Questions about an 802.11b Wireless Access Point

[LiQiCE]

I just saw this WAP in the hot deals forum: Link

Now my question is, if I bought lets say 2 or 3 of these WAPs, and combined them with a Wireless Cable/DSL router, would this effectively give me a better range for Wireless connectivity? What I mean is, if I have my Cable/DSL Wireless router on the 3rd floor, and I put a wireless access point on the 2nd floor and the 1st floor of my townhouse, would I be able to access the Internet on the first floor if lets say I couldn't access with just the router, since the 3rd floor is too far away to get connectivity on the first floor?

Additionally, this WAP has an Ethernet port. I have an X-Box which only has an Ethernet port. If I plug the X-Box into the Ethernet port, will I be able to access the Internet and other clients (like other X-Boxes) ? For the money, this maybe a relatively cost effective way to get my entire house connected without needing to run Cat 5e or Cat 6 in my house. My roomate would need to buy a 802.11b Wireless card, but I wouldn't since I could connect to one of the wired ports on the wireless access router ... So my only cost would be 2 WAPs and 1 Wireless router (or maybe even only 1 WAP and the router if I can skip the 2nd floor and just put one on the first and one on the third).

This WAP supposedly can do 40-bit encryption with no loss in throughput as well, which sounds pretty nice (Practically Networked Review: Link)

Also, if I happened to get a Laptop or some other wireless device and walked out of range from one access point to another, is the network smart enough to simply pass my data onto the next access point?

Thanks for anyone who can help answer these questions. I havent had much experience with a Wireless network, so any help you can provide is appreciated!!!

 

[JackMDS]

It is not so simple.

If you plug the WAPs locally, i.e. 3 WAPs, in the same room plugged to the Router. However, you will not don't get more coverage.

If you put one WAP on each floor without CAT5, then the WAP has to be connected in Bridge Mode to talk to the Main Wireless WAP. While it is in Bridge Mode it can not talk to the Wireless Client Cards.

Functional setting will be:

Option1 : One CAT5 Cable from the main Router to each floor. A WAP is connected to the cable on the floor, and the floor is covered with the WAP wirelessly.

Option 2: A WAP in a bridge mode on each floor. The WAP is connected to a Hub/Switch, and the clients get connected via local CAT5 wires on each floor

You can cover every thing with no Wires, but it is more costly and complicated then buying 2-3 WAPs.

BTW, The D-Link supposes to work like as WAP, or a Bridge.
I never tried it, but take a look what this guy says:

A Quote from: http://www.practicallynetworked.com/opinions/?pid=365&pg=2&p=

BOTTOM LINE: This product is not a bridge
REALITY vs. EXPECTATIONS: worse than I expected.
DETAILS: D-Link advertises the DWL-1000AP as a "bridge to ethernet" on their website. Unfortunately, this is simply not true. I knew I was in trouble when I cracked open the 1000AP user manual and started seeing things like "DHCP," "MAC address," etc. In other words, things are one or two OSI layers /above/ what a true bridge should be concerned with. At any rate, the only reason I purchased this product was to save me from stringing a very long wire down a floor and over a couple rooms in my basement. The intention was to have something looking like this: Hub-------1000AP))))))(((((((1000AP---------HUB where ------ is a wire and )))((( is radio. Despite the manufacturer's claims, this product is incapable of functioning as a true bridge in this fashion. If you are looking for this type of functionality I suggest the new Linksys access point, which can be dumbed down to peform point-to-point and point-to-multipoint bridging.

 

[LiQiCE]

So I guess I would have to purchase something like this to actually achieve my goal huh? : Link

The question of course is, can I plug that into my X-Box and get the desired result? And the Router version of that WAP says it can't share, so I guess I would need to buy a separate wired router then I guess, right?

 

[Thor86]

The 2nd generation Linksys WAP11 supports bridging functionalities, but can only be used as an Access point or Bridge, and not both at the same time. But, what do you expect for under 150 bucks? If you are looking to get an Access point that has some decent range, well you can get the linksys unit and replace the antennas with higher signal output to effectively increase the access point coverage distance. Here is a link for Antenna boosters for Linksys products.

 

[boyRacer]

Wow... those are expensive antennas... :Q LOL... mine is only 25ft away from my router so i guess this is no use for me...

 

[Garet Jax]

Originally posted by: Thor86
Here is a link for Antenna boosters for Linksys products.

Fixed Link