Wired network how to access wireless router

[higginbr]

Ok here is the deal.

Upstairs i have 3 pcs connected to a wireless router/modem not connected to the internet.

Downstaris i have a wireless router modem connected to the internet and Voip phones

What can i do to get the PCs up stairs to access the Intenet downstairs.
Is it acase of getting 3 wirelss cards or can i get like a wireless hub or something.

 

[blue68f100]

You can use a bridge between the 2 routers. Some routers suport this but is mainly found on AP.

Performace will not be very poor if all 2 pc are using the wireless connection.

 

[mikeyp410]

You need WDS. You need a wireless bridge of somesort and WDS offers that you could also go cheap and get a wireless gaming adaptor and use that instead of the AP's with WDS. either way it will run you close to 100 bucks.

 

[Madwand]

If the upstairs router is a Linksys, you can flash it with 3rd-party firmware such as DD-WRT that will add Client Bridge mode to it. Thereafter, it can connect as a client to the downstairs routers, and pass on that internet connection, DHCP, etc., to all the wired clients upstairs.

If your upstairs router is not a Linksys and doesn't support client bridge mode, then you can check if it supports WDS and consider it. Often, with consumer devices, WPA encryption is not supported under WDS. I personally would not accept downgrading security to WEP.

Otherwise, you'll probably have to buy a device that can support wireless client bridge mode. I'd probably try a D-Link DWL-2100AP for this, adding an inexpensive (gigabit!) switch for the wired clients or even using the old router as a dumb switch for this purpose.

(Yes, it's quite silly to apply gigabit after a wireless connection (unless you're talking about 802.11n perhaps) but it can give you wired client to wired client performance improvement if all the other ducks line up..)

 

[mikeyp410]

Yes, I have a couple DLink2100ap's and they are great pieces of hardware.

 

[higginbr]

Ok so here is my plan.

Upstairs:

3 pcs connected via wire to the Buffalo Ethernet Wireless Converter with 4 point switch (WLI-TX4-G54HP-1)

Downstairs:
BT home hub. connected to phones.

This i believe is my best option. Upstairs a very powerful Wireless access point for all the PCs.

Downstairs the wireless routermodem.

This i believe means if i have laptop or phone with wireless downstairs it will connect through the BT routermodem.

If i'm upstairs it will connect through the Buffalo.

 

[mikeyp410]

Sure but you need them to talk to each other the wireless router/modems that is.

 

[higginbr]

Which is exactly what the Buffalo will allow me to do.

 

[higginbr]

Which is exactly what the Buffalo will allow me to do.

Accoding to Buffalo. I connect ing my computer up to the Buffalo converter via ethernet cable. Is just the same as having a wireless card for each PC.

It works for a hub for the PC's that are connected via the wire and also communicates with the router/modem downstair via wireless g

 

[mikeyp410]

IS the segment downstairs workign off a AP or a repeater? You need it as a AP to connect both segments. I know Buffalo has a wireless switching device but took it off the market. Is this what you have? It was taken off the market do to people abusing its MASSIVE POWERS.

 

[Madwand]

Yes, the Buffalo WLI-TX4-G54HP seems to be a wireless client bridge, like the products I mentioned previously, with less flexibility (client bridge only, cannot be used as an AP, router, WDS, etc.), but sufficient for your purposes (you just need a bridge, the AP/router's downstairs), and possibly has greater range / power than some other products.

The following Buffalo products are in the supported hardware list for DD-WRT, so presumably you could add wireless client bridge support to them via this firmware.

Buffalo WHR-G54S
Buffalo WHR-HP-G54S
Buffalo WBR-G54
Buffalo WLA-G54
Buffalo WBR2-G54
Buffalo WBR2-G54S
Buffalo WZR-RS-G54

I'm mentioning this out of interest (and in case you have one of these already upstairs). For someone just starting out and buying a new device, it's probably better to keep it simple and buy a device intended for this functionality and supported by the HW vendor rather than applying a 3rd-party firmware (even though it's better than most vendor-supplied firmware).

