Seeking Better Wireless Solution

[BarkingGhostar]

My cable modem and wireless router reside in a wiring closet, underneath the staircase, in the basement. Using the wireless connectivity feature works fine while in the basement, but not so great on the two floors above.

I am struggling with intermittent connectivity issues and wonder if I could introduce another router. The home has structured wiring, which means from the basement almost every room in the house has CAT drops. In some of these locations, there is an Ethernet switch to branch off to multiple Ethernet devices.

I'm wondering about attaching another wireless router to one of these Ethernet switches and treating it as a wireless hot spot. Mind you I have only one wireless device in the household (wife's new iPad), and one the original router in the basement I have it setup for WPA2 and filter by MAC address.

I figure adding another wireless router to act as an ad-hoc access point might help if placed on the first floor. I only suggest the wireless router as an ad-hoc solution because it seems dedicated wireless AP seems overly priced. I think I could configure the second wireless router for DHCP on the WAN (IP) side, and static an IP on the wireless side.

Thoughts?

 

[her209]

Do you need wireless access in the basement? If not, why not move the wireless router upstairs?

Or if you need wireless access on all three floors, you could set up multiple access points, one on each floor, that connect back to the main router via cable.

EDIT: Probably be a better idea to put a wired router in the basement (which would allow for the other rooms to connect to) and move the wireless router upstairs.

 

[Niker]

I has the same problem as well

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Yes, I do need wireless access in the basement as well. The current wireless router is in the basement because that is the ISP service entry point.

My concern is more of the CM<-->R1<-->SW1<-->R2<--WiFi.

I was figuring the CM has its public address on its WAN port. It has a LAN IP on the 192.168.x.y network, as is the R1's Gateway and LAN addresses. I figured I could configure R2's Gateway address on the same network, but make the LAN-side of R2 on the 10.0.m.n network.

Both R1 and R2 would allow for one MAC filtered, WPA secured (LOL) device. My old wireless router had custom firmware on it and the transmitter signal was run hot (above FCC allowance?), but lightning got the best of it.