[Ryan]

This is part purchasing advice, part tech support, so I put it here. If a mod wants to move it, have fun.

Right now I have Airport Extreme, but it barely reaches the next room over. I get a better signal from my neighbor across the street. So, I've been thinking about wiring a few rooms of this house with ethernet cable.

My plan is to run a cable from my room(the one with the DSL modem and APE station) to the next room, which has an eMac that has problems connecting. In my room, the phone guy poked a hole in the floor to run a phone line up, and I'm thinking I can do the same with ethernet. I'm over the garage, so I can run the cable over the garage ceiling and poke it into my closet and then through the wall into the other room.

Then I'd like to run ethernet(time, money, and house construction permiting) to my home theater set up in the living room on the bottom floor, near the back of the house. This is a challenge because instead of simply using the garage, I'd have to find another way. I think I might be able to use the crawl space in the attic to go over the ceilings and then drop it down.

I would then put the APE in the living room for my Powerbook(the only other room I use it in) and use an ethernet cable when its at my desk.

So, any equipment that's good, or some helpful websites are greatly appreciated.

[Wrao]

Have you considered getting signal boosters/repeaters?

[Luca]

You might consider replacing your flat, dome-shaped ApEx base station with a less expensive one that actually has an antenna. I never understood why the Airport base stations didn't have one... anyway, there are plenty of inexpensive wireless routers out there, so maybe before undertaking this huge project you could try setting up something other than an Airport router.

[Ryan]

I've thought about it, but I get a signal in the 40's one room over. It's fine inside the room with the base station, but I need to use that eMac too.

Its not an old house(built in 89), and the wall between me and the eMac in one a closet wall. There are two other networks within range, and I have better luck connecting to them then mine, so I think my base station just has developed some problems.

edit: BTW, this is the model with the antenna port.

[Luca]

So that's why I say replace the base station. It shouldn't have such a short range, but if it's no longer under warranty I guess there's not much you can do about it. Still, having wireless throughout the house would be nice, so why not spend $50 for a new third-party base station instead of messing with running cables everywhere?

[johnq]

Is the basestation sitting flat or mounted vertical?

[ast3r3x]

As a note, basically, if you have other wires running to where you want it, it won't be too hard.

Since I have a cable modem, and cable in my room, I knew that I'd be able to get ethernet to it. I didn't do it the most elegant way though

I had a long ethernet cable that already had the ends on, so I had to drill a whole in my floor big enough to fit that through instead of a nice circle that the ethernet cord fits snugly through, as you will find many cables that come out of the floor are. Which still isn't ideal as you want them to come out of the wall so it doesn't look bad.

Well, like I said I had cable in my room, so I tied a wire to the cable cord, and went down to the basement and pulled the cord until I had pulled it enough to get to get the end that was in my room down to the basement. Then I duct taped the ethernet on to the f cable and pulled both back up with the wire that I had connected to them.

It actually worked great...except I never put the ethernet cord above ceiling in my basement, so it looks silly if you go down there.


US Robtics makes a very good wireless router I believe, tigerdirect.com used to have it for really cheap. I have a D-Link 614+ and it works very well. I got it for like $40 because I got a rebate on a refurbished one...it was a pretty nice deal.

[Ryan]

johnq: Sitting horizontaly on a desk.

I'll see what I can do about the Airport before I starting buying cable. I have a lot of time today, so I'll just experiment with different configurations.

[sunrain]

Originally Posted by CubeDude johnq: Sitting horizontaly on a desk. I'll see what I can do about the Airport before I starting buying cable. I have a lot of time today, so I'll just experiment with different configurations.

I've got a D-Link DI-524 that I'd be happy to sell you for say $30, plus whatever shipping is. It's basically brand new since I replaced it with an Airport Express. Let me know.

[DMBand0026]

CubeDude...you said that it is the AirPort model with the antenna port. Why don't you add one if you haven't already and see what kind of improvement you get?

[Ryan]

I did?

Oh, apparently I did.



That should say it is the model without and antenna port. I need to learn to use the preview button more often.

Sorry 'bout that.