I want to make sure I have got this right.

[imbasic]

Hello all,

This is what I would like to do. I live next door to my brother. Less than a 100 feet separate us. He can bring his laptop over and connect to his wireless network. We got to talking and thought it might be a good idea to extend his network over to my house. We could split the bill if it works. I started researching this and that brought me to back this site. Last time I was here I was researching building a computer.

Please let me know if my understanding of this is flawed. All the information I have read in the last couple of days tells me this should work. Another part of me is going OMG what am I doing.

OK, here it goes. My brother's house has the Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Router running his network. Which is 2 laptops, a Wii, and a wired PC with a printer. Now given my understanding of this all I need on my end is a wireless client. Right? I will be hooking a wired PC, a printer, and a Wii into it.

This is where it is a little confusing. First I was looking at a Linksys WET54G Wireless-G Ethernet Bridge and researching it. Which led me to HOWTO: Use Linksys WRT54G as a wireless ethernet bridge. That thread led me to various other links and information. Now it looks like I have some options here. I could get the linksys wireless ethernet bridge. Or I could go with a router like the BUFFALO WHR-HP-G54 or ASUS WL-520gU and flash it with third party firmware be it Tomato or DD-WRT.

Now I believe what I need is a wireless client since my PC will be hooked into it with a cat 5 ethernet cable. I don't know if the linksys wireless ethernet bridge can do this I think I would need a switch.

Hopefully I have a pretty good grasp of this. Please let me know your thoughts or suggestions on this.

Regards.

 

[fwei]

What version is his wrt54g? Do you have a wireless router already?
If so, then dd-wrt on his wrt54g could extend your wireless router's signal.
Any tomato, and dd-wrt compatible router will work. I suggest going the cheapest route, unless you need something specific.

I'm confused by your last few lines. Why do you need a wireless client?

 

[kevnich2]

You could go with a wireless ethernet bridge or go with any of those devices you listed and flash with DDWRT and then simply put the wireless side in client or client bridge mode and configure it to connect to your brother's wireless. Not difficult at all. Sounds like your already on the right track. The cheapest route would be the router with DDWRT and then configure it as the bridge

 

[imbasic]

Originally posted by: fwei
What version is his wrt54g? Do you have a wireless router already?
If so, then dd-wrt on his wrt54g could extend your wireless router's signal.
Any tomato, and dd-wrt compatible router will work. I suggest going the cheapest route, unless you need something specific.

I'm confused by your last few lines. Why do you need a wireless client?

I don't know what version his wrt54g is I'll check. I have not purchased either a router or a wireless ethernet bridge yet. Sorry for the confusion I should have been more clear and said client mode.

I don't think I will be able to flash his router with dd-wrt or tomato. When I start talking about it his eye's glaze over.

Originally posted by: kevnich2
You could go with a wireless ethernet bridge or go with any of those devices you listed and flash with DDWRT and then simply put the wireless side in client or client bridge mode and configure it to connect to your brother's wireless. Not difficult at all. Sounds like your already on the right track. The cheapest route would be the router with DDWRT and then configure it as the bridge

So I will be able to plug the router set to client mode to the network card on my PC and connect to the internet if it is configured right. Cool! I was not to sure about this. This is my first foray into wireless.

Would I be better off getting the BUFFALO WHR-HP-G54 with the high gain antenna? Would this help in getting a better signal from my brother's router? Right now the signal goes between low and very low depending on where I am in my house.

 

[bobdole369]

Linksys WET54G

Go with this. I do it all the time. Configure it on his LAN first. Take it back home and plug it into your switch and voila - internetz. DD-WRT is better, but the WET54g out of the box will do exactly what you want.

"BUFFALO WHR-HP-G54 with the high gain antenna? Would this help in getting a better signal from my brother's router?"

Overkill and difficult to effectively use - esp for those who don't understand RF, and the expected result (full signal) - doesn't happen. You get more quality signal rather than full bars. Play with positioning - stick it in a window, use foil, etc before spending money on something like that.



Brothers house -------(free air)------- imbasic'sWET54G-----Any Ethernet Switch----Wii, wired PC, tivo, whatever.

"Now I believe what I need is a wireless client since my PC will be hooked into it with a cat 5 ethernet cable."

The WET54G has an ethernet port - you plug that ethernet port into your ethernet switch and you are now part of your brothers LAN. Now you have to handle addressing - either you or your brother will need to supply addresses - it would be easiest to just use the existing WRT54G as the DHCP server. But DHCP over wireless.... iffy.... but it does work. If you don't have a signal, than your own LAN won't get IP addresses.

 

[Madwand1]

Originally posted by: imbasic
Would I be better off getting the BUFFALO WHR-HP-G54 with the high gain antenna? Would this help in getting a better signal from my brother's router? Right now the signal goes between low and very low depending on where I am in my house.

