How do I extend my network wirelessly?

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Summary: Extending your network using wireless technology holds both promise and complexity. Here are some ideas to extend a network using wireless networking.

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What you describe as having could be done several different ways, so it's difficult for me to give a specific recommendation without knowing your situation exactly.

However, it's not at all uncommon for people to want to extend their wireless network somehow, or use wireless technology to extend their wired network.

We'll look at a couple of ways to do that, and see if we can't solve your problem along the way.

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First let's look at what I believe you've described:

On the left we have your router sharing connectivity to the internet between one or more computers and an access point. On the left, we have another access point configured to act as a bridge, into which you've plugged your PC using an ethernet or wired connection.

I'm assuming that the access point on the right is configured to act as a bridge.

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This is an important point. An access point and a bridge are not the same thing. An access point is, as its name implies, a point from which other devices can access the wireless network. The access point acting as a bridge on the right, in this scenario, is one of those "other devices" - it connects to the "real" wireless access point on the left. The way the bridge is used in the scenario you outline, it's very much like a wireless network adapter, allowing your single PC on the right to connect to the wireless network.

As we'll see in a moment, it can actually do a little more than that.

I also want to point out that there are wireless devices that simple are bridges. Rather than configuring an access point to "act like" a bridge, a dedicated bridge is typically much simpler to set up for its purpose.

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Option 1

In your case, since you're just adding a laptop to the mix, as long as it's in rage, I'm tempted to suggest that you go the simple route if you can:

In this case the laptop simply connected to the existing wireless network via the access point on the left. No tricks or games, no additional hardware, it's just the normal way to connect a laptop to an existing network.

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Option 2

If that's not acceptable - perhaps the laptop is too far away from the access point to connect solidly, my next option is to add a hub:

Here you can see we've placed a hub between the bridge and the wired computer on the right, and connected the laptop to that hub. In fact, you could add several additional computers to that hub, and they'd all be able to share the wireless connection that the bridge provides. This is a common way to extend a network when physical wiring isn't an option.

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Option 3

Of course, the previous option didn't enable the wireless capabilities of your laptop. To that, we need to add a wireless access point - actually acting as an access point:

The creates a second wireless network which is connected to the first. It's one approach to extending a wireless network beyond its initial range.

This technique creates what's called a "repeater" - a bridge connected to an access point. And, just like the bridges themselves, there are dedicated wireless devices which are repeaters.

Caveat as you can see this scenario is not necessarily simple, and it's not a scenario I've actually implemented. In theory it should work.

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The more common, and typically more stable approach to extending a network is to use a wired backbone:

Naturally it relies on being able to run physical wiring to the location of each access point. When that's not possible, the bridged approach above is a reasonable compromise. I tend to favor the wired approach, however, as being less error prone and easier to maintain. If there's a way I can run wire and use only simple access points, that's typically the direction I'll design things myself.

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And finally, I do want to point out that these are only examples. Depending on your own needs, your configuration will probably be different. Switches can be used instead of hubs, you might have the ability to wire more computers, or place wireless access points and/or bridges in ways that would be different than the diagrams I've outlined above.

But hopefully I've provided some ideas and a starting point.

Related:

• Ask Leo! - Can I use a second wireless access point to extend my wireless network?

• Ask Leo! - How should I set up my home network?

• Ask Leo! - What's the difference between a Hub, a Switch and a Router?

Article C2883 - December 28, 2006