Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Another Router question

I now have need for a wireless router. I managed to run a screw through a cable to the furthest LAN jack location where my son has his X-box set up. I plan to still use my hard wired LAN (I have two network printers), but want a couple more locations in the house that do not have LAN jacks. I understand that Linksys makes multi-port wireless routers that might fill this need. When I look at their product guide, I’m a bit confused to which one I should buy.

I will also be using an 8 port switch with this router for the hard wired LAN outlets in use, if that matters.

In addition to the router, I need a couple of those gadgets that the device uses to talk to the router (showing my IT ignorance with these high tech terms). I don’t know if they make this, but I’d like to plug all my A/V electronics in the HT room that have Ethernet into. My receiver, HD player, BR player and video processor will all need to plug in to this thing (if it exists). The receiver has network streaming and the rest just use Ethernet for firmware updates. I can always plug them in whenever I need to update firmware, but the receiver will need constant communication with the router.

The router will be located in my office on the second level of the house. The X-box is on the fifth level about 60 feet away from the router. My A/V equipment is on the first level about 40 feet away from the router.

So in summery, I’m looking for 1) a good wireless router for a large home with some hard wire ports for my hard wire LAN. 2) a couple single port widgets that talk to the router 3) a multi port widget that talks to the router.

I supose I should also mention that the location where I will need to mount the router is in a stud space in my office wall. It can't be much larger than the four port router I have already.

OK, so to break it down, you need a wireless router with a built in switch (WRT54G would be my recommendation, although there's about 40000 different versions of it). You need something to translate from wireless to wired? Am I getting that right? I'm sure such a beastie exists, but I'm not sure where one would find one or if they actually work. I know you can do it with a second wireless router, but it takes some clever set up.

Although as I think about it, all you need are single 802.11e->ethernet converters, which there are plenty of.

The WRT54G is identical to your current router, as far as I remember, other than having the two antennae. You can get larger antennae for it, depending on which model you have.

The output from the standard WRT54G series I found to be too weak for my house with the router in the basement, even with the high gain antennas on both PC and router. The router is located middle of the house(in tha basement) and the computers I have on the first and second floors at all corners of the house. I had to go to a router that uses MIMO(Multiple In Multiple Out) signals, I no longer have weak signals. I just bought the new 'N' router, WRT300N it does all the standards. I run mine in BG mode to enable the Wii to connect wireless as well, it just wouldn't hook up in G mode for some reason.

What’s an Ethernet converter?

The router you mention, does that one have good range? In Linksys still a good make? I’ve been hearing they aren’t so hot anymore and Cisco screwed them up.

What is this A, G, B rating that I see listed with some routers?

Ethernet converter is my own made up word; I'm just talking about a device that converts ethernet into 802.11 wireless ethernet. This would be an example, albeit a crummy one. They seem to be fairly hard to find.

A, B, G, and draft-N are different types (and speeds) of wireless. You need to know what you have before you go out and buy a wireless router. A is in the 5GHz range and tops out at 54MB/sec. B is the generic, 2.4GHz range, tops out at 11MB/sec. B is the common denominator; just about everything that's wireless supports this. However, if it's used on a network, it slows down everything else, so you probably don't want B equipment on your network. G is 2.4GHz, tops out a 54MB/sec. 2nd most common; A is fairly rare. draft-N is 2.4GHz or 5GHz, topping out at something like 200MB/sec. Fairly rare, not a certified standard yet, but increasing in popularity. Theoretically long range.

Here's a review of current draft-N routers.

EDIT: teach me not to use preview...

I can attest to the long range even in my mixed mode and not N.

Mike,

One of the things that you might want to do is contact the manufacturers of the devices that will be wired and ask them for their wireless routed recommendation. I know that if your wired device communicates using the same standard as the router it should be fine but it doesn't hurt to ask what they recommend. They may for example know which router make and model is most robust making your selection that much easier.

I use a quarter-inch rounding over bit unless I need an ogee.

You guys make everything so complicated sometimes.

Mike, you're going to have to break down and draw a picture. I'll bet Ken can solve your problem. But he might need a site visit.

I'm just not sure what you mean about the media room, Mike. I'm assuming you don't have ethernet wired to that room, so you need connectivity through wireless. Given that, I'm not sure how you're handling it right now--I know you're using all of those devices!

Tom:
You and I think alike. I was going to recommend this model as being very reliable:

I feel like that should frighten me, but it doesn't. Huh. I guess my meds are working extra good today.

…. I prefer Porter Cable myself. I’ve got four of them. I use Whiteside bits and buy them cheap from routerbits.com

Tom, I still haven’t told you that you could leave your room, you damn troublemaker.

