Getting the most out of your home network

By Bruce Preston

My Wired Experience

Let me start by stating that years ago I 'wired' the house such that we have network access everywhere. I might as well describe it before I move on to WiFi considerations.

home networkMy office is in a spare bedroom on the second floor. Pre-retirement, in addition to two desktop computers in my office, at one time I had three servers located in the basement. For supporting my mix clients at the time I needed a Windows server, a Linux server, and a SCO Unix server. This was before the availability of virtual machines. I also needed to support our son's computer(s) in his room - a desktop and a notebook. My office is where my broadband connection surfaces - originally DSL, now cable connected to a router. Our house, like many in the area, makes use of hot water baseboard heating. The router connected to an 8-port switch,switch; from there I split to the desktop computers and ran a Cat-5 cable around the walls out of site under the baseboard heating radiators to a closet, through the closet wall and into our son's room. A second cable ran to the closet and then through a small hole in the closet ceiling to the attic. From there it ran across to the chimney and down through a PVC 'wire chase' pipe that luckily was there which provided me access to the basement. In the basement another switch split the signal to the servers, and a work bench that I used for rebuilding or repairing machine. It also fed wires to the family room and living room. All I needed to get into each of those rooms was a single hole up through the floor boards, again under the baseboard heaters so things were out of site. I just put my holes right next to the cable TV wiring so placement was easy. To do all of this required purchasing a bulk reel of Cat-5/5e cable (1,000 feet for $43 on eBay, delivered), a cable crimping tool (about $10 on eBay), a bag of RJ-45 connectors (100 for $7 on eBay, delivered) and a cable tester (about $8 on eBay) Attaching the RJ-45 plugs to the cable is the hardest part, as there are 8 wires that must be positioned properly in the plug before you crimp it. I made a few bad cables at first, if it doesn't test right cut the plug off and try again. For a total expenditure of less than $100 and a Saturday I had the place wired and did it without damage to the appearance of the house.

That worked just fine for about 15 years but it wasn't very flexible when a notebook was being used as you had to be 'tethered' to a cable.

Introducing WiFi to the network

When I first converted to WiFi, I put the WiFi router (the very popular LinkSys WRT54G) in my office but found that the signal downstairs at the other side of the house was spotty. It wasn't at all usable in the recliner, but it was fine if I sat on the fireplace hearth.

About the same time I helped a friend install WiFi in his home. We ran into similar problems. In his case, OptOnline had installed his cable modem/VoIP device in the basement near the power panel - a terrible location. We moved the router to a location on the underside of the stairs, i.e. above your head when going down the basement stairs) such that it essentially was in the very center of his two story house. This gave him excellent signal strength throughout the house. Lesson learned here is the same as the realtor's mantra: "Location, Location, Locationand Location."

One day the WRT54G just stopped working, we replaced it with a LinkSys WRT610N which is an 802.11n router with dual-band capability - it uses both the 2.4GHz frequency (commonly used by cordless phones) as well as the 5GHz frequency. We noted an immediate improvement in range and signal strength when we made the move from 802.11g to 802.11n. Of course, the computers or printers must also support 802.11n to realize the improvement.

However, let's suppose that even going to 802.11n doesn't quite give you the access that you want. Here are some other options to consider:

High-Gain, directional WiFi antenna

The standard signal transmitted by a WiFi device radiates as a sphere, i.e. the signal goes out in all directions. By using a directional, high-gain antenna, the signal power may be aimed in a specific direction with subsequent weakness in the opposite direction. To use this you need a WiFi router that has at least one removable antenna. There is a standard screw-on antenna connector, you replace the stock antenna with the directional antenna and point it towards the area that needs a stronger signal. Hawking Technologies is a good brand; expect something on the order of $30 to $80 depending upon signal pattern.

PowerLine (HomePlug) adapters.

PowerLine is a technology that makes use of the A.C. wiring in your house to move an ethernetEthernet signal from one location to another. It consists of a minimum of two devices. The first device is placed near your router, it plugs into a wall outlet, and you connect the device using a standard Cat-5 patch cable to your router. At some other location(s) within your home you plug other adapter(s) into a wall socket and then connect using a Cat-5 cable to computer, printer, Wii, X-Box, or internet-ready TV. PowerLine adapters may be purchased singly or in kits consisting of a pair. Just as with other ethernetEthernet devices they are available with various connection speeds. An entry-level kit consisting of a pair may be had for about $70. That's a lot less than the cost of having an electrician come and string cable. HomePlug is a standard established for PowerLine that assures interoperability between brands. For more information, read the pages at Wikipedia.org. Note hatthat you could use PowerLine to support a WiFi "Access Point" (see next section) such that you could have WiFi support at the "far from the router" location. A side note here - I have a friend who purchased a Panasonic flat-panel internet ready TV that supports WiFi. However, there is no mechanism in the TV's setup to permit access to a secured WiFi network. We ended up using a PowerLine connection rather than the WiFi capability as he did not want to make his WiFi network unsecured.

WiFi Access Point

This device is the transmit/receive component of WiFi. Most consumer-grade WiFi routers have the access point built into the router, but you may also purchase just the WiFi access point as a stand-alone device. You then need a Cat-5 cable to connect the WiFi Access Point to the router. You thus have one WiFi Access Point in the router, and a second nearer to the location that needs improved service. Note that the router need not have an integral WiFi Access Point, but such routers are now few and far between. A WiFi Access Point (non-repeater, see below) will run about $40.

WiFi Universal Access Point with Repeater

This device does not require the Cat-5 wired connection to t he the primary router. Instead, it listens for a WiFi signal from the primary access point (e.g. in the router) and then repeats the signal such that devices out of range of the primary can receive the signal. You would typically locate this device 1/2 to 2/3 of the way between the primary WiFi access point and the devices needing assistance - it can be placed anywhere that it can detect a solid signal from the primary access point. Location, Location, and Location. There is a bit of a performance issue when using a repeater as the signal throughput will be roughly halved since the signal must be packaged in WiFi for transmission between the primary router and the repeater, then disassembled, then re-encoded for WiFi transmission to the ultimate destination. A typical WiFi Access Point with repeater functionality will run anywhere between $40 and $80 depending upon speed.

WDS - Wireless Distribution Service

Some routers support WDS - Wireless Distribution Service - such that they function as both a router and support a built-in repeater function. They use WiFi to interconnect the WDS-enabled routers, recognizing each other by pre-authorized MAC address entries. The MAC address is an absolutely unique identifier of the device. The connection is secure. I have personal experience with the Tenda W268R 802.11n 150Mbps Wireless N router with 4 port switch. It is the first router that I have seen that supports WDS, although I have yet to try establishing a WDS configuration. The amazing thing is that this device is sold for $14.99 + S/H by MicroCenter.com. Again, I know that the router and WiFi work fine, but can't speak to the WDS capability. But if you currently have only 802.11g consider that you could get two of these and bump to 802.11n and use the second to expand your range.



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