[ale] Using wireless between networks

[vf5 at plm.gatech.edu]

On Sat, Apr 30, 2005 at 06:03:06PM -0600, Michael Hirsch wrote:
> My ouse has a wireless router (netgear 802.11g) in one room, but it
> doesn't reach every where.  A lot of the rest of the house is wire for
> ethernet, but not the room with the router (which is where the cable
> modem comes in).  I'd like to Have another wireless box in anonther
> room which would bridge between the wired netwrok in the rest of the
> house and the netgear router.
> 
> How do I do this--this must be a standard thing?  Is this something
> that all wireless routers do automatically?  What feature do I have to
> look for?

I would check the NetGear forums at DSLReports.com for specifics
on your model, which you don't name.

Generally speaking wireless router units do not have this frill.
Meaning the maker takes a wired router, and as cheaply as possible
crams in an Access Point capability. Do not expect to find things
like repeater or WDS or bridging in such units. There are exceptions
of course, the BuffaloTech units, Linksys WRT with 3rd-party firmware, etc.

What you probably should do if your Netgear does not support
wireless bridging or WDS, is buy 2 units that do, and focus
them on each other. I like the Linksys WRT54G and GS units a lot.
3rd party firmware makes Wireless Distribution System mode available
and then it's just a matter of configuring. Disable the DHCP and
routing modes on them if all you want them to do is bridge, connect
up to LAN on each side and off you go.

Alternatively you could buy a unit capable of acting in "AP client" mode
and keep your existing WiFi router. Most however do not support more than
a single client, so you'd have to use an old wired router and you'd
have a double-NAT setup. Works fine just a bit tedious for certain things.
Often these are sold as "Wireless gaming bridges" for XBox and the like
but usually they are not true bridges if they do not support multiple
clients on the wired side.

The best thing you can do for signal is high-gain antenna. Hands-down,
improving the antennas is the schizzle. The rubber ducks the factory puts
on are cheap crap. A better antenna will improve your gain on receive so you
can hear a weak/distant laptop card, as well as focus your transmit
energy in more usefully efficient directions.

This can be as simple as the home-made ones from
http://www.freanntennas.com/