So I’m no networking expert, but I know enough about using search engines that I was able to find instructions on how to turn a router into a wireless access point, months ago. Today I managed to set up a third router on our network. We have a rambling huge house (3000 square feet) with a cottage across the back deck. There are two huge junction boxes that used to be breaker boxes, two breaker boxes, and the various electronics and electrics involved in tying our solar panels into the electrical grid between the house and the cottage. And the wiring in the house ranges from almost brand new to many decades old. Needless to say there is some terrible interference and things that work brilliantly at one end of the house don’t necessary work at all at the other end.
So we have a router where all the cables come into the house for phone and whatnot, and wire strung to our laundry room to serve that half of the house, and a wire strung over to the cottage to serve that area.
I have all the routers set to different channels, to keep the interference down. All are called “Uncommons_” with a tag to indicate which router is which–I want to be able to choose the strongest for where I’m at at any given time. And I turned off DHCP on the WAPs (Wireless Access Points) so that they act only as wireless switches rather than trying to manage traffic. The main router handles all the organization.
And it works. Seamlessly. The only down side is that one of the routers doesn’t “self heal” and so we have to manually reboot it now and then when it gets confused. But mostly we just have internet from one end of the house to the other, and in the little cottage too. I’m good. Even if I am only following directions.
I started setting up the router at 2:30, and was finished well before I had to pick Shiny up at 3:15.
