Short version: for setting up a wireless access point in the home, is there any difference between using a standalone device (running something like dd-wrt) versus setting up an access point via a wireless network adapter attached to a PC?
Long version: I currently have what I assume is a fairly typical home network setup: high speed internet services (dsl or cable) connects directly to one NIC of a low-power dual-nic system that acts as a firewall, router, NAT box. The other NIC connects to my switch, to which all other computers in my home connect.
Also hanging off the switch is a wireless router with dd-wrt installed; it is basically configured as a wireless access point.
Problem is I forgot the IP address of the wireless router. I also couldn't find it doing a complete scan of all possible private IPs with nmap! So I don't know what's going on. But it works for existing clients. I have it setup for MAC filtering, so without the IP, I can't go into the web GUI and add new MAC addresses to the whitelist. (Discovered this when my wife's friend was visiting and wanted internet access on her laptop... had to give her a long Cat5 cable instead of using wireless!)
So I was thinking I could simplify this whole setup if I just put a wireless adapter on the firewall/router/NAT box, and configured it as an access point.
Conceptually, this seems like it wouldn't make a difference. But my main concern is signal strength. We have a fairly large house (wireless access point in the basement); it seems to me that the signal coming from a standalone device might go farther than something that's designed to hang off a PC. My thinking is that something that's meant to attach to a PC is probably designed to be used as a client, whereas a standalone device is designed to be a server.
Any thoughts?
Thanks!
Matt
Edit: my current access point is the Buffalo WHR-HP-G54, and I was looking at this Rosewill RNX-N2X Wireless-N USB Dongle.
Long version: I currently have what I assume is a fairly typical home network setup: high speed internet services (dsl or cable) connects directly to one NIC of a low-power dual-nic system that acts as a firewall, router, NAT box. The other NIC connects to my switch, to which all other computers in my home connect.
Also hanging off the switch is a wireless router with dd-wrt installed; it is basically configured as a wireless access point.
Problem is I forgot the IP address of the wireless router. I also couldn't find it doing a complete scan of all possible private IPs with nmap! So I don't know what's going on. But it works for existing clients. I have it setup for MAC filtering, so without the IP, I can't go into the web GUI and add new MAC addresses to the whitelist. (Discovered this when my wife's friend was visiting and wanted internet access on her laptop... had to give her a long Cat5 cable instead of using wireless!)
So I was thinking I could simplify this whole setup if I just put a wireless adapter on the firewall/router/NAT box, and configured it as an access point.
Conceptually, this seems like it wouldn't make a difference. But my main concern is signal strength. We have a fairly large house (wireless access point in the basement); it seems to me that the signal coming from a standalone device might go farther than something that's designed to hang off a PC. My thinking is that something that's meant to attach to a PC is probably designed to be used as a client, whereas a standalone device is designed to be a server.
Any thoughts?
Thanks!
Matt
Edit: my current access point is the Buffalo WHR-HP-G54, and I was looking at this Rosewill RNX-N2X Wireless-N USB Dongle.
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