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I have a group of five computers at one end of my home office and another group of four computers across the same room. All are hardwired on the same internal network. These cannot be consolidate or moved into one corner or closet. There just is not the space and it's just physically not possible.
There is one Internet router as provided by the local cable company. I have this connected to a LinkSys WRT54G2 broadband router. A Netgear DS108 8-port hub is connected the LinkSys. All computers either connect to the Netgear hub or to the LinkSys router. As of now, the WiFi from the LinkSys router is only ever used by my cell phone while at home.
This set up is annoying. At first I did not mind, but there are cables on the floor that I have to step over. These CAT5 cables connect one set of computers to the LinkSys or Netgear. I have to watch where visitors are walking or stepping to assure they don't trip.
How can I keep these computers on the same network and eliminate just those cables crossing the floor of my home office?
It seems easy to see my only option is to use some kind of wireless method, right?
Should I use WiFi NICs? Would this overwhelm the WiFi on the LinkSys?
(Although I did first search this site for similar questions, I could not readily find one. If you find one I missed, please share it's link.)
Thank you for any help.
Additional (01/27/2012 at 16:40:28 UTC)
This is a rented flat/apartment. I cannot pull up carpet, punch holes in walls, and there's no access to attic. Modifying the flat risks losing my 'security deposit'.
The wifi AP's bandwidth is shared between all connected nodes - they'd be sharing the 54 Mb/s of bandwidth between all of them. – Shane Madden – 2012-01-27T06:34:49.823
that's a good idea!!! you can use pci WiFi nic's their configuration & installation is very simple. – None – 2012-01-27T06:24:35.153
But at what point does the WiFi LinkSys router get overwhelmed? Three WiFi NICs? Six WiFi NICS? Or never? I was looking at USB WiFi NICs. I guess it's better to use PIC, huh? – None – 2012-01-27T06:33:23.343
It's all depends on you & No of IP's you allowed in dhcp server of your router also, you can limit your no of connections, if you want to increase your wifi range you can use cheap repeater or wifi range extender (Linksys RE1000) http://helpspa.com/networking_internet/limit-the-number-of-connections-to-a-linksys-wireless-router/
– None – 2012-01-27T07:03:27.4006"How can I keep these computers on the same network and eliminate just those cables crossing the floor of my home office?" - the easiest solution to that would be to sticky tape them to the ceiling surely – Flexo – 2012-01-27T11:38:49.793
one missing information: how much information flows through the network ???? the computers are heavily used, or just exchange small amounts of information between them? or all just access the internet ? – woliveirajr – 2012-01-27T17:42:43.900
@woliveirajr Good observation and thank you for asking. I mentioned that this is my home office. Yes, my business depends upon these computers. I push and pull data over the Internet. Two machines are Windows servers with SQL Server running. I am a software developer and my programs use the SQL servers. I would assume the traffic over the private network is substantial. – Steve – 2012-01-27T18:07:54.483
Suspend the cables with a series of poles, then they will not be on the floor. – Random832 – 2012-01-27T20:59:55.963
1Data transfer requirements are not stated. Anyway, get a switch for the 5 to plug into, then connect that to the router. The other four can either be wired to another switch and a bridge or just use WiFi NICs. Try and group your PCs that need to have the fastest file transfer rates on the same wired segment using the bridge & router for internet access mainly. – Chef Flambe – 2012-01-27T22:02:25.473
FYI...have the same WiFi and three PCs connected. With all 3 streaming video from YouTube we have no problems. – Chef Flambe – 2012-01-27T22:06:09.790
Wireless N is fine. I have wireless N on my laptop and it's fast enough to stream 1080p. It shouldn't be a problem. When transferring a file to my NAS over wireless, I get 20Mb/s or more. Should be fast enough for your needs. – Matt – 2012-01-27T22:41:02.783
1Staple the cables to the ceiling. – Daniel R Hicks – 2012-01-27T23:51:17.197