Need some advice?

[Budman]

I have a detached garage that I would like to be able to get faster more reliable WiFi to. I have a model railroad layout in a separate room in the garage. I currently have WiFi out there by using an EDIMAX plug in extender. It shows up as my current router with an EX_2 so I know that it is the extender.
I don't know a whole lot about networking so this was simple and it worked somewhat.
I have purchased a new laptop and want to use my old one to replace an ancient one that dosen't even have bluetooth in my train room. My old laptop only has WiFi for internet connection so I need to upgrade my signal out there.
We have Spectrum internet and are using their Arris modem/router. I want to make this as easy as I can so I don't want to try to hack a bunch of stuff. I do have an older AUS RT-AC68R 802.11ac Wireless-AC1900 router that we were using before Spectrum upgraded us to that Arris router.
The Asus router is currently not being used. I also want to mention that I do have a cat5 cable that runs from the Arris direct to the garage that I installed about 8 yrs ago and that is what I currently use to stream tv from a Roku and for that old ancient laptop to access the internet.

Is there anyway to incorporate that Asus router and have it give me or boost the current wifi signal? If not what would you suggest that is easy to install and configure?

 

[SamirD]

This is easy as cake to do exactly what you want.

Take the Asus and hook a system to it, but keep it disconnected from anything else--enable access point mode on it. Set what ever you want the access point ssid/passwords to be.

Take the cable that plugs into the roku and plug it into the lan on the Asus. Plug another cable from the Asus lan back to the roku so it still has wired access.

Log in to the asus access point via wifi that you set up earlier. That's it!

It should be much more reliable and probably almost as fast as wired now.

 

[Budman]

I forgot to mention that I have a 5 port gig hub out there. I use it to take 1 cable to the Roku and then us the other for that ancient laptop.

SamirD I'm not quite sure I follow you on what you responded back with. See if I got this right.

Take the Asus and hook the old ancient laptop to it via cat5. leave it unplugged from the cat5 cable from the Arris modem. Go into settings and change it over to Access point.
Follow the instructions on screen to change it over. Once I do that then do I hook up the arris cat5 cable to the asus or not?

 

[SamirD]

I forgot to mention that I have a 5 port gig hub out there. I use it to take 1 cable to the Roku and then us the other for that ancient laptop.

SamirD I'm not quite sure I follow you on what you responded back with. See if I got this right.

Take the Asus and hook the old ancient laptop to it via cat5. leave it unplugged from the cat5 cable from the Arris modem. Go into settings and change it over to Access point.
Follow the instructions on screen to change it over. Once I do that then do I hook up the arris cat5 cable to the asus or not?

Even better that you already have a 5 port out there. Once you have the Asus working you can replace it with the Asus (since it has a 4-port built-in) or just keep it there. But let's get to your question...

Yep, you got it--basically set the Asus to access point mode and then hook it into the rest of the network. The reason for not connecting it to the network before you do this is that if it's in router mode it would probably fight with the spectrum router already on the network and break the network (easily fixable by unplugging the Asus, but a pita anyways). Once the Asus is in AP mode, it should get an IP from the spectrum router (if it even needs one) and will simply bridge any wirelessly connected devices to the wired network--should be a really nice and stable connection too since it's all in one room.

 

[Budman]

Even better that you already have a 5 port out there. Once you have the Asus working you can replace it with the Asus (since it has a 4-port built-in) or just keep it there. But let's get to your question...

Yep, you got it--basically set the Asus to access point mode and then hook it into the rest of the network. The reason for not connecting it to the network before you do this is that if it's in router mode it would probably fight with the spectrum router already on the network and break the network (easily fixable by unplugging the Asus, but a pita anyways). Once the Asus is in AP mode, it should get an IP from the spectrum router (if it even needs one) and will simply bridge any wirelessly connected devices to the wired network--should be a really nice and stable connection too since it's all in one room.

Thanks SamirD... It is up and running with the same speeds as off the spectrum router. It was easy peasy.

 

[SamirD]

Thanks SamirD... It is up and running with the same speeds as off the spectrum router. It was easy peasy.

You're welcome! Glad you were able to get the setup done with little effort.

 

[Budman]

One more question on this. Now that I have the Asus as an access point how do I go back into it. I can't figure out how to access the Asus menu. How do I find it's IP address?

Update: I bought a new Dell laptop and have moved my HP laptop out to my trainroom and got rid of the ancient dell. With this router as an access point it is such an improvement. This HP only has wifi so I can't direct wire it. The new Dell has both so if needed I can still connect to Asus via cat5.

Thanks to any & all that read and respond to this post.

 

[SamirD]

One more question on this. Now that I have the Asus as an access point how do I go back into it. I can't figure out how to access the Asus menu. How do I find it's IP address?

Update: I bought a new Dell laptop and have moved my HP laptop out to my trainroom and got rid of the ancient dell. With this router as an access point it is such an improvement. This HP only has wifi so I can't direct wire it. The new Dell has both so if needed I can still connect to Asus via cat5.

Thanks to any & all that read and respond to this post.

It depends on the model, but my Asus will pull a DHCP IP address that I can access it with even when it is in AP mode. If you can log into your spectrum and see a list of dhcp clients, you can find it that way. Or you can use tools to look at all the devices on your network, or you can simply ping every IP in your subnet and then try the ones that respond in a browser--this is the hardest way, but has usually worked when I couldn't find a device that I know is there.

 

[Budman]

I ended up having to ping my subnet & it was the 5th ping. Took about 2 min but found it and was able to log in.

Thanks again for all your help on this.