network question

A friend has a pretty large house. His wireless router and three desktops
are upstairs. All three desktops are wired to the wireless router. His
laptop is used downstairs and connects wirelessly but the signal is very
weak so he ran an Ethernet cable downstairs and added another wireless
router to improve the signal strength. When he connects to the wireless
router downstairs, he can't see the wired computers connected to the
wireless router upstairs nor the shared printer upstairs. When he connects
to the wireless router upstairs, he can see the other computers and connect
to the shared printer. All computer connect to the same network (MSHOME).

How do I get him to see the computers and printer upstairs when he is
connected to the router downstairs?

"WSZsr" wrote in message
...
A friend has a pretty large house. His wireless router and three desktops
are upstairs. All three desktops are wired to the wireless router. His
laptop is used downstairs and connects wirelessly but the signal is very
weak so he ran an Ethernet cable downstairs and added another wireless
router to improve the signal strength. When he connects to the wireless
router downstairs, he can't see the wired computers connected to the
wireless router upstairs nor the shared printer upstairs. When he connects
to the wireless router upstairs, he can see the other computers and connect
to the shared printer. All computer connect to the same network (MSHOME).

How do I get him to see the computers and printer upstairs when he is
connected to the router downstairs?


1) he may have to assign the 2nd router a static IP address within the first
router, and...........

2) he's going to have to be sure the downstairs router is broadcasting on a
different channel (and to prevent confusion, with a different SSID)......
and.........

3) he might've instead tried using a WAP, or a repeater, or even a larger
antenna.


fwiw

Hi!

His laptop is used downstairs and connects wirelessly but the signal
is very weak so he ran an Ethernet cable downstairs and added
another wireless router to improve the signal strength.

How do I get him to see the computers and printer upstairs when
he is connected to the router downstairs?

What your friend needs is a router that can operate in so-called
"access point" mode*. If this is supported, it will be in the web-
based configuration interface somewhere. This mode would be selected,
and the router would be given an IP address. The cable coming from the
network upstairs should be plugged into one of the four ports that
make up the switch on the router, and not the "WAN" port.

At that point, the network should work as expected.

William

* that's not entirely true. Having a dedicated "access point only"
does simplify things a little bit. I am using a D-Link DI-524 router
that has no option to be configured as an access point only. However,
it works fine when used only as an access point. All I had to do was
disable the DHCP server, assign it a unique IP address and ignore the
WAN port on the back of it.

i think you got some good replies, but i would first ask this...
what wireless router is being used upstairs? i have found tremendous range
extension by replacing the old linksys wrt54g routers with the newer wrt160n
which are not very expensive. replacing the upsaitrs router alone could
solve the problem of poor wireless signal strength downstairs from the
upstairs wireless router.
alternatively, instead of a using a router downstairs (that ends up
isolating the downstairs network from the upstairs network) you could use a
wireless access point downstairs conencted to that eathernet cable that you
described . if you tell us the make/model of the downstairs router we could
possibly tell you if it can be reconfigured as an access point, or if it is
one that can have its firmware replaced with a new operating system that
allows it to be configured as an access point. or you could just buy one of
these $60 access points, but it is good to stick with the same brand as your
upstairs router:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833124012
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833127146
or this higly verstile and small access point from asus which can be used as
a access point, a bridge, or wireless adapter. the versitility of this
device does in turn make it a little more confusing to setup, and i believe
that is what has kept it from gaining the popularity that it should have. i
have used this devie as a simple way to make an network printer that had an
ethernet port into a wireless printer, have used a pair of them to create a
wireless network bridge to extend a network across a city street to connect
two office buildings, and have used them as a wireless access point. very
impressive device for only a few dollars moer than the other single function
devices.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833320025

"WSZsr" wrote in message
...
A friend has a pretty large house. His wireless router and three desktops
are upstairs. All three desktops are wired to the wireless router. His
laptop is used downstairs and connects wirelessly but the signal is very
weak so he ran an Ethernet cable downstairs and added another wireless
router to improve the signal strength. When he connects to the wireless
router downstairs, he can't see the wired computers connected to the
wireless router upstairs nor the shared printer upstairs. When he connects
to the wireless router upstairs, he can see the other computers and connect
to the shared printer. All computer connect to the same network (MSHOME).

How do I get him to see the computers and printer upstairs when he is
connected to the router downstairs?

Thanks. I'll give it a try when he gets back in town.

"S.Lewis" wrote in message
.. .

