two WRT54G

[lovalles]

i have on my house 2 routers for the 2 floors
i got one connected to the dsl router and works fine on all the computers on the first floor, but the computers connected to the other wrt54g cant connect to internet?
what could be wrong?

any help?
lovalles

 

[bcastner]

You have to setup the WRT54G so that it act like an access point.

Connect the second WRT54G directly to your computer, set a static IP of 192.168.1.10 on your computer, and run IE to connect to the WRT54G.

In the web-based setup set a static IP of 192.168.1.2 for the router, subnet 255.255.255.0, Gateway 192.168.1.1. Disable DHCP. Set the WRT54G to router and not Gateway mode. Set the SSID and WEP identical to your first WRT54G, but give it a different channel number. If you used 6 on the first router, use 1 or 11 on the second.

Unplug everything. Take a straight-thru patch cable and run from a regular LAN port on the first WRT54G to the uplink port (not the WAN port) of the second WRT54G you just configured.

Done.

 

[lovalles]

i understud everything but insted of connecting a straight-thru patch cable from the first to the second WRT54G cant they communicated wireless in the same channel?
why do i have to use differents channels?

thanks
lovalles

 

[bcastner]

Neither the WRT54G, nor the WAP54G can act as repeaters. They require a wired connection. I do not know of anyone at the SOHO class level who is offering a 802.11g repeater. Cisco does offer one, but it is $3,500.

If your primary need is internet access, and LAN transfers are relatively less an issue, you could do either:

1. Powerline ethernet bridges between router #1 and router #2. I have used the Sieman's powerline adapters in exactly this fashion. They operate at 14 mbs, which is likely substantially faster than your internet connection. They are low latency. I just bought two for $79.99 after rebates from CompUsa.

2. You could use an 802.11b wireless ethernet bridge, or an 802.11g wireless ethernet bridge. Linksys is the only manufacturer I know of for these items. The briddge device would provide the wireless-to-wired connection you need between router #1 and router #2. A WET11 will run about $90; the WET54G (if you can find one) about $180.

Since you can move the location of the second wireless router around with some freedom, why not see if you cannot run a piece of CAT 5 cable to tie the two routers together? If the house has central air or heating, you can run through the ducts. Total cost would be less than $10 in parts.

Q2: Why do they need different channels? So they do not interfere with each other. Traditionally access points are spread out in a channel 1-6-11 sequence.