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So I've been trying to improve Wi-Fi quality in our 3 1/2 story house. Currently, we have a single Linksys WRT160N running tomato v. 1.28 on it, and reception is absolutely horrid. In everywhere except the office where the router+modem is located, everyone is getting about 2 bars or less (RSSI of -50-70?). I tried a repeater in the basement level (D-LINK DIR-505), and it seems to be causing havoc for everyone that isn't me. My cousin's MBP, iPad Mini, and iPhone as well as my mom's iPad 2 and my dad's Phillips GoGear thing will all randomly drop connections and refuse to connect, being assigned an IP that isn't within the router's range. I tried a PowerLine setup (the house is maybe 8 or so years old) but I routinely get disconnected and I only get about 50mbps down within our LAN. Today, while clearing out a crawlspace, I found this thing, which I can only assume is some sort of networking dealio:  But I've got no idea how to make heads or tails of this thing nor do I know what I could do with it. The Motorola thing is labelled "Broadband Drop Amp", the black bar on the top right says "CAT5e Patch Panel", the silver dongle beside the Motorola thing is called a "2 Way Splitter/Combiner", and the mess of wires in the middle is what I assume to be ethernet cables connected to thingies labelled with various rooms. Did whoever come to set up our Internet goof and not use this horrendously complicated contraption when they were supposed to? Can I use this to help alleviate our Wi-Fi problem?
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Jan 14, 2013 06:48
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 10:26 |
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Inspector_71 posted:If you find out where those wires from the patch panel go, you can move the modem/router to that box, then wire up access points around the house. Depending on how many wall jacks you need to use, you may need a switch too. Hmm, the labels on the patch panel more less matches the labels on the middle cable bunble, and both go right into the wall, so I'm not really sure where it's going? Is there a good way to tell? Assuming that it is a networking thing and it works as intended, where would I put the modem? Just grab one of the free coax cables in the box and plug that in?
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Jan 14, 2013 07:22
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Devian666 posted:It looks like a patch panel was provided then cable was installed throughout the house. I'm assuming the house will have cable, ethernet and phone jacks. The patch panel will only be useful if the ethernet jacks are as available in the house (assuming they were installed when the cables were run. Inspector_71 posted:Without having toner equipment, not really. Plug the router into one of the patch ports, then walk around the house with a laptop plugging it into every port until you get a connection, write it down, and go onto the next patch port. Thanks dudes, got it all figured out. Bought the ASUS router recommended in the OP, and even with the router in the basement I have perfect reception on the first couple of floors, so I moved my old router to the top floor as an AP. I was hoping I could have my desktop on a wired connection, but turns out my study is pretty much the only room without a RJ45 jack. I mean, our kitchen has 2, for christ's sake.  I bought a 100 ft. long Cat5e cable, a crimper, a switch and a bag of jacks to make my own patch leads. I did some googling and I'm fairly confident I won't gently caress it up. But just to make sure, I can just use straight-through cables for all the ports right (the specs page lists "Auto MDI/MDIX adjustment for all ports")? Any recommendations for wireless dongles? Should I go with a PCI card or a USB thing? I got a Dlink DWA552 and the stupid thing locked up my computer 3 times while installing drivers. Sorry about all the questions, first time doing something of this calibre.
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Jan 15, 2013 12:18
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So I've got my cabinet/router/modem/switch setup done, thanks! I got another question though, should I be setting the SSIDs for my APs to all the same one?
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Jan 18, 2013 12:21
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