"WSZsr" wrote in message
...
A friend has a pretty large house. His wireless router and three desktops
are upstairs. All three desktops are wired to the wireless router. His
laptop is used downstairs and connects wirelessly but the signal is very
weak so he ran an Ethernet cable downstairs and added another wireless
router to improve the signal strength. When he connects to the wireless
router downstairs, he can't see the wired computers connected to the
wireless router upstairs nor the shared printer upstairs. When he
connects to the wireless router upstairs, he can see the other computers
and connect to the shared printer. All computer connect to the same
network (MSHOME).

How do I get him to see the computers and printer upstairs when he is
connected to the router downstairs?


1) he may have to assign the 2nd router a static IP address within the
first router, and...........

2) he's going to have to be sure the downstairs router is broadcasting on
a different channel (and to prevent confusion, with a different
SSID)...... and.........

3) he might've instead tried using a WAP, or a repeater, or even a larger
antenna.


fwiw

Thanks.

"William R. Walsh" wrote in message
...
Hi!

His laptop is used downstairs and connects wirelessly but the signal
is very weak so he ran an Ethernet cable downstairs and added
another wireless router to improve the signal strength.

How do I get him to see the computers and printer upstairs when
he is connected to the router downstairs?

What your friend needs is a router that can operate in so-called
"access point" mode*. If this is supported, it will be in the web-
based configuration interface somewhere. This mode would be selected,
and the router would be given an IP address. The cable coming from the
network upstairs should be plugged into one of the four ports that
make up the switch on the router, and not the "WAN" port.

At that point, the network should work as expected.

William

* that's not entirely true. Having a dedicated "access point only"
does simplify things a little bit. I am using a D-Link DI-524 router
that has no option to be configured as an access point only. However,
it works fine when used only as an access point. All I had to do was
disable the DHCP server, assign it a unique IP address and ignore the
WAN port on the back of it.

Thanks Chris,

The upstairs router is G+ Belkin and the downstairs router is an old b
Linksys. I'll check on the model numbers and get back to you.

"Christopher Muto" wrote in message
t...
i think you got some good replies, but i would first ask this...
what wireless router is being used upstairs? i have found tremendous
range extension by replacing the old linksys wrt54g routers with the newer
wrt160n which are not very expensive. replacing the upsaitrs router alone
could solve the problem of poor wireless signal strength downstairs from
the upstairs wireless router.
alternatively, instead of a using a router downstairs (that ends up
isolating the downstairs network from the upstairs network) you could use
a wireless access point downstairs conencted to that eathernet cable that
you described . if you tell us the make/model of the downstairs router we
could possibly tell you if it can be reconfigured as an access point, or
if it is one that can have its firmware replaced with a new operating
system that allows it to be configured as an access point. or you could
just buy one of these $60 access points, but it is good to stick with the
same brand as your upstairs router:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833124012
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833127146
or this higly verstile and small access point from asus which can be used
as a access point, a bridge, or wireless adapter. the versitility of this
device does in turn make it a little more confusing to setup, and i
believe that is what has kept it from gaining the popularity that it
should have. i have used this devie as a simple way to make an network
printer that had an ethernet port into a wireless printer, have used a
pair of them to create a wireless network bridge to extend a network
across a city street to connect two office buildings, and have used them
as a wireless access point. very impressive device for only a few dollars
moer than the other single function devices.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833320025

"WSZsr" wrote in message
...
A friend has a pretty large house. His wireless router and three desktops
are upstairs. All three desktops are wired to the wireless router. His
laptop is used downstairs and connects wirelessly but the signal is very
weak so he ran an Ethernet cable downstairs and added another wireless
router to improve the signal strength. When he connects to the wireless
router downstairs, he can't see the wired computers connected to the
wireless router upstairs nor the shared printer upstairs. When he
connects to the wireless router upstairs, he can see the other computers
and connect to the shared printer. All computer connect to the same
network (MSHOME).

How do I get him to see the computers and printer upstairs when he is
connected to the router downstairs?

i can tell you that you can't configure any linksys b router as an access
point.
you could try goggling "dd-wrt on linksys b" or your exact model linksys to
see if there is a version of the dd-wrt firmware/operating system that can
be loaded on the linksys b router to replace the linksys firmware and make
the think more verstile... or search or post on www.dd-wrt.com


"WSZsr" wrote in message
...
Thanks Chris,

The upstairs router is G+ Belkin and the downstairs router is an old b
Linksys. I'll check on the model numbers and get back to you.

