Can I connect wired devices to a wireless access point?

[DarkDubzs]

So I recently bought a second wireless router that I will put in the other half of my house that has poor wifi signal. I plan on setting it as an access point so it can extend the wifi coverage in my house, but I also want to hardwire a device (xbox) to it since it will be in my room. I just want to make sure that an AP can broadcast wifi and also support devices connected to it via ethernet. So, can i have devices connected to a wireless AP via wifi and hardwired ethernet?

 

[abailey]

Some can do like you want but you will suffer a big hit to performance. More than a 50% reduction in max throughput on your wireless (including the devices attached to the Ap) The better option would be to purchase a client bridge device to attach wirelessly to your main wifi router and then put a wire between your client bridge and your second wireless router, running in AP mode. Then set your 2.4Ghz channels to 1, 6, or 11. Making sure to use different channels for your main router Wifi and your AP wifi. Now if both your routers are dual band you might be able to set it up right with just the 2 wifi routers.

 

[DarkDubzs]

Some can do like you want but you will suffer a big hit to performance. More than a 50% reduction in max throughput on your wireless (including the devices attached to the Ap) The better option would be to purchase a client bridge device to attach wirelessly to your main wifi router and then put a wire between your client bridge and your second wireless router, running in AP mode. Then set your 2.4Ghz channels to 1, 6, or 11. Making sure to use different channels for your main router Wifi and your AP wifi. Now if both your routers are dual band you might be able to set it up right with just the 2 wifi routers.

Do you think i will be adding a repeater or something? The second router will be connected to the first via ethernet, not wirelessly like a bridge. I would then disable DHCP on the second and make the SSID and password the same as the first, that is my plan, isnt that what an AP is? Both are dual band, btw. Also, if i dont want to drop wifi when moving between stronger signals, both routers have to have their frequencies be on the same channels, right?

 

[bobsilver]

NETGEAR makes dual band repeaters that use a technology called Fastlane. This uses the dual band aspects of today's routers in a unique way to improve repeater performance. Fastlane can use 1 band for the connection to the main wireless network and use say the 5ghz band to connect to your devices. Several of the Fastlane products also are bridges too so you can gain Ethernet connect abilities as well. These new repeaters work really well.

Check out NETGEAR EX6100, EX6200 repeaters with Fastlane.

Bob Silver
NETGEAR Networking Consultant

 

[smitbret]

So I recently bought a second wireless router that I will put in the other half of my house that has poor wifi signal. I plan on setting it as an access point so it can extend the wifi coverage in my house, but I also want to hardwire a device (xbox) to it since it will be in my room. I just want to make sure that an AP can broadcast wifi and also support devices connected to it via ethernet. So, can i have devices connected to a wireless AP via wifi and hardwired ethernet?

Some can do like you want but you will suffer a big hit to performance. More than a 50% reduction in max throughput on your wireless (including the devices attached to the Ap) The better option would be to purchase a client bridge device to attach wirelessly to your main wifi router and then put a wire between your client bridge and your second wireless router, running in AP mode. Then set your 2.4Ghz channels to 1, 6, or 11. Making sure to use different channels for your main router Wifi and your AP wifi. Now if both your routers are dual band you might be able to set it up right with just the 2 wifi routers.

What, why would there be any reduction in performance? Not only that, but you are getting Bridges, APs and Repeaters all kinds of confused.

As long as it's connected to the router via ethernet cable, OP should have no issues plugging an ethernet cable into an AP and using it like he had plugged into the router itself. There will be no loss in bandwidth outside of the loss introduced by the length of the cable between the two devices and that is negligible to where you probably won't notice it in the real world.

Router------Wired Connection----AP----Wired Connection----XBox

That should be literally no different than if you had just plugged the XBox into the router as long as the router being used as an AP has been configured properly.

 

[abailey]

Some can do like you want but you will suffer a big hit to performance. More than a 50% reduction in max throughput on your wireless (including the devices attached to the Ap) The better option would be to purchase a client bridge device to attach wirelessly to your main wifi router and then put a wire between your client bridge and your second wireless router, running in AP mode. Then set your 2.4Ghz channels to 1, 6, or 11. Making sure to use different channels for your main router Wifi and your AP wifi. Now if both your routers are dual band you might be able to set it up right with just the 2 wifi routers.

Do you think i will be adding a repeater or something? The second router will be connected to the first via ethernet, not wirelessly like a bridge. I would then disable DHCP on the second and make the SSID and password the same as the first, that is my plan, isnt that what an AP is? Both are dual band, btw. Also, if i dont want to drop wifi when moving between stronger signals, both routers have to have their frequencies be on the same channels, right?

My apologies. I thought you were trying to extend your network wirelessly. So yes you can do exactly what you want to do with no loss in bandwidth. You can also use the same SSID and password. Make sure to use a DIFFERENT channel on the second router than on the first or you could suffer bandwidth problems as they would interfere with each other. You can still roam between AP's with the same SSID and password on different channels. In the 2.4Ghz region make sure you use only channels 1, 6, or 11 and make sure you use different channels for the 2 AP's. As a side note, many devices do not roam between AP's gracefully. Most devices hold on to a weak signal way to long before they will let go and change to the next AP. Some devices, like Windows laptops, have settings in the driver details where you can change the threshold for the laptop to change to a stronger signal. LOL, once again sorry for misunderstanding. Looks like several people got up in arms over it.

 

[smitbret]

My apologies. I thought you were trying to extend your network wirelessly. So yes you can do exactly what you want to do with no loss in bandwidth. You can also use the same SSID and password. Make sure to use a DIFFERENT channel on the second router than on the first or you could suffer bandwidth problems as they would interfere with each other. You can still roam between AP's with the same SSID and password on different channels. In the 2.4Ghz region make sure you use only channels 1, 6, or 11 and make sure you use different channels for the 2 AP's. As a side note, many devices do not roam between AP's gracefully. Most devices hold on to a weak signal way to long before they will let go and change to the next AP. Some devices, like Windows laptops, have settings in the driver details where you can change the threshold for the laptop to change to a stronger signal. LOL, once again sorry for misunderstanding. Looks like several people got up in arms over it.

This is good advice

 

[DarkDubzs]

Alright, thanks guys. So on the second router im just gonna disable DHCP, match the SSID and password to the first router, and connect it to the first router via ethernet cable. Also, i have to give the router an IP within the subnet, right? So like if router one is 192.167.0.2, i should give the second router an IP of 192.167.0.3 (assuming that IP is available in the network)? Or would i select something like "Get Dynamically from ISP" for the Internet IP Address section? Ive heard i have to set a static IP, but im not sure.

Also, so if i set this up right, I can roam between the two routers and the wireless device will connect to the stronger signal without me having to re-enter the password or re-authenticate?

 

[smitbret]

Close, but make sure you assign an IP address to the AP that is outside of the DHCP range of the router. Usually, you'll have to go into the router settings and shorten the the range. For example, if your DHCP range on the router is 192.168.0.1-192.168.0.255, you'll want to shorten it to something like 192.168.0.10-192.168.0.255 and then assign 192.168.0.2 to the AP.

Also, make sure your AP and router are on different channels. Hand off between the AP and the router can be smooth or it can be tricky. It usually depends on how stubborn the device is in holding on to the old signal as it gets weaker. As long as you used the same SSID, the hand off won't need a new password.

It wouldn't be a bad idea to turn off NAT in the AP as well. Probably won't make a difference, but just to be safe.....