Home Network with Powerline adapters, wireless router and Wireless Access point

Question

I am looking into updating my home network and I am a little unsure of whether or not what I was thinking of doing will be possible.

Basically the cable broadband connection comes in downstairs and connects to a wireless router. Upstairs the Wireless signal is not great so I'd like to boost it, but I would also like a wired connection upstairs to plug into my internet TV.

What I thought about doing was to connect the router to a set of Powerline adapters. This will then provide me with a direct wired connection anywhere I want upstairs. Next I thought I would connect this to a wireless access point (with a 4-port switch) next to my TV. This way I can plug my TV directly into the access point but also have another source for WiFi upstairs.

The thing I wasn't sure about was: does the Wireless access point now provide a completely separate WiFi network (i.e. new SSID) with its own security setup or does it some how extend the existing WiFi network?

Also, with this setup will the connection to the internet actually work through all these levels of redirection? Is there anything specific I have to look out for in the hardware I buy to ensure that it will work?

Answer 1

The setup you are proposing is pretty similar to what I run at my house. The only intricacy I can remember having to play around with was just ensuring that routers #1 and #2 played nice together. There's no need to setup a new SSID - just configure so router two extends your current network.

If you set DCHP pool to start at, say "192.168.1.3" on router one, give router two a static IP of, say, "192.168.1.2" (to ensure no conflicts) from the setup page. Then turn off the DCHP on router two so it is just your main one assigning out the IPs

There are some answers on here to questions specifically for that which would give more details.

Answer 2

Different options are possible:

1. cable broadband connection <-powerline-> WLAN access point <-WLAN-> Client (PC, TV, ...)
2. cable broadband connection <-WLAN-> WLAN repeater <-WLAN-> Client (PC, TV, ...)
3. cable broadband connection <-WLAN-> WLAN repeater <-powerline-> Client (PC, TV, ...)

Some devices can be configured as either WLAN access point or as WLAN repeater, you'll need to check that.
Option 3 is only available if your WLAN repeater has powerline built in or has an ethernet port.

Answer 3

I used to have a similar problem and resolved it with powerline networking. The first unit is wired directly to the router (in my case in the UK, a cable BB router from Virgin. The 2nd powerline plug provides an WiFi network upstairs but also has 2 x wired sockets to allow a "dumb" ethernet switch to connect more wired devices. The powerline plugs were sourced from Virgin at that time and allowed "cloning" so that the same SSID + password could be used throughout the property. Although the house was small, the main router was at the very front left while our main living room was in an extension at the back where we were able to use several wired and many wireless devices successfully. There was no need for a 2nd router.