Router recommendations

[Grey Jorildyn]

OK so a few years back my aprents made their house bigger and it's about 1600 sq. Ft. Now. They used to be able to get wifi in the entire house with a modem and wireless router on the 1st and 3rd floors. Recently they bought an additional modem and router and they placed the 1st floor ones in the east and west wings of the house. They did this because even with the single one dead center in the house, the signal didn't reach their bedrooms or offices. Problem is they are paying for an additional modem now and there is still almost no signal if you're standing in the middle of the house. So my question is is there a router that can cover the entirety of a house that big so they can stop paying for one or two extra modems? They don't care much about the third floor really though, just the first. Any recommendations?

Edit: currently using dinky netgear router and i think one is a small d-link.

[Blabj]

Yes there are routers that will do it, I can't tell you what ones off the top of my head, but what you're getting to is specialised public networking for hotspots (given that you refer to different sides of the house as "wings" I can only imagine we're talking about a pretty big place.) I would find out if there are any networking specialists in the area and ask them if they can give you a quote, the stuff they'll provide you with will be rock solid, and as an added bonus they'll come to your place and install it all for you!

Alternatively, if you're looking to save a bit of money, you can daisy chain a few routers together by using repeaters. This is very easy to do if your router supports DD-WRT or similar unofficial firmware, and provided you get adequate placement throughout your house, you should be able to chain 3 or more routers together to create adequate signal strength all over.

Other options are the mains adapters for sending a network signal around your house's electrical wiring, and running a standard cat-5e cable from where the internet comes in, to somewhere else in the house and setting up repeaters from there. I'll wait for a reply before going into any more detail...

[bungiefan]

You shouldn't need a seperate modem for each area. If you set the routers to be signal repeaters, either by buying one with that feature, or using something like DD-WRT to turn one into a repeater, you can put the routers in range of each other and they will pass network information where it needs to go, and cover the whole house in one wireless network. That way you have the mobility without jumping to different networks just because you changed rooms, all the routers will use the same modem and provide the same network. Also, you want to put the routers in as central of an area as possible, so if you have three floors, put it on the second. Wireless N will also give you longer range than wireless G.

[Gippo]

Make sure the router you have is a wireless N router. They offer the best in signal strength and range.

If you have that, then you can use what is called a wireless range extender. These are basically repeater stations that enhance a wi-fi network. Most will maximize efficiency if you use one that is identical to the brand of your main wireless N router.

If you're using a D-Link router, I recommend this: http://www.amazon.com/D-Link-DWL-G71.../dp/B0006698SS , this will be able to communicate with your original D-Link router by as much as 350feet away. Use 2 of these, and you're pretty much set, as long as you dont live in a castle with 4feet thick concrete floors.

If your sticking with your Netgear, they do make extenders, as in here: http://www.ecost.com/detail.aspx?edp...LAID=366949374
but I dont have any experience so I cant recommend if its a good buy.

[Killgannon]

you could get N and extend the network, however it will cost you more than using G and making repeaters, why? because you will likely have to upgrade the wifi card in EVERY PC in the house to one that supports N, going G and using repeaters is the cheaper route here

[bungiefan]

Wireless G works on N networks, and vice versa, you just run at the lowest speed of any active device on the network. They're both on the 2.4 GHz radio band, and they can talk to each other. Wireless A is the one on a different frequency that you have to have a compatible card for. Even B can work on an N network as long as the network is set to allow mixed speeds and protocols. Otherwise you'd be stuck with things like the PSP and DS that don't have upgradable WiFi cards.

N actually has situations where it can be less desirable, such as here in Alaska where the fastest broadband connection is 12 Mbps in the biggest city, and if you live in an apartment building you want to minimize your range so as not to share radio time and possibly network information with a bunch of other people. Overlapping a bunch of networks is bad with so few channels to be on, and WiFi being like a walkie-talkie system.

[Nyima]

I'm confused as to how you're having problems without 1600 sq ft spread out over 3 floors.

Anyways I would stay away from Dlink I have one of their routers right now and it has a horrible problem with packet loss and has to constantly be reset to clear up the problem. It is extremely irritating having to unplug the router in the middle of a game because it suddenly decided to take a break.

[Ratatapa]

I'm confused as to how you're having problems without 1600 sq ft spread out over 3 floors.

Anyways I would stay away from Dlink I have one of their routers right now and it has a horrible problem with packet loss and has to constantly be reset to clear up the problem. It is extremely irritating having to unplug the router in the middle of a game because it suddenly decided to take a break.

Depends what the materials the walls are

personally i love the linksys wrt 160n