Adding wireless to existing wired LAN

[Zato]

Please forgive me, I bet this has been asked a million times. I searched through the forums but didn't find an answer to my particular situation.

I have a wired LAN in my office on the 1st floor. I'd like to setup a MVP in our upstairs bedroom.

I've heard varying reports of success using the powerline adapters, but frankly our home's wiring is pretty crappy so I wouldn't think this would work well.

So I'm looking at adding something to the LAN to enable wireless connectivity. I'm not even sure what I'm looking for, I don't want to replace my current router or anything, I just want to plug in something to an open network cable slot on the router to enable a WAP. Then either get a wireless MVP, or a wired version with another WAP on the other end for it to connect to. Anyone have a suggestion? Cost being the largest factor. And I would prefer the items be available on Amazon as I have some gift credits there.

Of course I could also pay someone to drop some CAT5 cable from the bedroom down to the office... but I don't know how much such a thing would cost and I don't know anyone that could do that off-hand.

[HtV]

Ofcourse I don't know the situation you are in exactly, but if it's somehow possible I would go for the wired version of the plan. Even if it costs a little more. However I think your wireless version wasn't very cheap either.
Go for wired, it'll probably save you a lot of frustration.
Good luck.

[JavaWiz]

I have a Netgear wireless router (it has 4 wired ports as well) and a wMVP.

My router is in my office on main floor with 3 devices hard wired (my GBPVR server being one of them). My wMPV is downstairs connected to my LCD TV.

The wireless connection to the MVP works fine, I have experienced no problems with signal strength.

Cost: Netgear WGR614 router $29-$39
wMPV 1016 - $120 - $160

Of course if you have a laptop with decent video and tv type output, you could connect laptop to TV, run GBPVR in client mode and connect wireless as well.

[HtV]

Cost: Netgear WGR614 router $29-$39
wMPV 1016 - $120 - $160

So that's ~$200. A wired mvp costs ~75 ??? That would leave over $100 for cable. (> 200 mtrs )

[jksmurf]

I have two WRT54GS's with a 3rd party F/W (HyperWRT Thibor 15c) in WDS (Bridge) Mode. One has the MVP attached to it, downstairs in the lounge . The other is attached to my PC upstairs, as my Internet Gateway. It works well. To use Thibor 15c you must have the correct MODEL of WRT54G or WRT54GS.

I use HyperWRT as it remains close to the Linksys codebase. It LOOKs like a Linksys router and is, but has a few extra (and IMO excellent additions). One of these is Bridge mode. Another is Static IP assignment, which is a very good thing for the MVP.

See www.thibor.co.uk for applicable models for HyperWRT.
See http://www.linksysinfo.org/forums/forumd....php?f=135 for help on
Thibor 15c.
See also http://www.hyperwrt.org/forum/index.php

If you search the GBPVR forums (probably MVP or H/W forums for WRT54G (or WRT54GS) wireless, MVP you'll probably get some other similar hits.

3rd Party f/w may not be for you. Flashing "may" leave you with a dead router. Having said that, I've done it many times, with no problems. It's simply a case of RTFM. And then RTFM again.

HTH,

k.

[Zato]

Thanks for the replies guys. I love these forums.

Looks like this is still out of my reach right now price-wise, unless I can find a used MVP and wireless router. My max budget is around $150. I'll keep my eye out.

[linene]

zato,

I don't know if this will save you much money, but like jksmurf said, using 2 wireless routers in bridge mode might be an option. I was able to get 2 motorola wr850g routers http://broadband.motorola.com/consumers/..._Sheet.pdf for about $40 us for the both of them when thingfling.com offered them, and I use the free dd-wrt firmware http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/What_is_DD-WRT%3F on them (similar idea to jksmurf's idea of third party firmware, but does not require buying the more expensive wrt54gs's), though the most recent moto firmware (6.1.4) would also work for you application. Nice thing about dd-wrt is that it works with many brands of routers, some of which can be aquired real cheap, and used in bridge mode or wds. Downside to dd-wrt (or most any other third party firmware) is that it can take some work to flash/setup, but it gives you alot of flexiblity. Cost total would be ~$115us (and maybe some time)? Just a thought.

[Zato]

That's actually a great suggestion Linene, thanks!

I found those routers for $30 on amazon ($60 total), plus MVP ($90). I should be able to get it all for just over $150 depending on the 3rd party shipping.

[linene]

Let us know how it goes, and if you need any help!

[mlippitt]

Has anyone tried using XP's bridge mode?
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/article...brdge.html

I'm thinking my wired MVP is cross connected into the GBPVR server's ethernet port. Then a USB attached wireless adapter on the same server reaches wirelessly to my router. The GBPVR server (running XP Pro SP2) is setup in bridge mode per the above URL.

Tftpd32 is setup on the server to do the DHCP work for the MVP and is given a DHCP range so it does not conflict with the DHCP server in the router.

Mark