Redesign of home wifi

[mwahahaha]

Hi Everyone,

I've been meaning to look at my home wifi for a while and recent new iphone arrivals have spurred me on a bit. I'm in the UK so have ADSL broadband via a Linksys AG241 (Custom Pheonix Firmware which is really nice and stable) Wifi is currently just from a Cisco 1100 series access point that was going spare from work a while ago after some upgrades (Currently been up for 25 weeks without reboot which is always nice!) It's broadcasting on 11g.

I used to have an airport extreme in the lounge and express in the bedroom (Also providing for the garden) but the Express just packed up as they seen prone to doing and I sold the extreme and replaced it with the Cisco.

Device wise we have 2 Macbook Pro's and 2x iPhone 4's that use wifi for internet browsing all other devices are connected via ethernet to a Procurve gig switch.

Now do I go for a new Airport Extreme with the dual band wifi, 2.4Ghz N for the iPhones and 5Ghz N for the Macbooks (Maybe 2.4 also depending on the range as I doubt 5Ghz will make it all the way to the garden) they're basically £150 or do I just grab a pair of homeplugs and a G access point - probably something that will support DD-WRT and put that in the bedroom? Transfer speed really isn't that important as wifi is only for browsing (20mbps internet connection) so I'm not fussed about maxing out throughput.

Any other ideas that I haven't thought about and what do you all think?

Cheers,
Dan

 

[thiggins]

What's not working that is making you want to upgrade?

Dual band routers with two radios don't let you set both radios to the same band.

 

[mwahahaha]

Hi, the problem is that since the Airport Express expired suddenly the wifi reception in the bedroom and garden (Through the bedroom window) is not great.

I had wondered if the additional range offered by N wifi over G may suffice as I do get some signal in the bedroom/garden just not great.

 

[thiggins]

Hi, the problem is that since the Airport Express expired suddenly the wifi reception in the bedroom and garden (Through the bedroom window) is not great.

I had wondered if the additional range offered by N wifi over G may suffice as I do get some signal in the bedroom/garden just not great.

Unless you are replacing a very old G router / AP, N doesn't offer increased range. It offers more throughput at a given location when signal levels are strong to moderate.

Under weak signal conditions, N falls back to G and even B connect rates and methods.

So you might notice a difference with an N router. But you might not. Only way to know is to try it.

 

[futonpimp]

I've had good reception levels with my dir-655 all over my apt. If "speed" isn't a concern.. just get a couple of nice N 2.4ghz ap's. Put one in the main area where you will do most of your browsing... and assuming the room closest to the garden has an ethernet connection..stick a ap.. (acting as a bridge) in there.

Should be plenty of signal strength to get off a few bars unless you live in a bunker.

 

[mwahahaha]

Thanks for the replies, I think I might grab a pair of homeplugs and pop another access point in the bedroom as the Airport Express used to be. Probably something running DD-WRT as I've been looking to have a play around with that for a while.