Extending home network with a wireless bridge

Nathanc

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My apologies, but there is a lot of information in the post!

In a couple of weeks my internet connection will be changing from phone line to cable broadband.

My current configuration is as follows:
1 - On the Ground floor in the middle of the house, my wireless G broadband router is connected to an Ethernet 1Gbs switch.
2 - I have a Windows Server (running website/email and file server) running 24/7 physically located next to the wireless modem but connected to the gigabit switch.
3 - On the First floor, my PC is connected to the switch via a long Ethernet cable.
4 - At the front of the house on the Ground floor next to my Freesat and Bluray player, my Media center PC is connected to the wireless (with an N PCI card)
5 - The Freesat and Bluray player are currently not connected to the network.

I am intending to get Virgin to bring the cable in on the Ground floor at the front of the house (next to my A/V Media equipment) to minimize disruption and any more cables (there are enough already!).

Installing the Virgin wireless N cable modem in that location will allow me to create a small network for the Media PC, Freesat and Bluray player all on Ethernet.

The keener of you readers will notice that when this happens I'm going to loose my internet connection in the middle of the house where the Server and 1Gb switch are located...

I've been doing a bit of research and it seems what I need to do is buy a new Wireless N router with bridge capability (the Edimax-BR-6574N looks like a good candidate) - this will connect to two networks together, returning the internet connection to my Server and PC.

I have this problem because I (Wife) do not want to run another Ethernet cable or the Virgin cable from the front of the house to the middle. Neither can I run Powerline because I use power strips with surge protection!

The slow point is obviously the wireless bridge but I'm sure N speeds should be fast enough to allow me to stream HD ISO's from the Server to Media PC.

One possible issue I am aware of is that the router I have chosen only works on the 2.4ghz band but I don't think I have much interference in that area - what's the best way to check?

Is this going to work, does anyone have a similar setup or experiences?
 
I would use powerline to do it rather than wireless bridging if possible

you can get powerline adapters with passthrough filtered mains i.e. you plug the powerline into the socket, then the 6 way surge strip into the powerline adapter female mains socket - this overcomes the need for more sockets :smashin:
 
I would use powerline to do it rather than wireless bridging if possible

you can get powerline adapters with passthrough filtered mains i.e. you plug the powerline into the socket, then the 6 way surge strip into the powerline adapter female mains socket - this overcomes the need for more sockets :smashin:

I've actually decided to lay flat Cat5e under (rather than normal cable over) the carpet from the front of the house to the central location where the switch resides. It will save me having to buy and power another router.

A bit of extra effort up front and I can remove the weak link - I know for sure that I'll have enough speed and bandwidth to stream whatever I like from the Server to the Media PC.
 
cool - you cant beat a good old cable :)
 

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