Timothy Murphy wrote:
Les Mikesell wrote:
Additional detail: the box that my broadband is connected to is an FC4
box. It's acting as router and doing DHCP for the LAN. The machines on
the LAN are all Windows boxes, though slowly being changed over to Linux.
That's why I need to dump the Microsoft USB WIFI nic.
The home combo router/ap/switch boxes are so cheap these
days that it is probably not worth the effort to use
anything else. In fact if you need a second access
point the cheapest way to do it may be to get a
pair of routers, connect by ethernet on the switch
side, and disable the WAN side of the 2nd unit.
If you shop for closeouts/rebates you might find
them for around $20.
I'm not sure what you mean by a home combo router/ap/switch box.
Could you give an example (or two) please.
WRT54G/WRT54GS/WRT54GL or a BEFW11S4.
Typically much of the WAP's being sold have all 3 functions
built into them. You know you have a switch if you have at least
4 Ethernet ports in a row (I've not seen them with less), with
router functionality you add a Internet Ethernet port (or DSL
or cable modem for the all in on devices), the AP is obvious
as it has 1 or more antenna.
There will be exceptions, of course.
> What is the point of having a second AP?
To bridge a second Ethernet to the main Ethernet. An example
is; in your living room you have a Tivo, a PS3 and another
networked device. Instead of having 3 devices with wireless
adapters you could have the 3 devices hard wired (Ethernet)
to a wireless bridge (the 2 WAP setup as a wireless bridge).
The Wireless bridge would then have a wireless connection to
the WAP which would then have a connection to local servers
(if any) and the Internet.
I've found this thread very confusing.
Nb I'm no expert on WiFi, as may be obvious.
Welcome to the wonderful world of network, where everything
becomes a blur, especially the technology.
--
Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry ncherry@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.linuxha.com/ Main site
http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog
http://home.comcast.net/~ncherry/ Backup site
