can i have 2 wifi hotspots in my house with the one broadband connection

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hattrick123

71 posts

Master Geek

#225680 30-Nov-2017 10:28

can i have 2 wifi hotspots in my house with the one broadband connection

I have 1 broadband connection(ADSL) that comes into the house.

Landline connects to Router1, where I have wifi from.

Can I put a lan cable in the router and run it to the other end of the house and plug it into Router2, and then serve a 2nd wifi from this Router2?

Sorry not too techy in this area. But hope what i am trying to do is clear. Let me know any clarifications.

Dairyxox

1591 posts

Uber Geek

#1910936 30-Nov-2017 10:40

Yes. This is the recommended way to extent the wireless footprint of a network.

Further you can actually use various common wireless routers as another 'hotspot' by disabling the routing functions, in this configuration it is working as an 'access point'

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MadEngineer

3523 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1910937 30-Nov-2017 10:40

Yes. Buy an off the shelf access point that’s in bridge mode

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

jonb

1738 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1910940 30-Nov-2017 10:45

Have a Look at this recent thread for instructions

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumId=66&topicId=225521

hattrick123

71 posts

Master Geek

#1911020 30-Nov-2017 11:54

tks I will have a look at that.

I have a 2degrees router/fritz box as my router. I have a genius/old orcon router lying around that I would like to use as my 2nd Router/ 2nd AccessPoint. Any links on how to do this specifically?

tks

jonathan18

6982 posts

Uber Geek

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#1911055 30-Nov-2017 12:30

I've used a wide range of unused modem/routers for this very purpose, and it's fairly straight-forward (I see someone's linked above to a 'how to'). Personally, I don't think it's worth buying a new device for this purpose if you've already got an old router hanging around, provided that offers decent wifi. Often googling the model number and other key words will provide you with direct instructions on how to do it, or at least find the manual so you can easily find out where to do stuff like switching off DHCP.

It can be useful to select a position for the 'access point' that's also where you want wired access for devices, eg ours is directly beside the TV and stereo (so allows wired connections to the TiVo, Amazon Fire, Squeezebox etc).

The one issue you may face is hand-over between the two wifi access points can be somewhat messy (and one of the reasons I'm tempted by a mesh-based solution). By this I mean our devices will often hold onto the connection to one access point even when down the opposite end of the house, and the only solution is to force it to connect to the closer router (on my phone I do this by just quickly disabling and re-enabling wifi). I've read some people reduce the power output of the routers so the signal strength dies off earlier (hopefully forcing a switch to the closer router), but I didn't find that worked for me.

I've also not received clear advice as to whether it's better to use the same SSID for both access points (or even for 2.4 and 5 GHz, so the potential of four separate SSIDs); currently I run the different SSIDs for 2.5 and 5 but these are the same for both access points. Always interested in being advised as to best practice in this area, though!