Home setup question, range extension etc

[db9]

Hello, looking for suggestions. We live in a older home - single story, with a finished basement. I have the ability to add CAT 5 in the basement and have done this. This is where the bulk of the computers are - 2PC (1G ports) and older PC (100 port) running FreeNAS, a Xbox 360 with a USB 'G' adapter. I'm on DSL - modem supplies a WRT54GL (Tomato) with a ASUS 520GU as the G WiFi and print server.
I have 2 laptops (both MAC's) that move about the house. Because of the home layout and the fact the furnace and ducting makes it difficult to get a strong signal from the 520GU upstairs (main floor). I do not have an option to add a CAT 5 cable from downstairs to upstairs.

I would like to rework the system behind the WRT54GL to move to possibly dual band - G for the xbox and N for the laptops and enough speed to stream audio and video to upstairs wirelessly (from the NAS box to the laptops)

What hardware or combination of hardware could I use to extend the range - can I wirelessly connect 2 routers on the same channel and SSID? To feed the signal from downstairs to upstairs.

Any suggestions?

Regards
Stephen

 

[stevech]

second "router" would be an access point (AP). An AP goes nearer the area of poor coverage and connects by cat5 cable to a switch or router.

You can purchase an AP, or fake any router to be an AP. There's a FAQ here for that.

What I use is a pair of MoCA devices, to move 70Mbps through the house's TV coax to other places. At that point, I have an ethernet switch to which is connected devices, PCs and an AP. I did this instead of cat5 runs.

 

[db9]

Thank you for asking the time to answer.. I will look into the MoCA devices.

 

[memilanuk]

I have a similar situation, in that some of my stuff is downstairs in the basement where the ducting makes wifi weak at best. I picked up a set of Netgear HomePlugAV adapters from the local Staples, and use them to connect upstairs to downstairs. They aren't super fast compared to gigabit or even regular 10/100 ethernet, but still considerably faster than wifi especially in a situation like this. Literally plug-n-play, which was nice