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Posted by Bob Simon on August 9, 2008, 3:27 pm
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wrote:
>wrote:
>
>>I set up a wireless router in my upstairs home office (providing good
>>coverage for the second floor) and a second one downstairs in the
>>living room where signal strength is too low to be useful. There are
>>probably lots of different ways to do this but I would like feedback
>>on the theoretical as well as practical pros and cons of two
>>approaches:
>>
>>1) One wired network (192.168.0.0) connecting the LAN port of the DSL
>>modem and the WAN ports of both wireless routers. Each router would
>>give out their own small pool of DHCP addresses, 192.168.1.0 upstairs
>>and 192.168.2.0 downstairs.
>
>this one stops you sharing files / printers etc between devices
>attached to the 2 routers.
>
>It is difficult to connect if your modem only has 1 Ethernet port.
>
>it also breaks down completely if the provider only allows you a
>single WAN IP address at a time....
>>
>>2) The wireless router upstairs would be the only one with DHCP
>>enabled and would connect to the one downstairs via the LAN-side
>>switch. In effect, this turns the downstairs router into a bridged
>>access point.
>
>this is more common (mainly because SOHO routers are cheaper than
>dedicated access points).
>You are using the LAN only box as a switch / access point only.
>Some boxes have "AP only" mode this as a setup option.
>
>>
>>Are both approaches equally valid?
>
>no - 1st one doesnt work if you only get 1 address.
I hooked up my two routers as per the second design and everything
works except roaming. I set the SSID and WEP keys the same and put
one router on channel 1 and the other on channel 6. When I go from my
upstairs office to the living room, the signal strength meter displays
zero or one bar but XP does not switch to the downstairs AP unless I
disable or disconnect the wireless connection. When I re-enable or
re-connect, I get five bars. Can this switchover be made to occur
automatically?
Also, I don't understand your comment that my first design won't work
because
>it also breaks down completely if the provider only allows you a
>single WAN IP address at a time....
My ISP provides a single public static IP address to the WAN port of
the DSL modem. But since this modem does NAT, it should be able to
handle mulitple inside hosts with private addresses up to the limit of
its ability to handle translations without excessive delay. Right?
--
Bob Simon
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