Hardware recommendations for a home network

[rrh]

Hi -

I wired my house with CAT5, so have never bothered with wireless home networks. However, a friend requires one, so all suggestions welcome

1. The house is slightly bigger that the average 3-bedroom house.
2. The study is at the one end of the house. It is equipped with a Billion 4-port ADSL router / firewall into a PC running Windows.
3. The reason for the wireless network is to provide ADSL connectivity to an office that is situated:

• At the other end of the house; and
• Is underneath the house.

My thinking is that the wireless network will require a bit more grunt than average to (in essence) punch through the houses's slab.

Since there is a minimal difference in price (if any) the Billion could be replaced by a unit with a router, i.e. retaining the Billion is not a priority.

The network will be used for normal email etc., with the occasional video streaming. Definitely not HTPC stuff.

Your hardware recommendations would be appreciated.

Thanks ...

 

[iblade]

I did a setup like this once and it was a nightmare, admittedly it was a favor and nothing that I normally do. We ended up using a repeater with external antennas on the router and the repeater. The repeater was setup in the middle of the house to cover the bedroom side as the ADSL router was on the completely other side with really thick walls in the house (I could swear that the walls were concrete.)

You can use any normal wifi router as the repeater as long as it supports it (No idea on the Billion), we used Linksys for this setup.

 

[rrh]

Thanks for the info.

I am hoping that the latest triple-antenna whatevers manage to push through without the need for a repeater ...

That said, I have already warned my friend that it may just be necessary ...

I am also thinking of switching to a Linksys (or similar) where the family includes a repeater: hopefully that will result in one less problem to consider if a repeater is necessary.

Thanks again ...

 

[krieg]

Wouldn't it just be cheaper to drill holes in each room to the outside and run a network cable along the house? The "tripple antenna" is just for wireless N, it still depends on the strength of the antenna. So rather go for something with detachable antennas, then replace the antennas to something stronger. It's hard to guess what would work, but you will probably need 3 units in total. That means 3 devices that's always on and increases your chances of something going wrong. Another thing to remember is to try and keep to the same brand as they usually perform better with each other. I would still go for a wired approach between the wireless devices, much cheaper and easier.

 

[rrh]

I hadn't really thought much about it, but a CAT5 cable between the rooms should be possible.

They have purchased a couple of tablets, so still need the Wifi in each room. But a couple of small Wifi routers connected via cable could work ...

Thanks for that

 

[krieg]

You can always install an app on your phone to measure your signal strength of the router to see the range of the unit. Then move the router to another spot on the opposite side and see if there is any dead zones, this will give you a general idea of how many units you will need to cover the whole house. I would still go for a wire between the top and bottom floor as the signal most probably have to travel through the concrete floor which will have a lot of support metal in it probably. Another thing is to make sure the signal doesn't travel to far outside the property, you can generally set the signal strength % wise to control that. Lastly try installing it in a star configuration to a central router instead of linking all the wireless ap's in a straight line, meaning if one unit fails the rest of the units in the line doesn't go down.

 

[rrh]

Thanks for all of the tips. It should be convenient to connect the top & bottom via CAT5: then two units starred from the existing Billion. That way signal strength stay at minimum, and won't tempt the next-door neighbour's kids into attempting a hack