Buffalo wireless products are still hard to find in North America, but this might change before too long.

The WHR-HP-G54 a good choice, but DD-WRT is not easy to set up. There is a version with DD-WRT pre-installed, the WHR-HP-G54DD, which solves that problem if you can find it.

Buffalo also made a similar device, the WLI-TX4-G54HP "Wireless Ethernet Converter". This one has the same sort of radio as the WHR-HP-G54 but comes with bridging in the native firmware with vendor documentation and support.

The standard routers with DD-WRT still have a richer feature set (e.g. client mode bridging + wireless repeating), so if you want the greatest flexibility and don't mind the additional setup effort, that's the way to go. However any of the products should be able to do the job, so if you don't need anything beyond the basic bridging, you could use an off-the-shelf device for setup convenience.

 

[imbasic]

Originally posted by: bobdole369
Linksys WET54G

Go with this. I do it all the time. Configure it on his LAN first. Take it back home and plug it into your switch and voila - internetz. DD-WRT is better, but the WET54g out of the box will do exactly what you want.

"BUFFALO WHR-HP-G54 with the high gain antenna? Would this help in getting a better signal from my brother's router?"

Overkill and difficult to effectively use - esp for those who don't understand RF, and the expected result (full signal) - doesn't happen. You get more quality signal rather than full bars. Play with positioning - stick it in a window, use foil, etc before spending money on something like that.



Brothers house -------(free air)------- imbasic'sWET54G-----Any Ethernet Switch----Wii, wired PC, tivo, whatever.

"Now I believe what I need is a wireless client since my PC will be hooked into it with a cat 5 ethernet cable."

The WET54G has an ethernet port - you plug that ethernet port into your ethernet switch and you are now part of your brothers LAN. Now you have to handle addressing - either you or your brother will need to supply addresses - it would be easiest to just use the existing WRT54G as the DHCP server. But DHCP over wireless.... iffy.... but it does work. If you don't have a signal, than your own LAN won't get IP addresses.

Thanks, appreciate the input. So for the WET54G I would need a ethernet switch. I will have to look into this.

Originally posted by: Madwand1

Originally posted by: imbasic
Would I be better off getting the BUFFALO WHR-HP-G54 with the high gain antenna? Would this help in getting a better signal from my brother's router? Right now the signal goes between low and very low depending on where I am in my house.

Buffalo wireless products are still hard to find in North America, but this might change before too long.

The WHR-HP-G54 a good choice, but DD-WRT is not easy to set up. There is a version with DD-WRT pre-installed, the WHR-HP-G54DD, which solves that problem if you can find it.

Buffalo also made a similar device, the WLI-TX4-G54HP "Wireless Ethernet Converter". This one has the same sort of radio as the WHR-HP-G54 but comes with bridging in the native firmware with vendor documentation and support.

The standard routers with DD-WRT still have a richer feature set (e.g. client mode bridging + wireless repeating), so if you want the greatest flexibility and don't mind the additional setup effort, that's the way to go. However any of the products should be able to do the job, so if you don't need anything beyond the basic bridging, you could use an off-the-shelf device for setup convenience.

Cool! Now I have quite a few options to get this done. The Buffalo WLI-TX4-G54HP is fairly hard to find. I have found the buffalo routers with DD-WRT already flashed for sale.

 

[fwei]

How are the prices of the Bufflo routers you found? I'm guessing pretty high?
I would say to go for the cheapest route for now.

Btw, officedepot has an ethernet switch for $5 or -$5 after rebate. The price changes by the minute.

If you plan on doing this as a long term solution, then I would seriously consider looking for routers/APs with removable antennas.
Hooking up a high gane panel antenna will improve signal significantly. But the problem is the cost, and you have to physically test the connection to see how much improvement in quality.

 

[imbasic]

Not really all that expensive. BUFFALO WHR-HP-G54 Wireless with high gain antenna and flashed with DD-WRT v24SP1 costs less than the WET54G at one site. There is no telling how reputable the online dealer is though.

Then there is the Buffalo WLI-TX4-G54HP. The prices vary significantly for this item. Very hard to find in the USA. Now if I was in the UK it would be easy to get one of these. I am considering having one of these shipped over but I am not sure about the AC adapter that would ship with it though.

Thanks for the pointer on the ethernet switch. The Office Depot by where I live is having a going out of business sale. I aught to go down and see what they have.

 

[fwei]

Here is the name of the actual switch: D-Link DES-1105 5-Port 10/100 Ethernet Switch


The buffalo routers are rated very very high, but I've only found them to be more expensive than other routers. Being the cheap bastard I am, I always go for the cheaper alternative.