On my home network I have a cable modem/wireless router and three wired computers. The furthest is about as far as you can get in my little condo, and it took some doing to run the cable there. Running another is not a practical option.
But I just got a network-capable printer that is going in the same room. And sometimes I’d like to be able to wire up my laptop in the same room, because the wireless signal at that distance is weak.
I was thinking I might be able to hook up a simple hub at that end of the cable, and feed two or three network devices that way. I happen to have a Linksys 5-port Workgroup hub (model EW5HUB), but when I connected up everything, only one of the computers could access the Web.
I didn’t have time to fiddle around with it at the time, so it may just have been a settings issue.
Should that work, or am I using the wrong hardware? Do I need a proper router at the far end? If the hub should work, what should I look for to correct the settings?
That should work fine. You may need to pay attention to what input port you are using on the remote hub as some have a specific port (or switch on the unit) designating for cascading one hub/switch from another. Also, power cycle the router/hub, remote hub, and the cable modem so they all come up and re-sync together.
I’m not sure why your wireless connection is that weak. You should be able to use it for your entire home. If you hook up a hub, it will need an uplink button that you can use to put the live internet feed, just plug the laptop into any of the other ports. Myself I would look at my router and figure out why the signal was so weak, and maybe just buy a better one.
That should work, and I’m surprised it doesn’t. You can chain routers to each other indefinitely, as long as there’s only one DHCP host, and the network router/hub don’t try to translate or duplicate addresses. But I admit its some time since I used a hub vs. a switch.
OTOH, if this isn’t working, getting another router is not a very expensive option. Just make sure that you disable DHCP on the “downstream” router, and don’t replicate any IP addresses and you’ll be fine.
Example at my house: in the wiring closet where our cable modem lives, its connected to a 4 port netgear router, which also does wireles. One of the cables plugged into that router goes across the house to my office, where I have another router with 8 ports where I plug in all my machines.
The router in the wiring closet has DHCP enabled, and a network address of 192.168.1.1. The router in my office has DHCP disabled, and a network address of 192.168.1.2. The cable modem itself has a network address of 192.168.100.1
Re Quisp’s comment he’s correct. The latest N spec routers are VASTLY better than the old B and G wireless routers (esp older Linksys unit which were notoriously weak) at delivering a useful signal at distance in residences to N AND existing B/G devices like your notebook.
You might also want to check the security settings on your existing wireless router. If you never set up wireless security protocols, the default state is typically wide open, and it’s possible your network is currently open to every wireless device in range in your condo building.
Thanks, all. The wireless router is a combo cable modem and router provided by Verizon for my FIOS setup. I already had a wireless router that worked fine when I got FIOS last year, but the installer discouraged me from trying to use it instead of theirs. (It may be that he just wanted to save himself some trouble.)
But the issue is moot since I don’t really care about getting a wireless signal in this remote room. It is a very occasional minor annoyance (I only rarely bring my laptop there). For regular daily use of the new printer, I want to use the hub if it will work, because I already have it and I don’t have a wireless receiver for the printer. In any case, the wired connection should be faster and more reliable, right?
astro: thanks for the advice, security is in place.
ETA: So I’ll play around with all this and try to get it working and get back to you if I have more problems.