Sporatic signal lost with Cisco-Linksys WRT54G wireless routers

[cwindham94]

I have a office that was converted from a older townhouse.  The building has 3 floors with the distant of each floor expands no more than about 60 - 75 feet from end to end of the building.  Not sure what's in the walls as the building is at least 20-25 years old.  Total number of users is about 20 - 25. 

Here is the problem..

I have a WRT54G wireless router setup to provide wireless coverage for this office, located on the 2nd floor,  For some reason, about 10 - 15 feet from the opposite end of the building, the signal drops off big time. Regardless of the floor.  So to assist with the signal, I installed a wireless 300N Gain extender on the same floor on the opposite end of the building where the signal was weak.  At first, it seemed to help out by boosting the signal, but then it seems to show the same issue as before.. sporatic signal loss, signal fluctuation, etc.

My question is should I replace the wireless booster with multiple wireless APs located throughout each floor... maybe 1 per floor?  If so, is there a trick to configuring all 3 APs to have the same SSID and same encryptions so it will be seamless to the users?  Since the first AP works fine, I wanted to get 2 additional WRT54G units..

Please advise...

[David Hornstein]

Hi Carl,

I personally do not like range boosters or repeaters.  They solve a problem,  but getting high speed Ethernet where needed is always a better solution.

WRT54G are not APs with wireless routers.

I love the idea of using Ethernet over Power in domestic environments.  Save drilling holes through walls or running cables that folks can trip over.

It helps move Ethernet to areas that have limited access to wiring a long distance.  This provides a solution to extending Ethernet, believe it or not,  over your domestic AC internal wiring. 

Tremendous solutuion that actually works and works well..

example, A colleague had run a long CAT5e cable in their house for Voice and data connectivity to a home office.   They replaced the CAT5e cable with the older PLK200 ...wiring problem solved, no holes and no wires to trip over.

Check out the newer Power Line kit,   the PLK300 at;

http://www.linksysbycisco.com/AE/en/products/PLK300

This website is really intended for Cisco Small business Solutions and not really for looking at Linksys domestic solutions. 

Just plug your AP into a PLK300 and this will extend wireless to hard to reach areas .

regards Dave

[cwindham94]

Thanks for the info.  I will definitely look into it.  The location of the dead spot in the building does not have cable so I would have to run a long ethernet cable to that spot.  This might be a good solution.