How to add wired and wireless to another part of the house?

[gtdriski]

We have a home office in our basement on one end of our house. Our DSL Modem and Wireless Router are in this room. Because of this we have very weak wireless signal upstairs on the opposite end of the house & also no wired outlets there.

I want to remedy this. I can run a cat5 or cat6 cable from the existing router to the upstairs location, and I plan to do this. Then I can add a new Wireless AP & wired outlets. I believe I can accomplish this with a switch and a new Wireless AP. Am I correct? Also, is there any equipment available that combines both a switch and Wireless AP in one device? I would also welcome any device recommendations. The reasons for doing this is to bring a connection to a TV with Internet connectivity and wireless access for our Smartphones and laptops in all parts of the house.

Your advice is appreciated.

Thanks, Gary

 

[claykin]

You can purchase a wireless router and convert into an access point. Once converted into an access point, the 4 LAN ports can be used like a switch. So, you'd connect one of the 4 LAN ports to the Cat5e cable you run from downstairs and that connects the access point to your LAN. Now you have 3 available ports to use for other devices.

See this article on converting a router into an access point.

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...onvert-a-wireless-router-into-an-access-point

I recommend a Netgear WNDR3700.

 

[gtdriski]

Great, I was actually thinking about replacing my Linksys WRT54GL Wireless router with an ASUS RT-N56U. This means I can put the WRT54GL upstairs and follow your article to convert it to an access point with switch.

One of the devices I want to connect is a new LG LCD TV with an Ethernet port. However, in the documentation, I can't find what speeds the port supports. Do you know if any new TVs support Gigabit?

Thanks again, Gary

 

[claykin]

TV Ethernet ports are typically 100Mb/s.