Wireless/wired networking question.

jaritta

Alright guys, i have a fairly basic question for you on how to get internet to my detached garage about 100-150 ft away from my house. I have a Wireless router (netgear dual band router) in my house that i am currently using.

I am currently building my garage and had to run underground power via conduit from the house to the garage. I also burried cat 5 cable (in a seperate conduit and about 2 ft away from the power line. Also the cat5 cable is shielded)

Right now I plan to connect the cat five run to my existing router in the house and bring the wired signal into the garage. I would then like to convert it back to wireless in the garage, so my questions is..... What type of device do i need to convert the wired signal back to wireless.

Will just adding another wireless router at the garage work, and if so how do i set up the router. Is it possible to add 2 routers to one internet feed?

Would a wireless access point work..

I guess i am jsut trying to figure out what would work best for my situation.

Thanks
Jaritta

PrazVT

You can add a second router. I did this in my parents' house as wireless signals have a hard time being seen on both floors.

I'll tell you what to do - give me a few min to type it up.

jaritta

Thanks Praz

Btw, How do you like your kef 900's, i am thinking about some q500's

PrazVT

Overview:

Basically your existing router is going to continue doing what it does - act as a DHCP server, assigning local IP addresses to all computers / devices in your home. Your second router will be on, but you'll disable the DHCP function in the setup. You'll plug an ethernet cable from the wall in your garage to the input on the 2nd router. It'll act as an AP, but will get IP address assignments from the Netgear router. That's it.

Procedure:

1 - In the existing router setup (http://192.168.1.1 (or 0.1), go to 'LAN setup'.
2 - Change the 'Ending IP' address from .254 to .51.
3 - Save changes.

In new router:

1 - Connect your laptop directly to one of the ports (nothing else connected to the router) and go to the local setup again.
2 - Set the 'Starting IP' to .52 and the 'Ending IP' to .254 (Save changes)
3 - You'll have to type in 192.168.1.52 (or 0.52) to get back into the router settings.
4 - Go back to 'LAN Setup' and turn off 'Use Router as DHCP server' (Save changes)
5 - Go to 'Wireless Settings' and change the SID (wifi network name) to something different than the existing router's wifi SID.
5a - Enter your security info (ie. add your WPA2 PSK password or WEP if you use that) (Save changes)
6 - Connect the new router to the ethernet cable / port in the garage and power it up.

When you connect to the new router network, you should have internet. I know it sounds a little involved, but the process should take < 20 min.

One other thing that I can't quite remember (I set it up a few years back) and you may have to check. On the new router, you may need a crossover CAT5 cable and you may need to plug it into one of the client ports instead of the source port. Can't quite recall if that was needed or not (sorry!).

PrazVT

Btw, How do you like your kef 900's, i am thinking about some q500's

I'm liking them a lot! I've been up listening to music until 3am every night since I got them It's a different experience than the LSi9s I have in my room - I think the LSi9s are much more laid back.

The Q900s are very very detailed - strings, horns, ambient instruments are very airy and you hear the textures (guitar strings especially). I'd say that the tweeter is a little bright the first time you turn the system on, but they've settled down noticeably in the last 2 days. Everything sounds better than the first 15 minutes And I suspect the speakers will continue to mellow in the coming weeks. The bass woofers / radiators have opened up alot already. Very happy w/ them. Make sure you listen to the Qs first, like others suggested to me.

I'm passively bi-amping them with the NAD M25 (i have Signal Ultra bi-amp cables) right now. I'm pondering getting some Kimber 8TCs or two sets of 4TC if I want to maintain the bi-amp set up. And maybe some Hero ICs ..too bad all that costs an arm and a leg.

Syndil

Actually it doesn't have to be that difficult. You can purchase a wireless access point (WAP) and plug that in to the ethernet cable in the garage and be done with it. You could also use a second router as a WAP by simply plugging the ethernet cable into the WAN port on the router. No further configuration needed.

The drawback with using a 2nd router as opposed to a WAP (the way you are supposed to do it) is that, by using a 2nd router, you will be creating a network that is separate from that in the house. WAP is by far the more elegant solution.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704044

Only $30 shipped. Don't let the price fool you, I have installed these in a dust-filled factory environment and they are still holding up fine. Or if you want wireless N:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704052

PrazVT

Yeah I'm aware of that. But you'd have 2 different LANs - which I don't really see the point of because devices / computers in the garage won't see the devices / servers / computers in the rest of the house. Personally I'd rather have a LAN where everything can see each other.

But if the requirement is simply to get Internet access, then that is simpler.

Syndil

With a WAP you will not have 2 LANs. With a 2nd router (with no additional configuration) you will have 2 LANs.

PrazVT

ah sorry - missed that detail.

Earthy

I'll second just getting a WAP over a Router. Plug and play (mostly) and everything on one flat network. Unless your somewhat IP savvy, having multiple routers can cause headaches.

PrazVT

2nd router doesn't do anything except act like an access point either - just a little more involved to setup. I do recall looking at wireless access points at the time - can't remember why I didn't go that route.

mdaudioguy

If you have an old wireless router, you might be able to go to www.dd-wrt.com and download custom firmware, which will allow you to convert your router to a WAP. I have an old Linksys and this has worked nicely for me. Ymmv.

jaritta

Thanks for all of the great information guys, I havent decided if i want a seperate lan or not yet. Either way it looks like i have all the information that I would need.

Thanks again
Jaritta