Whole house coverage? & Defcon Wireless VLAN

[srt10x3]

I have a 3 story house, (Concrete walls, wood floors, etc) and have poor reception on the 2nd and 3rd story. I have several spare Linksys and have tried the WW-DRT in WDS mode and although the routers see each other (in the mac address /attached router under status), the clients only connect to the primary router on the 1st floor (meaning weak signal). I've tried them all in AP mode as well , but the client won't switch to the strongest signal when I start to loose the weaker signal.

What I really want is a seamless solution like the geeks had a Defcon 16. You could roam where ever you wanted and you switched to the nearest (strongest) access point without loosing your in progress download.

Any ideas, suggestions are welcome.

Craig

 

[thiggins]

You're not going to get that with WDS. What you need it multiple APs connected via Ethernet.

 

[Crappy Wiring]

"Fried Chicken Networks"

Use Cat5 it is faster and far better & safer to plug into a jack . Wireless has only been out for a few years and is great for a temporary fix... Not enough info on safety concerns

I would stay away from those crappy "Fried Chicken Networks" The problem with the honey bee's started with use of wireless products ?

http://www.celsias.com/article/bee-colony-collapse-disorder-where-is-it-heading/

 

[srt10x3]

Thanks Tim,

The house is an "This Old House Classic" and I can't get away with any wires. is there any way. To use say 2 wireless routers per location, put one in bridge mode and then connect the AP to it, basically eliminating the need for a physical cable. I realize I'd probably loose some bandwidth due to "chatter".

Craig

 

[thiggins]

If WDS bridging/repeating isn't working I don't think that will either.
You could try using powerline to connect the APs. Make sure you use a product that says "200Mbps" and use the same make and model in all locations.
Might be better than WDS, might not be. Here are a couple of articles involving powerline and wireless:
HD Streaming Smackdown: Draft 11n vs. Powerline
Does HomePlug AV + 802.11g equal Wi-Fi Nirvana?