 

[higginbr]

Ok this is what i will have upstairs (As far as i know its not been taken of the market. ) connected to 3pcs via ethernet cable

http://www.buffalo-technology.com/products/product-detail.php?productid=127&categoryid=28

I will then use this to connect the 3pcs wireless to the Wireless router with modem downstairs


AS far as i can figure things out should work, right?

 

[Madwand]

Yes, should be dead simple -- basically configure the wireless part (with WPA security) to connect to the downstairs router/AP, connect the wired clients upstairs (reconfigure ethernet if needed / wait for connection time), and you should be running.

 

[higginbr]

Ok can other wireless device connect to the Buffalo.

I'm confused as madwand said it can not be a Access point.
But in my mind if it can recieve wireless from the router/modem why can it not recieve from a wireless device and pass that on to the router?


So it will also enable me to share the internet connection right?

 

[Madwand]

I know it can be confusing. From the docs that I've seen, the WLI-TX4-G54H is just meant to be a simple wireless client bridge. (They call it an Ethernet converter; in networking terms, bridge = converter.)

To get wireless clients also connecting to such a device, you need WDS. However, you don't need wireless clients connecting to this device -- they should be able to connect to the one downstairs directly. If you really want WDS, then you need a different device, and further should check that the device (a) supports your router's WDS (b) supports WPA security over WDS (often there is WPA security, but not over WDS).

 

[higginbr]

No i dont need them to connect i just dont understand. In my mind if it can transmit and recieve to the router/modem. Surely it could recieve info from a laptop and send that to the Router/modem

its not something that i need just trying to figure things out.

Also since i have a free ethernet port. Is there something i could attach that would allow wireless device to connect to it and thus communicate through to the router?

 

[Madwand]

No i dont need them to connect i just dont understand. In my mind if it can transmit and recieve to the router/modem. Surely it could recieve info from a laptop and send that to the Router/modem

its not something that i need just trying to figure things out.

There's a good chance that the underlying hardware has this capability, however, it's packaged and sold as just an "ethernet converter" device, so doesn't have this capability in the software, as we can see from the (very simple) online manual.

It is for this reason that devices such as the Linksys WRT54G and the Buffalo that I listed can be altered using 3rd-party firmware such as DD-WRT to give you much more functionality than came with the device out of the box.

But since we don't know of any 3rd-party firmware that exposes such functionality for the Buffalo ethernet converter, we can't use it as an AP/router/WDS/etc. -- it's just a bridge.

Also since i have a free ethernet port. Is there something i could attach that would allow wireless device to connect to it and thus communicate through to the router?

Hah! Yes, you might be able connect another AP to that port, and use it to host the other wireless client. However, there's a chance that it could get a bit confusing, as the "ethernet converter" might just try to connect to that AP, and then you'd have a circular connection without connection to the router downstairs -- you could probably avoid this situation somehow via configuration (different SSID, etc.), but at this point, you should ask "what's the point of all this complexity, isn't there a simpler solution?".

 

[higginbr]

Once again thank you very much for your response.

So its clear then. The Buffalo will work for the very reason i want it, but only for that reason.

It wont connect to a laptop. and adding a AP to it could cause trouble.
If the laptop feature is something i do want in futre then i best getting something like this

http://www.savastore.com/productinfo/product.aspx?catalog_name=Savastore&product_id=10286691&pid=45&tid=279

correct?

However as its using WDS i will have to find out if its compatible with my router.?

Ok thats the last lot of questions from me.

Thank you all very much for your time and effort.

 

[Madwand]

You got it.

Re: The WLA2-G54L:

Repeater/Bridge function (WDS) is supported only with Buffalo AirStation routers and access points. This device can communicate with other manufacturer's 802.11b and 802.11g client adapters either in bridge/repeater mode or as a stand alone access point.

http://www.buffalotech.com/products/product-detail.php?productid=90&

So officially, it would only do WDS with other Buffalo products.

You're welcome. I'm glad I could help.

 

[mikeyp410]

I believe that the Buffalo routers have WDS. Not sure if they all do but I was looking at some back when I was looking for WDS and found a couple. Or I should say when I was looking for Wireless Switches and that was when I came across the taken off the market one. Found it in Europe...