Wireless Access Point Help Needed

I don't know what I need... We want to set up a remote computer in our house and access the Internet using a wireless connection through our existing network. We have our internal network set up as shown below and we need a "Gizmo" that will plug into the switch and create a wireless access point that we can tap into with another remotely located computer.

We do not have any wireless at this time. It's all ethernet.

This "Gizmo" NEEDS to plug into the switch.

Maybe it's just a router, I don't know, but I thought I'd ask here what pieces of equipment do we need (Labeled "Mystery Unit" below) to make the following set-up happen?



Thank you!

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic

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I'm no computer expert by any means ... but wouldn't it just be easier to get a simple wireless modem plugged in directly into your broadband feed and have all your computers run off the wireless? (assuming that all your existing computers have wireless)

reply to post by schrodingers dog

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A completely wireless network isn't an option for us. My husband telecommutes and cannot use wireless for security reasons. Also, during monsoons, the
lightening is a problem. We used to have wireless and the lightening destroyed it, even though it was unplugged. Finally, not all of our computers are wireless capable.

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic

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Does the remote computer you are trying to connect have wireless?

If it does, I would assume all you need is a wireless unit to plug into the switch and create a little network ... for macs we use airport express, which I think also works for PCs.

We actually don't have it yet. It's going to have to have wireless capability of some sort, whether it's internal or we use "Mystery Unit #2" in the drawing to provide it.



Yes. a wireless unit. That's what we need, but don't know what it's called. I will look into Airport express to see what it is. Thanks.

[edit on 24-1-2010 by Benevolent Heretic]

Personally I'd replace your router with one that's wifi capable.

They usually come with like 4 or 6 (or more) Ethernet ports on the back - I have a cheep one and that has 4.

I've not ever seen a gizmo like your after in the op... But I've never had to look for one.

I do believe there is software available that will allow a computer with WiFi to become a wifi hotspot it's self, but it would always have to be on and it's self wired into the router.

ahh didn't read this post...



But still you can replace your router with a wifi one, what you can do is switch the wireless feature on and off, you can do it from any computer on the network wired or wifi - you dial into the box (usually something like an IP address of 192.168.2.1 - that's not your actual IP address btw, just to log into the router, then you can turn the wifi on and off.... well on mine I can any way)

[edit on 24/1/2010 by Now_Then]

[edit on 24/1/2010 by Now_Then]

Explanation: D-Link Gigabit Router

or

D-Link Router

Personal Disclosure: Either of these will REPLACE your current router and will enable wifi connectivity!

Edited to add you will also need a wireless usb stick like these...

wireless usb stick

[edit on 24-1-2010 by OmegaLogos]

OK, we thought we might have to get another router or replace the one we have, so we'll either do that, or just run a physical cable through the house during the times when we need it.

Thanks so much for all the help!

reply to post by Now_Then

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yes replace your router with a wireless one. a standad link sys one will be fine. some of them come boxed with a usb wireless receiver which you can use for the pc's that don't have wireless (such as a desktop).

make sure you follow the instructions and write down your SSID (this is the name you give it when broadcasting your signal) and put encryption (wpa psk is recommended). i can't stress it enough you don't want anyone poking around your stuff.

btw i love the drawing and referring it to as a gizmo.

[edit on 24-1-2010 by mvirata]

My husband is a software engineer and pretty much all hardware is labeled a "gizmo"

Thanks for your good advice.

I will just expand on this a little.

Change your SSID! This is quite important, every make of router gives it a standard ssid, there fore when you scan your area you can easily see what model/make of router people have! - Change it to something mundane, something that does not stand out something that does not relate to you in any way but something that you will remember.

You can choose to also hide your ssid (it wont be available for people to see when they do a search of the networks in range)... Although it will only hide it from people who are searching in the 'standard' way - if you want it's really easy to 'see' the hidden networks, but a simple search will only show the non hidden ones. edit: depends on how you use the wifi, if you foresee people every so often bringing their laptops over then it is a bit of a pain hiding the ssid, I leave mine visible.

Change the logon on's for the router! - EVERY ONE I have looked at has left the default logons usually something like admin 1234... This makes me laugh

And of course most importantly is the encryption - what mvirata said is sorta right, basically you have WEP (weakass encryption proto) DO NOT USE IT! then you have WPA... Better than WEP, but still easily defeated to a determined person, then there is what is usually called WPA2, or TKIP - this is a 1000 times better (if you wan't me to go into detail I can) - So you are looking for WPA2 or TKIP... edit: (psk only means pre shared key... password)

Now the actual password... Make it strong, NOT a dictionary word, combo of letters and numbers, (special characters? can't remember if they take them) as long as possible. - A weak password is a single point failure for your network - I used to get free internet for a long time because 1, I was broke and 2, many people in range were sloppy!

[edit on 25/1/2010 by Now_Then]

[edit on 25/1/2010 by Now_Then]