Wireless network in a big house?

[elkinm]

I need to make a house wireless. The house is quite big and is mostly brick and concrete and the signal does not travel very far. And it is completely cut off when going between floors.

The house does have Ethernet throughout so there is no problem with multiple access points.

The goal is use multiple access points throughout the house (5-6) in such a way that someone walking around the house with a laptop will never drop the connection.

I am using Buffalo High power routers as access points. I am planning on setting all of them up with the same SSID string on the same wired network. Assign them unique network addresses so each one can be accessed separately.

Will this work like I want it without doing any bridging.

I would also like to setup WPA-AES security on the routers. Will that have a serious affect on speed and range? Also, most of the laptops in the house are MACs which work fine without security, but I don't now if they support WPA-AES. Is it supported by MACs and general windows PCs, and is there a way I can check for MAC compatibility without actually turning it on to test it?

Thank You
elkinm

 

[spidey07]

It should work just fine, there may be a few second delay when the clients roams to another AP. Any client card withing the last 2 years will support wpa-aes.

Must be a huge house because a single AP can easily cover a 4000 sq foot house.

 

[elkinm]

Thanks,
I will give it a shot.
while the house is more then 4000 sq ft, it's not the size that's the probelm. It's the thick brick and concrete walls that are blocking the signal.
With the router close to the stairs, when I whent downstatirs one floor, maybe 10-15 ft from the router, the signal was gone.

 

[spacedebris]

Just thought I'd let you know that I have done a similar install. I live in Mexico now (another story) and just finished building a house that is on about 1/3 of an acre. Here the construction is all steel and concrete and brick with lots of rebar. Not conducive to signal transmission. I wanted to access my connection from anywhere on the property -- inside and out. After a little research, I found that Belkin had some of the best ratings for distance and signal strength. So I got a couple of Belkin G Plus MIMO access points and put them at opposite corners (approximately) of the property. It happens that my bedroom is in one corner and the office in the opposite corner so this was easy. I also ran the cable during construction so that was easy. The system runs like a top and Belkin has been one of the best companies to work with for tech support. Easy replacement if needed, short wait time, knowledgeable staff. A real model of after sale service.

Hope this helps.

 

[elkinm]

Update,

The network works great. If I had known, I would have gone with the WHR-HP-AG108 router as it also supports wireless A for only a little more.

Anyway, the network works just fine, at least for now. I also had an opportunity to try a windows laptop recently. The laptop worked fine and when I moved to a new room the connection seamlessly switched to the closest access point long before the connection got to week unlike the mac. Maybe the mac needs new drivers or something.
Network wise, everything seems great so far.

 

[Ninjazx]

along with checking for new drivers, make sure to check every nook and special option you can find in them (the drivers). Better drivers tend to have some sort of aggressiveness control on searching for, and switching to stronger signals. A small change there can go a long way with that kind of issue.

 

[Metron]

One wireless N class (802.11N) router...