Ken,

In my media room I do have an Ethernet jack, but it’s on the wrong side of the room so I have a cable running from the jack, under a rug, and back around to the equipment rack. It works, but I just hate having cables exposed. I use this for firmware updates right now, but this new 3808 I am getting has some pretty cool network functions I’d like to try – including media streaming from any network connected PC, and it also has internet radio streaming. So what I was hoping to do, is have some sort of device that I could connect the 3808, my A35 HD player, my PS3 and possibly another device to in the future. These A/V components would then use the device to communicate to the wireless router that would be located in my office. I suppose what I’m looking for is a wireless switch or hub that talks to the router. If nothing like that exists, then I’ll settle for plugging each one of my A/V components into a single port communication device.

The second location that I want a wireless solution to, is my son’s X-box so he can use X-box live. When I hooked that up for him the other night I found out that the cable is bad going to the particular Ethernet jack in this room.

I had no idea that each one of these devices worked at different rates and that I need to make sure the router will work with each one. This is starting to sound entirely too frustrating and complicated to screw with.

It was my understanding that Mike was pretty darn handy with woodworking ... I would've thought he was very knowledgeable with routing and the associated hardware. I guess sometimes you just never know.
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I see I am late, as usual.

Most of the time the devices overlap in functionality; it's just something to consider.

I think it would be far easier to just get a wireless access point (not a new router) and hook that to your ethernet jack in the media room. Then get wireless adapters for your av equipment.

The higher up the chain you go the more backward compatiblity they have built in. The N routers work with B & G. The only one to avoid are the A's, they are usually in business environments. It is not that complicated. You can also buy wireless access points and media streamers to connect up to your receiver. There is also a seperate gaming access point for the Xbox.

Linksys access points

mdrew, are your cat 5 cables secure in your walls or just run in the walls? It is preferable to have a hardline for xbox live as you will get better performance. Mabey try fishing a new line to his room? You could pull the old one out and attach a string to it...

For N routers, I'd recommend the new Apple Aiport Extreme. I have it and it's easy to configure/use. If you want more flexibility, the Cisco/Linksys ones are fine. Because of background info that I know, I STRONGLY suggest that you don't use Netgear 11n stuff.

I think what Ken is referring to is Ethernet over powerline adapters. This allows you to run your network over the AC wiring in your house. Why would you use this vs Wifi? Because Wifi is subject to interference. If you want the fastest rates, think hard wired. These are what you need. Works assuming your house is on one transformer. I use these to connect my PS3, Slingbox, and HD Tivo to my router, using only AC powerlines. I want hardwired because I transfer large files (4 to 9 GB) from my Tivo.

http://www.netgear.com/Products/PowerlineNetworking/PowerlineEthernetAdapters/XE104G.aspx

I use the Netgear 104G kit.
- Plug the XE103 into the wall and connect that Ethernet jack into your router.
- Plug the XE104 into ANY AC outlet in your house. That will give you 4 ports of Ethernet where ever it is. This is a great solution for your AV rack. No wires to run.

I use this version because it's rated up to 85Mbps. Older ones are much slower, 14 Mbps IIRC. You can get ones rated up to 200 Mbps, but that is theoretical and you'd probably need Gigabit ethernet on your router/switch/end devices for it to make any difference.

The beauty is that you can buy more adapters and add ethernet connectivity anywhere you have an AC outlet.

Any brand should be fine, but you probably don't want to mix brands.

Oh, actually I wasn't, but that might work.

Ah, I stand corrected (after actually reading your post correctly). DOH!

There are a few "wired to wireless" adapters. Usually these are x-in-1 (4 in 1, 7 in 1, etc) pocket/travel routers that have multiple functions. They should be $50 or less. I think you can do the same thing w/ an Airport Express, but I'm not exactly sure.

That power line gadget looks like it would work well. I have receptacles next to the router.

Ken, can you post a link to one of these wired to wireless adapters?

Rob,

No, I can not pull new cable. It was ran through log walls, up and down and all over the damn place. One of the joys of log homes is that no matter how much care you put into routing cables and plumbing, things move and you are bound to have problems somewhere. I do have two coax connections at the same J-box if there was some sort of coax Ethernet gadget?? All the coax lines are ran to the same spot as my LAN cables.

Wasn't coax used with BNC connectors for ethernet?

Sure, if you want 2MB/sec transmission rates...

All my networking cabling is done with coat hangers. The cables don't make no stinkin' difference!

Running, ducking for cover.....

Just google wireless bridge.

http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite...d=1134692497433

Unfortunately, there's no way to repurpose your coax. There's not enough signal pairs to use it for something else. From all my A/V reconfiguring, I've learned that if you run cable, have at least 2 or 3 extra runs of CAT5/6. Those usually can be converted (w/ some cost) to do something else using special baluns like these from muxlab.

http://www.muxlab.com/products/ve_vga_component_audio_balun.html

If you want to have some kind of video distribution and can't use coax, I'd start looking at slingbox/slingcatcher or maybe even AppleTV. I use an AppleTV on a cheap LCD for the kids. It's not live TV but 2 and 5 year olds can watch the same show 500 times in a row so they don't need live TV.

Thank you for coming up with the words that I couldn't think of...