Bridging 2 wifi access points

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antoniosk

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#20384 24-Mar-2008 17:25

This is one area of wifi i have not investigated.

My cable service comes into the bottom SW corner of the house. I have a Linksys WRT4g - v1.1! - trying to punch upstairs to the NE corner of the house where the office is, at around a 60 degree angle. It has to traverse magazine, classic NZ walls (made with WOOD and covered in Gibboard), and Rimu flooring. Total elapsed distance on the longside of a triangle is about 15 metres.

Suffice to say my experience is somewhat restrained.

I'm thinking of using 2 802.11n Apple Airports - I like apple kit - and bridging them, with the computers upstairs connected via wires.

Local reticulation on the 1st floor would be 802.11b/g, which is what my computers and smartphones have.

I'd appreciate people's thoughts.

I can't move the access point higher up, because the ethernet cable would then sit right next to 230v power wiring - unless there is cable shielded in lead these days ...?

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snaffta

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#118624 25-Mar-2008 20:30

What about a better areail with more gain? Run it out to sit near/er a window.

Ta.
~Snaff

sbiddle

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#118630 25-Mar-2008 20:43

What about a range extender?

antoniosk

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#118631 25-Mar-2008 20:47

My machines have got +7db gain antenna's on them already; I have yet to try putting one on the router - the shape of radio form will get very flat and narrow if there is too much high-gain around....

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richms

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#119790 30-Mar-2008 23:58

What problems have your experianced with the cat5 near the mains cable?

In anycase, you can do what you want with another wrt54 and any of the opensource firmwares, just make a wds bridge between them. It all seems to work just too well since they are on the same channel the handoff between the 2 is almost seamless IME, unlike cross channel ones which seem to hang on for a lot longer and then drop for a few seconds when changing AP.

No experiance with the n based apples - But if they are anything like the airport express the reception will be crap compared with a wrt54g with actual antennas.

Richard rich.ms

cyril7

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#119812 31-Mar-2008 08:46

10/100 and 1000BaseT have no spectral energy down below a few hundred kHz, the input coupling isolation transformers have no response below a few 10s of kHz, and by design delibertly ensures 50-60Hz is well isolated. I have in circumstances of nessecity run cat5 running 100BaseT coupled closely to mains cables running currents much greater than you experience in domestic 63A installs and for reasonable lengths, ie 8-10meters, with no apparent lack of performance.

Common sense, good engineering practice and AS/NZ standards say that you should run telecommunications and other ELV cables 300mm from any LV 230V mains cable and if not possible no less than 50mm, and these are sensible recommendations, however in reality you can get away with a lot worse than that its just you may (I repeat may) start compromising somewhere.

Also from a safety point of view there is suffecient insulations, to place any item in contact with TPS, of mains lead, although again 50mm is the recommendation.

Cyril

gehenna

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#119819 31-Mar-2008 09:24

Slightly off topic, but I think you're a perfect candidate for something like:

http://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?ItemID=358744

I've been using 2 of these for my Xbox 360/Media Center in the lounge on the middle floor of my house, as I've had problems getting strong wireless signals in that room. Which is funny since the room below it on the bottom floor gets good coverage!

I thoroughly recommend these devices. The only problem would be if your house has older wiring or multiple circuits. Otherwise you should get pretty good performance out of them.

Just a thought, in case you don't get the results you want from your wireless set-up.

G.

cyril7

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#119820 31-Mar-2008 09:33

EOP is a good option, however as with WiFi (a pair of APs will set you back a similar $200-250) thats a lot of cabling time for a cabling man to run a conduit/cable around your house, which can be done in a tidy manner if thought about, or again if thought about there will be a way of getting a cable from one floor to the other. And you get 1GigE capablitiy.

Cyril

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whiLESS

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#119977 31-Mar-2008 17:34

http://www.dealtime.com/xPO-WLS-G-RANGE-EXPANDER
i use one of these, great little repeaters.
or what about power over ethernet? , you used to get them for dicksmiths for about 20 bucks each, but they must of blown too many pc's up, they are not on the market now and the new ones are 250.
this link also has differnet extentions etc you could try

http://www.zenbu.net.nz/coverage_hints.php#antennas

good luck.
if none of this works, bring your office downstairs !

gehenna

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#119984 31-Mar-2008 17:59

whiLESS:
or what about power over ethernet? , you used to get them for dicksmiths for about 20 bucks each, but they must of blown too many pc's up, they are not on the market now and the new ones are 250.

I do love it when people read the posts they're replying to. /sarcasm

whiLESS

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#119990 31-Mar-2008 18:26

i relised that had been mentioned already, but just reinforcing all options including higher gain antenas etc too.