Modem in the basement, need to move router upstairs

[skullbase]

Hi all. I have another question about modem/router/switch networking.

I moved in to a 3 story house with established network cables. My cable feed cones in to the basement, which is the hub for the phone lines, coax lines and three cat 5e lines that go to three jacks in different areas of the house.

There is a single cable/phone modem. Currently, I have my wireless router plugged in to the cable modem, and also used as the switch for the cat 5 lines. This works great, except that the signal doesn't reach upstairs.

I was going to purchase a switch for the basement, to plug in to the cable modem, and move the wireless router on the second floor, which would be off one of the lines of the switch. But, will the switch or modem handle the network address? I am concerned that the wireless router is doing that currently.

I could buy a wireless access point for upstairs. That way I can leave the wireless router in the basement where it is working and deactivate the wireless on the router (there is a deactivate wireless button on the side). But, wireless access points are more expensive than switches. Also, I would like to better understand what is going on here.

Is the cable modem handing out addresses for the network, anyway, such that it doesn't matter. Or, if I place a switch will that be able to hand out addresses. I also thought about buying a firewall /router device to place immediately off the cable modem, so that takes over handing out network addresses. I only need 4 ports in the basement, as there is only the incoming signal, and three outgoing data lines to the 3 jacks in the house.

 

[bill001g]

If the modem is actually just a modem and not a "gateway" ie a router you can only hook a single device to it. I you hook a switch to a modem pretty much the first device you connect will be the only one that works.

If the modem is a router/gateway then you will have no issues using just a switch.

I suspect you are going to have to go the AP solution as you propose. Yes it is more expensive than a switch. If your connection is not really fast you might consider buying a low end router to replace the one in the basement and move your other one to use a AP. You should be able to find routers for $20 if you look. I would not do that though if you have say 100m internet coming in those low end routers tend to not have the capacity to run that fast.