Wired/Wireless AP?

Cook_1

Cook_1

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Aug 2, 2004
Messages
1,250
I want to start off by saying I'm network stupid. I can setup a wireless router and do some basic troubleshooting and that's about the range of my expertise here.

The situation: I have Mediacom cable, the modem is setup in Room A (RA), I used to have my office in RA but moved to Room B (RB) for comfort reasons (RB is a larger room, has a ceiling fan, is on the shady side of the house, etc). This is an old house, I could always hire an electrician to come out and sort this out but that's a last resort. I'm on Wifi in RB, I prefer to be wired but it's not possible to run an ethernet cable from RA to RB as they are on opposite sides of the house.

What I want to do: I know I have an old WiFi router in my closet somewhere, is it possible to turn that into an AP (is that even the right term for it?) and connect it to my existing WiFi network and put it next to my PC in RB and then have a wired connection from my PC to this 2nd router/AP? Is that even a thing? Would that provide a better connection or be beneficial in any way?
 
It is possible to do what you want. It's called bridging, and most APs have an option to configure it. As for results, as long as it's only the one system in that room, it really isn't worth it over using a good wifi adapter on the PC.

If connection stability is an issue for you (I also live in a very old house), consider powerline networking. Uses your power outlets to send a wired signal. Speed depends on the quality and layout of your home electrical system, but I've gotten great results from them.
 
Grebuloner said:
It is possible to do what you want. It's called bridging, and most APs have an option to configure it. As for results, as long as it's only the one system in that room, it really isn't worth it over using a good wifi adapter on the PC.

If connection stability is an issue for you (I also live in a very old house), consider powerline networking. Uses your power outlets to send a wired signal. Speed depends on the quality and layout of your home electrical system, but I've gotten great results from them.
Click to expand...

I'll look into powerline networking, thanks for that tip. I have a mini-itx board so just using the wifi on that. Before I started blindly buying things I wanted to put up a post here.

pendragon1 said:
or if there is coax, look at moca adapters.
Click to expand...

No such luck, just has two outlets.
 
If you're going to do wireless bridging, it's not going to do much better than your computer directly if the access point (in client mode) is right next to it. If you can put the access point in a better spot and use a longish cable in the room, that might help, but probably not a lot.

What's the telephone wiring like? Old houses are less likely to have useful wiring, but sometimes you can repurpose it for ethernet. Sometimes it's old as heck red, green, yellow, black wire with hardly any twists that probably won't do much.
 
toast0 said:
If you're going to do wireless bridging, it's not going to do much better than your computer directly if the access point (in client mode) is right next to it. If you can put the access point in a better spot and use a longish cable in the room, that might help, but probably not a lot.

What's the telephone wiring like? Old houses are less likely to have useful wiring, but sometimes you can repurpose it for ethernet. Sometimes it's old as heck red, green, yellow, black wire with hardly any twists that probably won't do much.
Click to expand...
Even the old telephone wiring can run 1Gbps with a vdsl box like this one:
https://www.netsys-direct.com/colle...t-managed-g-fast-ethernet-extender-nv-450ekit

They're not cheap, but can work very well. I have the 100Mbps version of these that were deployed for over a decade and then removed from service when the property was sold.
 
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