Wireless Bridge -- Help Needed

[Obiron]

Scenario: I will soon be moving to a friend's house and need some help with a network issue. Friend has Modem/Wireless router in the basement (Router is a Linksys, WRT54GL I believe), and upstairs I will be putting in my home theater setup, including XBox360, PS3, and new Denon AVR-3808, all of which will need network (PS3 is no problem of course since it's wireless, mainly concerned about the other two). The house is not wired with Cat5, so there is no network upstairs.

My plan is to buy a wireless router/bridge/whatever I need to receive the signal upstairs and broadcast it to my equipment via ethernet. Requirements are that it must be wireless as it's not feasible to run ethernet at the moment, must have at least 2-3 ports to plug in my equipment, and preferably connects to a WPA2 network.

Can I just buy another WRT54GL and load dd-wrt to get the desired results? I read something about bridge mode not supporting more than one ethernet port, but another mode working but with less range. Not sure how it would perform in my situation. Also looked at a Cisco WET200 which doesn't appear to play well with third-party firmware, but might do what I need out of the box.

If anyone has any experience with this, you're input would be greatly appreciated. Need tips on what piece of equipment to buy (preferably under or at least close to $100) to make this all work.

Thanks BG!

[Gaea]

Sounds like you want a Wireless Access Point with ports on it.

The only thing I'd be concerned with is the complete lack of LoS (line of sight) with that kind of setup. WiFi of course isn't infrared but a floor can be serious business. Are you sure there's no way you can drill a hole and connect an Access Point from upstairs? You can get 50 feet of CAT5 or CAT6 for nothing at Newegg.

Anyways I'm sure you should be able to get a "decent" signal", but for running all those devices, and simultaneously, at that, especially with something as old as a WRT54G, I'd have doubts.

If you really don't want to run any kind of cable but you can spring to upgrade the network, try something a little more modern like a Wireless-N network. At least for getting the network from the basement to the upstairs. It will be backwards compatible with older G networking. The MIMO improvements of an N network foundation would most likely make this setup work if the integrity of a G signal isn't meeting your needs. The WAP will support the older G network, so you'll have a bit of a hybrid setup here, but if you don't want to run cable and not all of your receivers are 802.11N, it's probably the best solution.

[Blabj]

Run one cable, use router like switch/buy switch. Problem solved!

[Obiron]

I guess I should add that this is somewhat temporary since both responses suggest running cable lol. The upstairs is in the final stages of being upgraded (added fireplace with a cutout above it for hanging a TV) and there is ethernet running from there down into the utility room in the basement. The problem right now isn't the upstairs, but the lack of cabling in the basement. There are 2 PCs in his office in the basement which need to stay wired. Ultimately, the plan is to put a switch in the utility room and wire the rest of the house from there. That may be a while though, we haven't exactly figured out how to cleanly run cable to all the finished rooms in the basement. So the whole house will be wired, but until then I'm hoping for a reasonable in between solution.

I have a wireless-N router that appears to be bricked from a dd-wrt flash, but I'm working on getting that running again. Maybe I'll throw that in the basement and see if that will get a good enough signal upstairs to put the Linksys there. Or maybe it's just time to bite the bullet and start drilling into the walls to run cable. :D

[Gaea]

Run one cable, use router like switch/buy switch. Problem solved!

Again this here as you can see is somewhat the best solution. But I would go with another wireless router or WAP for any upstairs wireless devices.

But yeah, you might have problems just trying to set it up and relying on old wireless G to keep you connected through the floorboards.

[Obiron]

Well, I was putting in an order to monoprice tonight and convinced my friend to add a spool of cat5 to the order. Now we have no choice but to finish the wiring in the house lol. Thanks for the replies, I was hoping for a cheap wireless solution but I'll be happy to have it done right even if it is more work. Just needed to be nudged in the right direction. XD

Also setup an RMA on my bricked router, so I may be able to improve the wireless in the process.