What mode do I use?

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CoonHunter
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 20 Jul 2012
Posts: 2
Location: Mountains of NC

PostPosted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 2:59    Post subject: Reply with quote
100% newb here that would like some advise getting started. I've been reading the forums and Wiki and I'm in a little over my head. I generally don't have a problem grasping on, but I'm very much the type that learns from hands on experience.

My situation:
I'm living in an apartment splitting internet cost by sharing with a neighbor less than 40 foot away.
My neighbor's using a Belkin F7D1301 v1 to supply internet.
Most of the time signal strength is great on our MacBook Pros, always excellent on our Dell Inspiron laptop, but my wife has a limited area to use her ipad, and same problem with ipods. My ipod usually see's an RSSI of -90.
I also have a desktop I use to run Windows Vista or Linux that connects, but times out or is very slow due to a cheap wireless USB adapter not being very strong.
The biggest issue we have is sometimes there are connectivity issues when the neighbor has a couple of wireless devices going at the same time, and/or my wife & I have 2 MacBook Pro's and the Ipad on.
Connection speed is only a concern for torrents, but torrents are not a priority for us right now. We are all students, and the internet is mostly used for research papers. My wife does play games on her ipad, but these are just facebook games that do not require high speeds.

From my research I want a repeater. I think the best idea would be to run a repeater with it's own SSID for my devices to connect to. I hope this would eliminate the issues we have when both apartments are trying to get on with so many different wireless devices at the same time.
I've seen several times in this thread Atheros are recommended for repeaters.

I'd like some suggestions on a cheap Atheros router for repeating that will be a good starter for me to get some hands on experience with. I feel like after I got some experience I could then make a better informed decision on any extras I may need.
Added bonuses would be easy to find for purchase, stability, ease of setup, lots of easy to find/read resources of information dealing with dd-wrt installation and setup, and troubleshooting other users have already gone through.
If my wife and I could get an ipad, ipod, 2 MacBook Pro's & our Desktop on while our neighbor has two wireless devices connected to their Belkin that would be ideal, but mostly likely would not be necessary.

If my line of thinking isn't right, and if I've simply overlooked an easy answer in the massive amounts of information here please inform me to search a little harder. I'm struggling to take in all the data on so many different setups.
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Dougz
DD-WRT User


Joined: 25 May 2012
Posts: 106
Location: Phoenix, AZ, USA

PostPosted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 16:27    Post subject: Reply with quote
There are probably a lot of different ways to make things better in your situation. From my limited experience, I might try one of the following:
If you want to use a repeater, you need to be able to locate it so that it is between the source and the farthest user. A repeater will cut your maximum bandwidth in half, because all data has to be transmitted twice.
Another option is to use a second router as a Wireless Access Point WAP. This requires that you run a cable from the main router to the second router. In your case, that might not be good enough or convenient, so you can use powerline Ethernet adapters to effectivly run the cable via the AC power lines and you can place the WAP in your apartment, wherever it is convenient.
And then there are repeater bridges, that allow you to extend the neighbor's network into your apartment via a repeater function.
The nice thing about using a bridge or WAP is that you can used wired connections in your apartment, and don't have to depend upon wireless for every device.
Also, for some solutions, there is the possibility of being able to separate the two networks so users in apartment 1 can't see the shared resources in apartment 2.

I don't know that there is any particular advantage going to Atheros hardware for your situation. There are plenty of cheap routers available that will do the job. Belkin N routers similar to the one you use are available new for $25 on eBay, and there are a lot of nice used routers on craigslist. The Belkin 7D7301 has WAP and guest SSID capability built into the factory firmware. Factory firmware is not generally favored here, but something like that may do what you want done without making a project out of it.

There is a very good tutorial in the Wiki about linking routers that will give you a lot of info about the choices available. You probably want a solution that allows you to leave the present router untouched and install another option on the second router.

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CoonHunter
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 20 Jul 2012
Posts: 2
Location: Mountains of NC

PostPosted: Sat Jul 28, 2012 16:40    Post subject: Reply with quote
I thought my post was deleted all together, so I did a lot of re-reading before I realized my post had been placed in it's own thread here.
After re-reading the "What's the Best Router..." thread I got somewhat confused, as I noticed broadcom was also mentioned for good repeating.

I have used and like the idea of powerline Ethernet adapters, but I'm concerned because I think it has been around 30 years since this building was last wired. I'll research to see if that could potentially be a problem.
My other concern with the powerline Ethernet adapters is if all the other networks in the building would cause issues.
I've setup a WAP before, and I may consider that if I can find an easy route to run the cable without having to drill to many holes or have the cable hanging unsightly in out apartments.

Placing a repeater in a halfway location is actually pretty easy for us. The ipods are the only thing with horrible signal strength. The ipad only needs about 20ft further to have full coverage in our apartment.
I'm not sure how much we would suffer if we lost half of our bandwidth though, so I might try a few solutions to find out what works best.

I would prefer to get some experience with dd-wrt, but my neighbor dosen't want me messing with their router since it's under warranty. They do not mind if I get them another router and install dd-wrt on it, as long as they're not out any money for hardware.
Right now I intend to do some more research and get a cheap router to get some experience with dd-wrt. I'll probably try it as a repeater and if it's too weak for our needs I'll try something else.
I'll post back when I'm more informed and have more focused questions, or results from my testing experience.

Thanks for not deleting my post, and thanks for the response Dougz!
Dougz
DD-WRT User


Joined: 25 May 2012
Posts: 106
Location: Phoenix, AZ, USA

PostPosted: Sat Jul 28, 2012 23:39    Post subject: Reply with quote
You probably already know that there are several flavors of powerline ethernet protocol and some are more tolerant of powerline glitches than others. I have both the original 85 mbps adapters plus a couple adapters that use AV 200. I use them rather than wireless on my HTPC for streaming, with IP cams and for an occasional remote WAP for guests across the street. For the most part, they work very well, but I did have a case where under certain conditions a GFI on the circuit I was using would absolutely kill the signal. I thought it may have been related to temperature, but the GFI was also defective.

All of mine are refurbs that I got from either Tigerdirect.com or Newegg.com, for LT $50 a pair. Both flavors come with security features, but I have never bothered to use them. I see tigerdirect.com has a pair of new AV200 adapters for $60 shipped (maybe today only). A building with 30 year old wiring seems pretty modern to me. My house was built in '67 and there is nothing antique about the wiring.

I think you can probably do what you need without changes to your neighbor's router. There's a nice table in the wiki under linking routers that shows the requirements of each type of item. It also lists which involve changes to the host router. I have really enjoyed using DD-WRT while trying to get a handle on networking in general. The downside is that, if you pick a beta build, you have a chance of FW bugs and glitches interfering with the learning process, which itself is riddled with potential pitfalls (in my case at least). Your project sounds interesting. I'll be interested to hear how it's going.

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