Build a Wi-Fi Home Network

Many people find the area they want to serve is too large for a single wireless gateway to cover. Your home could have too many walls -- or walls of the wrong material, like brick -- between a gateway and areas in which you want to use a computer. Other times, the limitation could be pure distance between the gateway or access point and your computer.

You have three simple choices for extending your network:

First, add a second access point, this time just a plain one without the gateway features, or a gateway with all of those features turned off (although note that not all gateways let you do this -- check before buying). Connect this second access point to your Internet-connected gateway with regular old wired Ethernet cabling. Give the second access point the same network name or SSID as the first, so that your computer will know it's part of the same network -- you can then roam seamlessly between the two.

If you already have Ethernet installed in your house or if running one wire is no problem, this first option is the best course. With an Ethernet backbone, even for two access points, you keep speed high and complexity low.

Many homes, however, would require drills and other power tools to add Ethernet, not to mention unsightly wiring along baseboards or holes in the walls. This might direct you to the second option: substitute electrical wiring for Ethernet wiring with HomePlug. HomePlug carries data off the electrical network in your house. You place a HomePlug Ethernet adapter into a wall outlet near your main gateway, then connect another HomePlug adapter elsewhere in your house to an access point. Voila! You've linked your networks.

You can even buy a HomePlug access point (from companies like Asoka and Siemens), which is possibly the cheapest way to extend your network's range. Make sure to give the HomePlug access point the same network name as your main gateway when you configure it via a PC. Check out the HomePlug.org site for more information.

A third option relies on the Wireless Distribution System (WDS), a protocal for linking devices wirelessly that is supported by newer gateways and access points. You want to choose WDS when you want to entirely avoid wiring, electrical or Ethernet, in connecting gateways and access points.

For instance, in a three-story home, you might put your gateway next to the cable modem on the first floor, and have acceptable signal strength on the second floor, but the top of the house doesn't get a signal. With WDS, you could add a second access point to the second floor to relay information back and forth from your Internet-connected gateway while providing client access to the third floor.

Newer gateways like Apple's AirPort Extreme Base Station and the Buffalo AirStation WBR-G54, have WDS built right in so that the hub can work as an access point, allowing computers to connect through it, and as a bridge, connecting to other access points.