smithyandco Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 (edited) Ok, We've had visit number 3 from Virgin as the new modem the last engineer put in died... Reliable Cisco units... After a complaint, we got a call from a local manager who said he'd get an engineer round to replace the whole setup and stick a "SuperHub" in, in the process. Now the SuperHub for those that don't follow Virgin's every move is a cable modem and router in one unit. http://static.which.net/media/images/in-content2/virgin-media-superhub-modem--234750.jpgLooks like this. The engineer has been today, whipped out a "SuperHub" and left the D-Link connected to test wifi around the house on his Android phone... He was just as baffled as me about the wifi range and dead spots... http://www.evo-host.co.uk/getimg/26152.pngTake this for example... green indicates good signal, red indicates dead spot and the blue dot is the old router... Now work that out! Now this new SuperHub has improved the wireless network range greatly compared to the original D-Link DIR-615 they usually knock out. I'm currently connected in a room which was previously another "dead-spot". The engineer left the D-Link router here saying "It's yours... only the modem and TV tuner is ours". The D-Link has an Access Point Mode... this has me thinking. Normally, you'd connect an AP or "Wifi Extender" via a cat5 to your Wired Router, pants Wireless Router or other device and leave it at that... But I want the router upstairs as an AP device so following the norm I'd end up running a network cable upstairs which is pointless, it's the reason we wanted to go Wifi in the first place. So... can you suggest any other way of using this as an AP? I have a Media Centre PC upstairs in a good signal part of the house... could I connect the router to that via a cat5 then run a software bridge from wireless->wired then connect my other PC in the not-so-good signal part of my house via wireless to the router? (just seems a little bit of a faff...) Or should I bugger it all off and get some of those PowerPlug network adaptors? (bare in mind our house has really old wiring...) Edited January 29, 2011 by smithyandco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidrick Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 Buy a cheap wireless base and stick it at a half-way point in the house. Bridge this to the 'superhub'. Run a cat5 from this to the computer. We do this a lot at work for wireless diagnostic machines. This might have been what you suggested, but your point/question was lost in a lot of blether, so I gave up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geordie_aaron Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 are your electrics running to a fusebox in the hallway? a mate thats got a student house has EXACTLY the same problem and this is the cause as when they got a rewire and moved the fusebox ETC all was solved Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smithyandco Posted January 29, 2011 Author Share Posted January 29, 2011 Buy a cheap wireless base and stick it at a half-way point in the house. Bridge this to the 'superhub'. Run a cat5 from this to the computer. We do this a lot at work for wireless diagnostic machines. This might have been what you suggested, but your point/question was lost in a lot of blether, so I gave up.Lol... I think that was one of my suggestions... But I'm no network boffin by a long shot... I think, before I do anything I need to rid the D-Link router of it's default Virgin firmware and install retail firmware. are your electrics running to a fusebox in the hallway? a mate thats got a student house has EXACTLY the same problem and this is the cause as when they got a rewire and moved the fusebox ETC all was solvedOur fusebox is directly below the hallway in the cellar... But it's a rented house so we can't rewire it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawdreamer Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 Buy a cheap wireless base and stick it at a half-way point in the house. Bridge this to the 'superhub'. Run a cat5 from this to the computer. We do this a lot at work for wireless diagnostic machines. This might have been what you suggested, but your point/question was lost in a lot of blether, so I gave up.Lol... I think that was one of my suggestions... But I'm no network boffin by a long shot... I think, before I do anything I need to rid the D-Link router of it's default Virgin firmware and install retail firmware. are your electrics running to a fusebox in the hallway? a mate thats got a student house has EXACTLY the same problem and this is the cause as when they got a rewire and moved the fusebox ETC all was solvedOur fusebox is directly below the hallway in the cellar... But it's a rented house so we can't rewire it Might be a longshot (and sorta depends on the age of the house and the regulations placed upon it during construction) While running a refurb job in some of ManU's offices sections in their south stand the cavity wall fitters got totally bollicked for using high grade front and back layered fire board (which is more or less normal plasterboard with foil coating front and back to delay fire progress through the building), they ended up stripping back ever board they'd already fastened up and replace it with the the single sided version. If they'd have used the single stuff from the start Id have not even noticed but one of their lads said it had something to do with distorting and limiting the radio waves of the network the datalink lads were installing, said it caused certain offices and corridors to go dead while further away ones were fine. Id have thought the radio waves would pass through simple fire board without issue....apparently I was wrong Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smithyandco Posted January 31, 2011 Author Share Posted January 31, 2011 So it looks like this was an old house with metal built into the walls. So to cure this... I'm either going to have to run an ethernet cable up the front side of the building to 1st floor then put an Access Point on the end of the cable or put a WIFI repeater in. Now in theory I should be able to use the old router as a repeater by using DD-WRT firmware... Knowing I can't really brick these D-Links, I've flashed it with the DD-WRT and set it up as a repeater the best I could... But it's conflicting with the SuperHub somehow. I'll post later on with the settings I've used... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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