Fatman

Hi folks,

I'd like to upgrade my home networking. My phone point is downstairs and the PCs are upstairs. The PCs are on a wired ethernet LAN and I'd like to link wirelessly down to the phone point, where I'd site the router. As far as I understand it, that means 'bridging' between the router downstairs and the LAN upstairs. I'd like that wireless connection to be at least 54mpbs and use WPA encryption (or better, if it exists, but certainly not WEP alone).

What equipment can I use? I've looked into some Netgear kit (e.g. DG834G and WG602 access points) but their routers can't bridge and their APs can't bridge with WPA, and they don't seem to sell dedicated 802.11G bridges. I've heard their DG834GT (108+) is unrealiable, so will ignore that. My old Linksys WAG54 was a p.o.s. so I'd like to avoid Linksys if the WAG54 was representative. Any ideas?

thanks

Fatman

...any ideas, chaps and chapesses? Surely someone here has a secure bridged network...?

class_A

Much cheaper to get 10m of phone wire from CPC

Look for routers which feature "WDS" (Wireless Distribution System) but be warned that it can sometimes be tricky to get different manufacturers kit to interoperate this way. Also some devices don't support WPA over a WDS network.

Never done this personally so no kit recommendations but here's D-Link's page listing their WDS equipped devices so that may get you started.

Fatman

lol... I've got some long patch leads, but I don't think my girlfriend would appreciate cables running round the house when we wireless kit is available. I used to have 802.11b kit (WEP encryption), and the upgrade was for speed and also improved encryption. So, are I don't think "WDS" without WPA is a useful option.