MrRalphMan Posted November 27, 2008 Share Posted November 27, 2008 Currently I am running a wireless network around the house, but in my son's room he get's very poor reception. Now I have a PC connected via wireless connection to my primary router directly under his room. I want to connect a spare router to another NIC on the PC to create a new LAN that he can access, hopefully with a stronger signal. I assume that I will need some kind of proxy server and the PC is headerless. Last time I tried to set up windows internet sharing I lost all contact with it and was a pain to set right. Does anyone know of a free or opensource proxy server I can run, this PC is running Windows Server 2003. Cheers, Paul. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustGav Posted November 27, 2008 Share Posted November 27, 2008 There are a few ways of doing this... You can get wireless AP extenders which will help push the signal a bit further at the cost of bandwidth. The other option is of course to run a cable up to his room, this isn't as bad as it sounds..places like screwfix do actually sell the kits with cat5 cabling although I'm sure you could get the cabling and bits cheap enough. Your wireless router should be more than capable of doing connection sharing without having to impact your current PC. If you are really after a headless router/firewall/proxy combo, I'd suggest Smoothwall (I use it at home), but there are plenty of alternatives out there.. Opensource proxy server -> has to be squid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrRalphMan Posted November 27, 2008 Author Share Posted November 27, 2008 Cheers. What I don't want to do is piggy back onto the original wifi router with an extender as that will kill the bandwidth on the files already downloading. I've attached a picture of what I would like to achieve. Running a cable is not viable either without a lot of bother and a lot of moaning by the Mrs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustGav Posted November 27, 2008 Share Posted November 27, 2008 In which case, if you are going to with wifi, why not get a wifi card which has an external antenna connector then you can put a slightly better aerial on... Might be cheaper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrRalphMan Posted November 27, 2008 Author Share Posted November 27, 2008 It's a laptop with a card already. As I have the router already, no cost involved... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustGav Posted November 27, 2008 Share Posted November 27, 2008 It's a laptop with a card already. As I have the router already, no cost involved... Which router, as some of the firmwares do support WDS (wireless distribution system) which does the extension. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaveriK Posted November 27, 2008 Share Posted November 27, 2008 Also which card on the pc as some can have cables attached. I would go with a range extender or perhaps ethernet over power. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustGav Posted November 27, 2008 Share Posted November 27, 2008 Also which card on the pc as some can have cables attached. I would go with a range extender or perhaps ethernet over power. Ooooh, very good choice, I had forgotten about EoP.... That is a good option as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaveriK Posted November 27, 2008 Share Posted November 27, 2008 I have my moments. Very impressed with Ralphs artwork though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustGav Posted November 27, 2008 Share Posted November 27, 2008 I have my moments. Very impressed with Ralphs artwork though! Yeah, I want to see it without lifting the pen off the paper style as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrRalphMan Posted November 27, 2008 Author Share Posted November 27, 2008 EoP was an option, but I'm cheap so last ditch for me.. It's a Netgear as provided by Sky, DG834G which doesn't support WDS, AFAICS. Cheers again guys, I spent an age on the diagram... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xeno Posted November 27, 2008 Share Posted November 27, 2008 I'd go for PoE. I just bought a pair of 200 Mbps units for under £50 inc delivery. I also use DD-WRT on a linksys WiFi router to connect an old Xbox running XBMC, to my LAN for playback on the TV. This works well too, but for the ease of use and higher bandwith I'd go with PoE if I were you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaveriK Posted November 27, 2008 Share Posted November 27, 2008 In your picture is that wireless linking the router to the pc below your lads room? If it is then you would be sharing the wireless bandwidth anyway so you may as well use a range expander. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrRalphMan Posted November 28, 2008 Author Share Posted November 28, 2008 Cheers... I thought that I wouldn't be sharing the band width.. If I was going for a range adaptor. It would connect via one arial to the current wireless router and the Laptop. So if the bandwidth is 10mbps, then full bore it would be 5mbps to the Laptop and 5mbps to the wireless router. If I have a seperate wireless router I get 10mbps from the PC to the router and then 10mbps from the PC to the original router, so twice the through put. I have a spare NIC to slot into the PC, so I might just try it with internet connection sharing switched on and DHCP turned off on the second wireless router. Then pull my hair out when it doesn't work. Please don't ask me to explain that in a diagram... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustGav Posted November 28, 2008 Share Posted November 28, 2008 Cheers... I thought that I wouldn't be sharing the band width.. If I was going for a range adaptor. It would connect via one arial to the current wireless router and the Laptop. So if the bandwidth is 10mbps, then full bore it would be 5mbps to the Laptop and 5mbps to the wireless router. If I have a seperate wireless router I get 10mbps from the PC to the router and then 10mbps from the PC to the original router, so twice the through put. I have a spare NIC to slot into the PC, so I might just try it with internet connection sharing switched on and DHCP turned off on the second wireless router. Then pull my hair out when it doesn't work. Please don't ask me to explain that in a diagram... Yikes, dude, that sounds seriously messy to work with...plus you have a HUGE reliance on the PC with ICS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrRalphMan Posted November 30, 2008 Author Share Posted November 30, 2008 I think you could be right... Well I have the two routers setup and using rras on the 2003 server box I can talk to the different subnets. Problem is that the internet traffic on the second router is not routed to the first one and I cannot set a static route of 0.0.0.0 to point at the first router as it say's its a invalid route and will not let me.. So I'm going to be looking at installing a Proxy on the 2003 server PC to cater for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now