trclac :
I have a similar issue ... our house is two stories, but the way the house is constructed, we barely get a signal from the router in the study into the master bedroom located on the same floor. Since the house was built in 2008, they ran ethernet all through it. So what I did is use a D-Link DIR-655 as the main router in the study. I have a switch in the closet where all the ethernet cables merge. I then placed an Access Point in the master bedroom, and two rooms upstairs (the D-Link DAP-1522).
However, I am thinking it is time to upgrade the router, but this router works great with the set up I have (i.e., the 3 access points to expand coverage).
Any thoughts on the best way to upgrade the router to one of the latest versions, and any idea as to what type of access points I should use? As noted, all access points are hard wired to the main router via the switch in the closet.
Thanks.
I have essentially the same setup with a primary router, a 16 port primary switch and then an access point as well. I recently upgraded all of my equipment as well, for the primary router i got a netgear wdr3500l flashed to tomato-usb, and for for the access point i have a tl-wdr3600 router flashed to dd-wrt and configured as an access point with dhcp disabled.
I was looking for a dedicated access point but there is just not a good option that is not north of $250 for an access point with gigabit and dual band. It is just much more economical (and versatile) to just buy a router that suits your needs and flash it to a better firmware and make that an access point.
If you can give me more of an idea on what your needs/budget are I can point you to a decent router. At this day an age if you are upgrading then you should definitely not settle for anything that is not gigabit.