Newbie-home WiFi set-up

[bspeed]

Appreciate any assistance or advice you can offer.
In my basement office I have a WRT54G router connect to my cable modem which connects to a desktop. Upstairs I have another desktop that is connected to the cable. Also upstairs in the den, I have a laptop which has a Linksys wireless card, which has poor reception at best.
How can I increase the wireless power so that the laptop can pick up the signal?
Could I buy a AWP, and connect it to the cable being used by the desktop upstairs?
Would this work, or is there a antenna I could buy for the downstairs router.
I really do not want to run more cable.
Thanks for your help!

[M/Q]

I have a few questions, just to make sure I understand your system. You have a cable modem downstairs. It is hooked to the WAN port of the WRT54 router? Then the desktop downstairs is wired to the router with an Ethernet CAT6 cable? Then you have another Ethernet CAT6 cable running upstairs to another desktop? What is the distance from the upstairs desktop and the where you will normally use the notebook? Are there many walls or interferences in that line of sight? One more question is do you plan on using the wireless coverage in the basement or just upstairs?

If you indeed have a Ethernet CAT6 cable running upstairs and you only want wireless upstairs then all you need to do is buy a wired router like this link.
http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?grid=34&scid=29&prid=561

Then you could move the WRT54 upstairs to where the desktop is and connect the desktop to the switch portion of the router and the wireless should be able to cover the notebook. If you want wireless coverage up and downstairs, then you need to buy another WRT54 and leave the one where it is now. If this is the plan then you must make sure that you have the routers on different channels as they possibly will interfere with each other. I think you mention using an AP, that would work but then you would have to buy a wireless card for the desktop upstairs so that it would be connected.

[J_Rodman]

I have the exact same router and experienced a lot of problems with dropped connections. Can I ask if you are using WEP? If you are, are you only using 64 bit encryption? If so, change it to 128 bit. I'm not sure why this works, but I found on this forum that switching the type of WEP helped out someone else with a WRT54G router. Give this a try. Since I've made this simple switch, neither of our laptops has dropped a signal and it's been 4 weeks! Prior to this, we could not keep a signal more than a minute at a time. I hope this helps and if it doesn't someone with real technical knowledge on this forum will come along.

Good luck

[bspeed]

Thanks for your reply!
Your description of my set-up is correct. The upstairs laptop is about 50 feet from the wired upstairs desktop. It goes through one wall only.
I use the wireless setup downstairs for my Pocket PC and sometimes the laptop which is located upstairs.

If I purchase another router for upstairs just connect to the wired cable line?
In addition, basically how do you change the channels on the routers.
Thanks and sorry for the questions!

Bob

[bspeed]

J_Rodman,
I am not using WEP, but should I.
I basically just changed the wired router one day to the wireless and everything seemed to work fine, except for this laptop.

Thanks

Bob

[M/Q]

You have a real easy choice to make. I would just buy another router exactly like the one you have now. It has a wired switch portion, you just connect the desktop to that part. It is a 4 port switch.

Now comes the tricky part the cable from downstairs is in what is called the straight configuration. Since you are running switch to switch you may need to have a cross over cable instead. You will have to test, I am not certain that the WRT54 is auto-sensing. I believe that you will need a crossover cable. All you need to do is change one connector or get one made up that way. Then you take this cable and also plug it into the switch portion of the router, not the WAN port.

As for setting up WEP and changing channels, you need to get into the configuration screen of each router. You do this with a computer wired to each router, which you have already. Just follow the quick installation manual and it should be no problem. Put one router on channel one and the other on channel 11. That way they will not interfere with each other. While you are in the config screen for the upstairs router, you should disable DHCP as well, since the router downstairs is taking care of that. As for WEP, you should have the enabled as well, again just follow the quick install manual. If you have problems with that part disable it and ask us how to fix it. 8-)

[bspeed]

Thanks again for all your assistance. I am enroute to buy the router now.

Bob