How do I add wireless to my existing 24 port switch?

[pg021988]

I just moved into a new house that is wired through a 24 port gigabit switch in the basement. I know you can't place a wireless router after a switch. Do I have to do anything special to set up the wireless router or just simply place it before the switch and it should work?

 

[reedo_43]

What do you have before the switch?

 

[bill001g]

You could if your wanted to put a router after the switch it just makes some things a pain but it works for most things and is simpler for people who want it as simple as possible.

Just use your router as a AP. It either has that feature or look up the million post or youtube on how to use a router as AP. Pretty much you are just using the radio part of the router.

 

[pg021988]

What do you have before the switch?

I'll snap a picture of it on Wednesday when we go back to the house. We are filling out all the paperwork now so I can give everyone a better idea. From the looks of it there was only a gigabit switch mounted to the wall, I did not take a good look through everything though.

 

[pg021988]

You could if your wanted to put a router after the switch it just makes some things a pain but it works for most things and is simpler for people who want it as simple as possible.

Just use your router as a AP. It either has that feature or look up the million post or youtube on how to use a router as AP. Pretty much you are just using the radio part of the router.

I suppose I could, you can set up an access point after a switch? I do not know because I have never tried. I would like to use some of the features my wireless router has as well. Like the USB network file sharing. Will using the router as an access point prevent that feature?

 

[bill001g]

Almost every large company in existence has all their AP after their switch. The switch actually powers them in most cases. A AP is pretty much a switch that has wireless radios in it, it just doesn't have many ethernet ports.

Not sure on the USB thing. If you were to use some feature in the router to convert it to a AP then its hard to say it would depend on the router manufacture code.

If you use the standard trick of turning off the DHCP and changing the lan IP then it should work. In most cases you can run these routers with nothing connect to the WAN port...ie your internet is down and it will still allow the file sharing features to work. Of course the crazy ones like the torrent clients in the router to download while your machine is turned off will not work.

 

[pg021988]

Here is the setup, god bless the home owners soul who set this up.

I am going to have a hard time figuring out which cable goes to what port in the house though.

It was not allowing me to add photos so here is the links.

https://goo.gl/photos/2puPJBeszHgGPiLg7

https://goo.gl/photos/AqsWYM7nHHKChZLS7