Can I Use 2 Wifi Routers together?

[Accessless]

Basically I've got two Wireless routers handy and poor signal at the opposite end of my house. Can I set up the routers to broadcast the same domain name and internet connection or will that just cause a conflict reducing reliability and signal strength?


Converting this question into English: "Can I use two wifi routers in tandem?"

[Geek-9pm]

Yes.
The ideal way is to have the two routers directly connected via cable.

[Sid]

Depending on the makes / models, you can do some pretty clever stuff.

I do exactly what you're talking about using 2 x Netgear DG834G's using the Advanced Wireless features, without a cable running between them.

With that said though, it's only a small house, and both routers have to be in range of each other for this to work.

[Accessless]

Awesome, so If I connect the two routers together via cable (old one used to be connect up to a basic cable modem anyway) and set the same domain name, password and channel to match it should work?

[Sid]

Awesome, so If I connect the two routers together via cable (old one used to be connect up to a basic cable modem anyway) and set the same domain name, password and channel to match it should work?

The cable will need to be an ethernet cable (assuming both routers also have at least one ethernet cable), but yeah, it should work.

[Accessless]

The cable will need to be an ethernet cable (assuming both routers also have at least one ethernet cable), but yeah, it should work.

I can't use a serial cable then? j/k

[Sid]

I can't use a serial cable then? j/k

In another thread someone tried to use the dsl cable between two routers, so since then I've tried to be a bit clearer, sorry about that

[Accessless]

Ok, I now have a unified domain name, 802.11gn wifi with no where being below excellent signal strength. But I'm getting different network speeds:

On the directly wired computer (LAN) I get ~31Mbps
On the laptop next to the routers I get ~5Mbps
On the furthest computer from the routers I get ~19Mbps

So Direct = 31Mbps
5ft = 5Mbps
15ft = 19Mbps

What am I doing wrong?

[Accessless]

Small addition: I have now set my network to g to normalise connection speeds but that reduces the signal strength. My old router is only capable of b & g btw.

(It appears that g has a limit of 20Mbps if i'm reading wikipedia correclty.)

[Sid]

Small addition: I have now set my network to g to normalise connection speeds but that reduces the signal strength. My old router is only capable of b & g btw.

(It appears that g has a limit of 20Mbps if i'm reading wikipedia correclty.)

B = 11Mbps
G = 54Mbps (but any encryption will eat into that)

When you say domain name, do you mean the wireless SSID (network name)?

How did you get the speeds?

[Accessless]

Sorry, yes I mean SSID and my listed speeds are from testing various computers on speedtest.net (so their internet connection speeds).

[Sid]

Sorry, yes I mean SSID and my listed speeds are from testing various computers on speedtest.net (so their internet connection speeds).

31Mbps download speed?! Woah...that's insane.

[Accessless]

31Mbps download speed?! Woah...that's insane.

Yeah, it was a one off payment upgrade from 20. I did have the option of 50 for an extra monthly fee but what do i need it for?

So... Any ideas on how to pump that speed down a wifi connection?

[Sid]

Yeah, it was a one off payment upgrade from 20. I did have the option of 50 for an extra monthly fee but what do i need it for?

So... Any ideas on how to pump that speed down a wifi connection?

So you've got three different computers all registering different speeds...

Ok, can you run speed tests on each one in isolation (so no other internet activity on the LAN (i.e. one at a time))?

Have you got any wifi analysing tools?  It might be worth seeing what channels you're using, and if there are any clearer channels (if there are lots of wifi networks around).

[Sid]

So you've got three different computers all registering different speeds...

Ok, can you run speed tests on each one in isolation (so no other internet activity on the LAN (i.e. one at a time))?

Have you got any wifi analysing tools?  It might be worth seeing what channels you're using, and if there are any clearer channels (if there are lots of wifi networks around).

I couldn't modify for some reason, so take a look at this:

http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/