ignore the WAN port. The cable goes between LAN ports on both WRT54G boxes.
Disable the DHCP server.
Setup the IP address to something that does not duplicate the first router. For example, if the existing router is on 192.168.1.1, then put the 2nd access point on 192.168.1.2.
Setup the same SSID on both, but use a different non-overlapping channel to avoid mutual interference.
The printer just plugs into one of the unused LAN ports on the 2nd WRT54G.
If your domicile is on two floors, I would definitely consider the last method as running a repeater through a marginal path (through the floor) is a guaranteed problem.
I'll post everything on the bottom to keep from getting confusing.
No reason for not saying which router. Just didn't think it was important. It is a WRT54GS Wireless-G 2.4G Broadband Router with SpeedBooster.
I actually have a main PC which has a 3.06Ghz processor, 1G memory, 160G storage in a casing that isn't much bigger then a shoe box. It is an FIC "ice cube" system. I also have an Inspiron 700m laptop with wireless and an IBM Thinkpad with wireless.
The router does not have a printer port. In addition to providing wireless access it has four hard-wired ports in the back. I used to just plug my printer into one of the those ports. There is nothing special about the port itself since there is nothing that designates any particular port as a printer port. The printer I have is a Brother HL-51700N. You are not guessing any of this stuff very well. Maybe you should not have tried to guess. In any case it simply doesn't matter what brand of printer it is. It works by plugging into a router or by using the regular printer port except that I don't want to tie it to just one PC - which is why I want to use it as a network printer.
Taking a moment's reflection, kstahl mused: | | What I need to know is whether there is some type of device | that I can set up back in the office that will act as a | wireless receiver that then has several hard-wired ports | that I can jack into. This would solve the problem in two | ways because I would be able to plug both my printer and PC | into that device.
I think a wireless solution for your PC is the easiest answer. Perhaps a WAP54G access point configured in client mode to your wireless router would be the solution to your printer as well. Configure the WAP to work in client mode and associate with the router, then plug the printer into the WAP ... should work a treat.
Someone else may be able to answer this one, but perhaps adding a switch to the mix would be the answer for your PC and printer both ... connect each to a switch, and then connect the switch to the WAP54G in client mode. I know it will support one "client" but I do not know if it will support two. As I said, perhaps someone else can provide that information.
Of course, another wireless router in bridge mode "bridged" to your existing router would work as well.
Taking a moment's reflection, kstahl mused: | | I think the wireless bridge is what I'll end up with from | what I have been learning. It should do the trick for me.
Of course, the draw back is that it's much more expensive than merely running coax or CAT5 ...
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