Comments on: Wireless Networking

Question: Wireless Networking

seanyboy — Thu, 22 Apr 2004 02:11:43 -0800

Wireless Networking Question. I want to use wireless networking to connect a DSL router to both my PVR & playstation 2. How do I do it? [M.I.]

The PVR and PS2 have ethernet ports and are next to each other. I could easily connect these with a router, but then that router would need wireless access to the wireless router upstairs.

I've seen adverts for Wireless Bridges, but these all seem to have only one port. Can I just plug this into a router's uplink port? Are there any good Wireless Bridges out there with more than one port? Although price is an issue, I'm looking for a fairly good looking solution.

By: seanyboy

seanyboy — Thu, 22 Apr 2004 02:13:00 -0800

Finally, although I'm a technical person, this is all new to me, so speak s-l-o-w-l-y.

By: Ethereal Bligh

Ethereal Bligh — Thu, 22 Apr 2004 05:05:11 -0800

First, you'll need both your PVR and PS2 to have ethernet adapters. That's an upgrade for your PS2, for example.

Then you'll need a wireless access point or combo cable/dsl router and access point. Do you already have that for your home networking?

Assuming you do, then your problem is that you need to connect your two wired ethernet devices to your wireless network. For that, you need a bridge.

Here is a wireless bridge from LinkSys. I can't tell from the page if it's also a hub, meaning whether it has more than one ethernet connector. If it only has a single ethernet connector, then you only need to get a cheap hub to use in combination with this so that you can hook up both your PVR and PS2.

You can get a wifi access point/router for less than a hundred dollars these days. If you need a ethernet hub, those are less than twenty. Unfortunately, vendors are still selling their wifi bridges for a premium, usually a bit over a hundred dollars.

By: chrismear

chrismear — Thu, 22 Apr 2004 08:40:35 -0800

Ethereal Bligh has one solution (although if you're running only a wireless B network, rather than a G network, you can get a Linksys WET11 instead of the model that EB suggested, and perhaps save yourself a few quid). Get one of those, plus a normal hub/router with an uplink port, hook 'em together, and plug your devices into the hub/router.

Alternatively, I've heard in a few places that Linksys' (and possibly other company's) wireless access points can act as wireless repeaters. (The WAP11 page on the Linksys site says that it "Also wirelessly bridges multiple wired networks across rooms, floors, or buildings".) If you got yourself a Linksys WAP11, for example, you could simply plug the devices into the WAP11, and it should connect wirelessly to your existing router. That's probably the solution you're thinking of. But do make sure you check with the manufacturer that the device you're buying will definitely act as a wireless bridge, because older devices did not have this functionality.

As for reliable equipment, I've personally used a few Linksys products and have had no config or reliability problems with them at all.

By: Ethereal Bligh

Ethereal Bligh — Thu, 22 Apr 2004 11:48:23 -0800

If you do use a bridge, you probably wouldn't want to use a router because for home devices, that really means NAT, which you probably don't want inside your LAN. A plain vanilla hub or a switching hub would be fine (but you don't need a switching hub, really, 'cause the bridge, your PS2, and your PVR are all almost certainly 10mbps).

I didn't know that about some of the Linksys access points acting as bridges. That's kinda neat, especially since, as I said, everyone still seems to be charging a premium for bridges (even though the tech is less complicated than the wifi routers which are cheaper).

By: chrismear

chrismear — Thu, 22 Apr 2004 13:24:17 -0800

Oh god, yeah. Delete 'router' in that last comment and replace with 'switch'. Why do I always get those two terms mixed up? Thanks, EB.

By: Ethereal Bligh

Ethereal Bligh — Thu, 22 Apr 2004 14:11:05 -0800

Actually, it makes sense that you'd get those two terms mixed up because "switch" in many contexts means "routing" (for example, old style telephone networks, or railroads).