Quote:
Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy
I'd like to but it's not practical, all of the computer stuff is in my basement office.
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There are 2 other options:
1) Buy a Wi-Fi capable router and one or more range extender. Place the router where you need it and the range extenders in other locations as needed to improve coverage. The range extenders typically work as a wireless signal repeater by taking in the weak signal and boosting it.
2) This option takes a bit more technical know-how, but can be done. It's what I do. I have a separate router (no wireless) and 2 Wi-Fi APs. One is an Apple TimeMachine and the other is an Apple Airport Express. Both APs broadcast the same SSID (the name of the Wi-FI hotspot) but they are on different channels using the auto-channel assignment feature. The Wi-Fi clients will attach to whichever AP has better signal strength as needed and without manually doing anything. The things to watch out for are (a) the APs need to be configured to use L2 bridging (i.e., not NAT) and (b) the security settings must be the same (same encryption and passwords).
As far as security goes, you should not use WEP protocol. It is weak and has known vulnerabilities. WPA/WPA2 is the way to go using TKIP or AES encryption.