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General discussion

Home Networking Project

May 28, 2005 2:48PM PDT

I'm buying an old home to renovate and am putting rj-45 jacks in just about every room (probably around 9 or 10 total). I want a router that has enough ports to connect to all of these for cable access. I also want to have wireless available throughout the house. The house is very spread out, and I don't think one signal would make it to the opposite end of the house. All of the wireless routers I come across have 4 ports. Any recommendations? If I could find a wireless router with atleast 10 or so ports that would be great. I would also need a range extender though, and I'm not even sure how those work. Give your ideas! Thanks!

Discussion is locked

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I might try the centrally....
May 28, 2005 9:24PM PDT

locate a wireless router to provide the maximum reach to all points of the house. Of course a Pre-N router will give more range and speed as long as Pre-N adapters are used on the other end.

http://compnetworking.about.com/od/wirelessrouters/tp/80211nprenhome.htm

As far as adding more ports to the router, the simple solution is to cascade one port of the router to a 6/8/10 ported switch. This will give you the additional ports you seek.

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Adding the switch...
May 28, 2005 11:38PM PDT

Forgive my ignorance, but you can just connect one of the ports on a switch to one of the ports on a router and it will give you the added ports of the switch with the internet access routed to all of them? I have found 16 port switches online for less than $50. I could just hook up one of these to any wireless router and have the added ports? This sound like a great solution, but I just want to get it confirmed. Thanks!

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Yes, you are correct....
May 29, 2005 1:07AM PDT

this is the method of network expansion even with a single ported router.

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The Pre-N thing
May 29, 2005 5:34AM PDT

I also have a Belkin pre-N wireless router and love it. However, when the handheld phone rings (no wired phones in this house and the same with no wired mice in this house), there are times when one of the laptops gets kicked off the network for a moment. This is because the router and handheld phone I have shares the same frequency range. I just haven't gotten the energy up to get the next up on the phone. We have had no problems with cell phone operation and the router.

The further from the router the more likely you are to experience interference.

The Belkin pre-N flies with no other problems.

Ben

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go wireless
Jun 1, 2005 2:41AM PDT

There is no reason to run cat5 cable all over the place. I have a 7000 square foot house with the router and cable modem at one end and three of my computers at the other end and they run at the 54 mbps of the router. SuperG or whatever the latest technology is would run faster.
Easiest way to tell, get a wireless card for your notebook, hook up a router and walk around the house and see how strong the signal is. There are new "range extending" antennaes that are cheap now also.
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