"Christopher Muto" wrote in message
t...
i think you got some good replies, but i would first ask this...
what wireless router is being used upstairs? i have found tremendous
range extension by replacing the old linksys wrt54g routers with the
newer wrt160n which are not very expensive. replacing the upsaitrs
router alone could solve the problem of poor wireless signal strength
downstairs from the upstairs wireless router.
alternatively, instead of a using a router downstairs (that ends up
isolating the downstairs network from the upstairs network) you could use
a wireless access point downstairs conencted to that eathernet cable that
you described . if you tell us the make/model of the downstairs router
we could possibly tell you if it can be reconfigured as an access point,
or if it is one that can have its firmware replaced with a new operating
system that allows it to be configured as an access point. or you could
just buy one of these $60 access points, but it is good to stick with the
same brand as your upstairs router:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833124012
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833127146
or this higly verstile and small access point from asus which can be used
as a access point, a bridge, or wireless adapter. the versitility of
this device does in turn make it a little more confusing to setup, and i
believe that is what has kept it from gaining the popularity that it
should have. i have used this devie as a simple way to make an network
printer that had an ethernet port into a wireless printer, have used a
pair of them to create a wireless network bridge to extend a network
across a city street to connect two office buildings, and have used them
as a wireless access point. very impressive device for only a few
dollars moer than the other single function devices.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833320025

"WSZsr" wrote in message
...
A friend has a pretty large house. His wireless router and three
desktops are upstairs. All three desktops are wired to the wireless
router. His laptop is used downstairs and connects wirelessly but the
signal is very weak so he ran an Ethernet cable downstairs and added
another wireless router to improve the signal strength. When he connects
to the wireless router downstairs, he can't see the wired computers
connected to the wireless router upstairs nor the shared printer
upstairs. When he connects to the wireless router upstairs, he can see
the other computers and connect to the shared printer. All computer
connect to the same network (MSHOME).

How do I get him to see the computers and printer upstairs when he is
connected to the router downstairs?

-----Original Message-----
From: S.Lewis ]
Posted At: Monday, April 13, 2009 8:29 AM
Posted To: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
Conversation: network question
Subject: network question


"WSZsr" wrote in message
...
A friend has a pretty large house. His wireless router and three
desktops
are upstairs. All three desktops are wired to the wireless router.
His
laptop is used downstairs and connects wirelessly but the signal is
very
weak so he ran an Ethernet cable downstairs and added another
wireless
router to improve the signal strength. When he connects to the
wireless
router downstairs, he can't see the wired computers connected to the
wireless router upstairs nor the shared printer upstairs. When he
connects
to the wireless router upstairs, he can see the other computers and
connect
to the shared printer. All computer connect to the same network
(MSHOME).

How do I get him to see the computers and printer upstairs when he
is
connected to the router downstairs?


1) he may have to assign the 2nd router a static IP address within the
first
router, and...........

2) he's going to have to be sure the downstairs router is broadcasting
on a
different channel (and to prevent confusion, with a different
SSID)......
and.........

3) he might've instead tried using a WAP, or a repeater, or even a
larger
antenna.


fwiw


Sorry, disagree.

The downstairs router needs to have its router functions (i.e. DHCP)
turned off, making it an Access Point.

Use the same channel and SSID. That way roaming will work -- no loss of
signal as you walk around.

That said, if you can return the router, purchase a WAP54G. Easier to
configure.

I have a similar situation and have a WAP54G at each end and the router
in the middle, configured as suggested.

Tom

"Tom Scales" wrote in message
newsB0635A53BDC47CA97288D51F8A68DF5@Tom...


-----Original Message-----
From: S.Lewis ]
Posted At: Monday, April 13, 2009 8:29 AM
Posted To: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
Conversation: network question
Subject: network question


"WSZsr" wrote in message
...
A friend has a pretty large house. His wireless router and three
desktops
are upstairs. All three desktops are wired to the wireless router.
His
laptop is used downstairs and connects wirelessly but the signal is
very
weak so he ran an Ethernet cable downstairs and added another
wireless
router to improve the signal strength. When he connects to the
wireless
router downstairs, he can't see the wired computers connected to the
wireless router upstairs nor the shared printer upstairs. When he
connects
to the wireless router upstairs, he can see the other computers and
connect
to the shared printer. All computer connect to the same network
(MSHOME).

How do I get him to see the computers and printer upstairs when he
is
connected to the router downstairs?


1) he may have to assign the 2nd router a static IP address within the
first
router, and...........

2) he's going to have to be sure the downstairs router is broadcasting
on a
different channel (and to prevent confusion, with a different
SSID)......
and.........

3) he might've instead tried using a WAP, or a repeater, or even a
larger
antenna.


fwiw


Sorry, disagree.

The downstairs router needs to have its router functions (i.e. DHCP)
turned off, making it an Access Point.

Use the same channel and SSID. That way roaming will work -- no loss of
signal as you walk around.

That said, if you can return the router, purchase a WAP54G. Easier to
configure.

I have a similar situation and have a WAP54G at each end and the router
in the middle, configured as suggested.

Tom



That'll work too or should.