wired / wireless lan

[Maditude]

I've got a wired lan, that covers MOST of the entire house (two floors, plus basement).

Anyway, my wife wants to put a squeezebox in the kitchen, where running ethernet is a pretty much impossible.

I've got a wireless sb2 on order, but am wondering if I should get a wireless access point, or a wireless router, to hook everything up to the old (wired) LAN. From what I've seen, the routers tend to be a bit cheaper, though it's not a huge difference.

Is there a recommended way to go?

TIA,
Maditude

[ceejay]

If you've got a wired LAN, I guess you already have some kind of router between the LAN and the internet. If so, you don't need another one - so a simple Wirelass Access Point (WAP) is all you need. Plug it into your wired LAN at any convenient point and off you go.

A "Wireless Router" is actually two devices in one box - a router and a WAP. And the WAP ought to be cheaper - it was for me, last time I was looking.

Ceejay

[Doug Carter]

On Sun, Oct 02, 2005 at 01:15:49AM -0700, ceejay wrote:
> ...
> so a simple Wirelass Access Point (WAP) is all you need. Plug it into
> your wired LAN at any convenient point and off you go.
---end quoted text---

Its a good idea to set up WEP security on your access point (and SB2) so
that you don't wind up providing your neighbors Internet access

[Doug Carter]

On Sun, Oct 02, 2005 at 01:15:49AM -0700, ceejay wrote:
> ...
> so a simple Wirelass Access Point (WAP) is all you need. Plug it into
> your wired LAN at any convenient point and off you go.
---end quoted text---

Its a good idea to set up WEP security on your access point (and SB2) so
that you don't wind up providing your neighbors Internet access

[max.spicer]

If you've got it available, use WPA instead. WEP is quite insecure in comparison.

Max

On Sun, Oct 02, 2005 at 01:15:49AM -0700, ceejay wrote:
> ...
> so a simple Wirelass Access Point (WAP) is all you need. Plug it into
> your wired LAN at any convenient point and off you go.
---end quoted text---

Its a good idea to set up WEP security on your access point (and SB2) so
that you don't wind up providing your neighbors Internet access

[radish]

If a router is cheaper (as they often are, especially with rebates etc), buy that and just don't use the WAN port. I have done that several times with success.

[Michaelwagner]

Anyway, my wife wants to put a squeezebox in the kitchen, where running ethernet is a pretty much impossible.

Before you head down that route, why is ethernet impossible in the kitchen?

I would have thought the kitchen the easiest place (in most homes) to string wires - the walls are already swiss cheese, with numerous holes through the walls for water, drain, electrical, hot air ducts, home intercom, etc.

[Michaelwagner]

Something else to consider ... if any of your other squeezeboxen are wireless, you can use the squeezebox as a wireless bridge, it seems
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=16717
I don't know much about this, never tried it (none of mine are wireless) but it might be interesting to try.

[Maditude]

> Before you head down that route, why is ethernet impossible
> in the kitchen?

Because I'm not allowed to cut through sheetrock (for good reason, I'm not the handiest person).

Thanks to all for the comments in the thread...

[Fifer]

Something else to consider ... if any of your other squeezeboxen are wireless, you can use the squeezebox as a wireless bridge, it seems

SB2 only though.