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OK.....8 Station switch + another Wireless Router????

redgtxdi

redgtxdi

Diamond Member
Forgive me, I'm not a network guru but I'm trying to help a buddy who's small little office is growing out of control.

He hard-wired up a whole 8 station router system.....(I believe at that point they're called a hub/switch??).........anyway.........all but one port is used & he's out of lines in the office area and wants to go back to the warehouse area & thinks WiFi would be a great idea for those computers back there!!

Soooooo...............what's the best way for him to go about that with ONE modem for the whole place............(obviously, he wants every PC to have internet access).

I told him perhaps the modem's signal can be split, then sent to the 2 routers & then all the PC's in the back of the building could just run off the wireless router, but then I thought about WiFi AP's but don't know exactly how they work & where they'd run in line with the current modem & router.

TIA as this networking stuff razzles my brain!!!!!!! 😕
 
I'm not sure if I fully understand the current situation. Are you saying that there are 10 computers hooked up to a device (probably a hub or switch)? He now wants to connect a bunch of computers in the warehouse but since there is only one port left on the device, he can't connect them up?

If this is the case, there are a few options. The best choice will largely depend on the physical layout of the area.

1. How are the new computers in the warehouse laid out? ie. is it easy to run a cable from each machine to a central location?
2. How difficult is it to run ONE wire to the warehouse from the existing hub?
3. How far is the warehouse to the rest of the network?
4. How many new computers are there?

Wireless is an option, but you don't need two routers. Most consumers by WiFi APs that are infact routers (actual WiFi APs are more expensive and offer features not usually needed fro the average consumer). Each new computer would of course also have a wireless card.

An alternative option is to connect a new switch to the existing network by running one ethernet wire out to the existing network and connecting the switch to the existing hub (you'd actually want to swap the two, but that's just a detail). Next, connect all the new computers in the warehouse up to the switch. They will join the existing network.

Yet another option is the use a combination of these two ideas...it all depends on the situation and how the devices are positioned relative to each other.
 
hey networking inst that hard...anyway what id recomend is if it was at all possible for him to run a wired connection to that machine in the back of the warehouse.... or one line then trunk it into a switch, then from a switch to the machine either way... theres usually an amount of latency in wireless connections that and among security and other issues id try to keep it wired if at all possible....
 
There are few ways to resolve it, and since it involves Wireless, the best one would depend on the specific nature of the environment.

As an example you can buy a regular Wireless Router, put it in the warehouse and connect it with a Cable to the Main Router Switch (instructions here, Using a Wireless Cable/DSL Router as a Switch with an Access Point ).

The result would be three available Wired ports in the warehouse and Wireless Capacity as well.

If you want to avoid the Cable and the general environment is Wireless friendly you might be able to Bridge Wirelessly ( http://www.ezlan.net/bridging.html ).

:sun:

P.S. Win XP Pro support up to 10 concurrent Network connections.
So it seems that you friend is approaching the max that would work on his peer-to-peer Network.

Therefore, in the near future a Window SBS probably would be needed.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/sbs/default.mspx
 
Thanks very much gang!

There is about 50 feet's distance to the back of his warehouse. Yes, it would be wireless friendly. There's a florist next door & they even have a wireless setup over there and it's totally unprotected, but rather than just hop on their network, he really wants to set up his own.

I ***think*** the easiest way would be to use the one available *out* port on his switch to hook up a WiFi AP and then let that AP handle the extra 2 or 3 computers he wants to put out back. (3 more would make 10 in total.........***Yes, I edited the title to show "8" port switch).

And, yes, I also made him aware that each new PC would need a wireless card or usb wifi device or some such wifi transceiver.

The physical make of the building is such a jumbled mess and the 8 port switch is currently in such a remote corner of the building, that I really think the wireless AP is the best option in this case.

***BUT***

Just so I understand correctly............if I convinced him to go *wired*, he ****could**** use that last port to run a single wire out to the warehouse and setup another router/switch out there???
 
Yes, the remaining port on the switch can be attached to an additional switch (which the new machines can connect to). Attaching a router to the existing switch would not be advisable as it will segregate the network into 2 halves, ie computers on different sides will not be able to access each other easily. A strickly wired network will be the more reliable and fastest.

That being said, 50 feet is within the range for wireless access, and if the environment is mostly empty (ie few walls seperating the computers and the AP), you could probably get decent speeds. Should be fine for internet access. Transfer speeds btw wireless computers and wired ones should also be resonable. Speeds btw two wireless clients will be rather poor though.

The wireless bridge idea might work well, but this type of setup is a little more complicated. It would require getting a wireless routers, plus, either (1) a second wireless router capable of bridging or (2) a computer with a wireless card + ethernet card running a system capable of bridging networks (Windows XP Pro is able to, don't know about XP Home).

 
how will adding another switch off of the first one make it "harder " for the computers to access ones on the other switch? i mean technically it might add a milasec or two on ping times but for this setup i dont see an issues in running a drop to the back warehouse and adding a switch there then running drops to the stations from switch two.... youll have more latency in adding them as wireless devices than wired... something about a 50 dollare wireless router handling packets form multiple machines at once.... jsut my two cents sorry diddnt mean to sound mean there
 
also on a security point id avoid seting them up wirelessly anytime im looking at a network thats the first place i go to ie the setup would be somewhat like this :internet: -> :router: -> :switch 1: -> :switch 2: with computers off of the switches... if your router has switch one on it then thats cool too itll pass dhcp addresses over to the other one just fine
 
also if hes lookign for storage solutions instead of windows file sharing on an individuel computer look into this www.freenas.org its a badass little linux nas device thats really easy to setup and admin or for somethign even beefier id look int clark connect thats really eays to setup and admin also keep all your shares in one place maybe a few wired print servers too if he dosent want to upgrade to 03sbs
 
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