Posted: 9/2/2014 3:31:34 PM EDT
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Our new house is in the country and requires a modem for internet.
It is also quite a bit bigger than our last place where we had a Ethernet connection in the wall and just needed a router. Our new ISPs modem also has a wireless feature for wifi in the house, but it doesn't seem to reach very far Before losing signal. Would hooking up an actual router (our old one)to its Ethernet out port(on the modem) extend it's range? If I do that I will it show our two wireless connections?(our new and our old one) |
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Quoted:
Our new house is in the country and requires a modem for internet. It is also quite a bit bigger than our last place where we had a Ethernet connection in the wall and just needed a router. Our new ISPs modem also has a wireless feature for wifi in the house, but it doesn't seem to reach very far Before losing signal. Would hooking up an actual router (our old one)to its Ethernet out port(on the modem) extend it's range? If I do that I will it show our two wireless connections?(our new and our old one) You can do this. What you need to do first is turn off all network functions on your new modem. Disable the wifi and everything else like it was going to be connected to one computer by ethernet cable. After that you can connect that ethernet cable coming out of your modem and plug it into your WAN or Internet port of your old router/WiFi AP. |
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or, you could use it as a bridge and extend your wireless range, by moving it towards the dead spot in your house.
depending on what your old one is. I have one upstairs and one downstairs. the one upstairs is setup as a bridge to the one down stairs. it doesn't matter which one I connect to, I can see my whole network. they do show as 2 different wireless networks. you should be able to connect wirelessly to the company router. |
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IMO, i would disable the wifi built in to your modem and use your own just for security purposes. Who knows what vulnerabilities you're exposing yourself to by using the stock one.
Also, not to be a nit picker, but the router isn't really the right term to describe what you're using. Modem - bridges LAN to LAN connectivity over WAN (layman's terms) Router - routes packets freely as fast as possible Firewall - blocks or allows packets according to ACLs Switch - enables a large(r) number of machines to plug in via ethernet Wireless Access Point - permits wifi connections to join the network (usually connected to a switch itself) The devices that people buy are all in ones. Essentially, your modem is assuming the role of most of the above, which it probably wasn't designed to handle efficiently. At least split off the modem role from the rest by letting the modem does what it does best - connect you to your ISP and vice versa. My paranoia stems from the fact that one of the major ISPs was using built in WiFi networks to advertise their own WiFi and sending the traffic over the same connection that customers were using. Basically allowing anyone to connect to your connection that you pay for for their "convenience" WiFi. |
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If you can buy your own modem. It'll pay for itself in 6-12 months. The Motorola SB6141 works with many broadband providers and is a good modem for the price. As far as a WAP or wireless router goes theres several newer ones from Asus, Linksys, Apple, etc that are good and have newer antenna technologies in them for better range. You can also play around with the channel settings. Some work better than others depending on your setup. "Auto" rarely picks the best one for you.
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