Home Network Query

neilc

Hi everyone, first post here, I'm normally hanging out over in A/R/T.

Background
I built a house 5 years ago and wired CAT 5 pretty much everywhere. I only wired one cable to most locations though and at this stage it's not really possible to do much more hard wiring. Page one of the attached pdf shows my current network. It's kind of evolved into what it is today without any planning at all really. Until now its pretty much worked ok but with some recent changes it's no longer fully suitable (or I'm not able to configure it properly if it is).

I started off with the Draytek wireless 3G router but because of it's location in the house to get decent 3G reception the WLAN reception in most of the house is weak. To improve this I added the Belkin wireless router which solved the problem. The only thing was I now had two WLAN's.

As I said earlier this worked fine for a while but I recently got a new appleTV for the house and moved the old one out in front of the treadmill in the garage. Neither WLAN signal is strong enough to pickup in the garage but I do have a CAT 5 cable out there. The problem with that is it's wired back to the Draytek but the computer (MacBook)it's meant to connect to connects wirelessly to the Belkin (Draytek signal not strong enough). So because they're not on the same network they don't see each other.

Page 2 on the attached pdf is my uneducated proposed solution to the problem which I will be able to do with my current wiring configuration. I plan on turning off WLAN on the Draytek which will leave me with with one WLAN. Does the new proposed network look like it would work better. If so can anyone recommend a suitable switch. Also for the garage I was planning on getting some sort of wireless extender which I could plug into the CAT 5 that's running out there. The only thing for it to work it would need to extend WLAN 1 rather than create a new WLAN. Does such a product exist and if so can anyone recommend one. If I had to I could hard wire the garage AppleTV but it would be nice to have the WLAN out there.

Sorry to be so long winded, any help appreciated.

Zab

Sounds like you have double NAT because you plugged the 3G router into the WAN port on the Dreytek. This is unecessary, you can plug it into one of the LAN ports and disable DHCP. See http://www.speedguide.net/articles/how-to-set-a-wireless-router-as-an-access-point-2556

neilc

Zab wrote: »

Sounds like you have double NAT because you plugged the 3G router into the WAN port on the Dreytek. This is unecessary, you can plug it into one of the LAN ports and disable DHCP. See http://www.speedguide.net/articles/how-to-set-a-wireless-router-as-an-access-point-2556

Thanks a mill Zab, I think I might be just about able to follow that tutorial. Out of interest do you think my page two network would work with the Belkin as an access point and another separate access point in the garage connected as the diagram shows. If so any suggestion on the switch and access point. I think I need to invest in a switch anyway.
Neil

Zab

I assume from your post that you realized I meant the Belkin when I said Draytek in my first post.

Your proposed network would work, kind of, but there are some unnecessary things.

To start with you can create two APs (or three) with the same SSID and encryption settings but set them both to use different channels. This will allow your devices to seamlessly change form one AP to another. This includes your original Draytek.

A more standard setup would have (in your second diagram) the switch hanging off the Draytek and everything else hanging off the switch, including the Belkin and the second AP. However, the 16 port switch is totally optional. There's one built into your Belkin (and probably the Draytek too) so if you have enough ports already then there's no need for it.

The WLAN 1 extender: This is just another AP. You can use another wifi router set up like the Belkin if you have one handy or if it's easier than getting a plain AP. Use different wifi channels for all your APs ( wifi channels overlap so use 1, 5, 9 if you're using both 802.11g an n)

neilc

Zab wrote: »

I assume from your post that you realized I meant the Belkin when I said Draytek in my first post.

Your proposed network would work, kind of, but there are some unnecessary things.

To start with you can create two APs (or three) with the same SSID and encryption settings but set them both to use different channels. This will allow your devices to seamlessly change form one AP to another. This includes your original Draytek.

A more standard setup would have (in your second diagram) the switch hanging off the Draytek and everything else hanging off the switch, including the Belkin and the second AP. However, the 16 port switch is totally optional. There's one built into your Belkin (and probably the Draytek too) so if you have enough ports already then there's no need for it.

The WLAN 1 extender: This is just another AP. You can use another wifi router set up like the Belkin if you have one handy or if it's easier than getting a plain AP. Use different wifi channels for all your APs ( wifi channels overlap so use 1, 5, 9 if you're using both 802.11g an n)

Thanks very much Zab, yeah I now understand what I need to do.
Neil

Tenshot

neilc wrote: »

Thanks very much Zab, yeah I now understand what I need to do.
Neil

Zab covered everything pretty well there, just one other comment.

You said at the start you had only one cable to each location, as if this was a limitation. If you need any additional points at any of the locations currently serviced by one cable, just add a cheap network switch to that room (a 5-port 10x100 switch should only cost about EU20).

You could also use any spare router/modem with a 4-port switch in the back, as long as you remember to turn off DHCP on it first -- just connect the wall socket to any of the LAN ports on the switch and you'll have three or four additional ports free to use for equipment within the room. (Leave the WAN port, if any, unconnected.)

One additional point re cabling: if you're stuck with a single CAT5 cable to a room and you really want to get both phone and network into the room, you can split the cable between two sockets: network (orange & green pairs) and phone (blue & brown pairs), as long as you do it the same at both ends. Not ideal, but works fine for home use. Of course, you won't be able to run Gigabit Ethernet over the cable, but that's generally not a big deal for home use.