Router question..

I'm going to have my laptop soon and I want to use wireless internet with it. I already have a router in my basement(not wireless), and I want another wireless one so I can use my laptop on the 2nd floor. Is this possible? I only have one modem.

 

Totally, but the router you get depends on your laptop's adapter. Right now Dual-Band N is the best thing out there if you can afford it, but unless your adapter is N or Dual-Band N it won't get the speed/signal benefit from the Router. Of course you can always get an external USB or ExpressCard adapter and bypass your internal adapter. N is also better as it has increased range and signal strength, so depending on the makeup of your home, floors and walls can interfere with the radio signal from the Router.

If you're unfamiliar with networking, Linksys has a good networking tutorial on their site for beginners on how to choose a Router. Linksys

 

I wanted more to know how you connect the 2nd router with the modem?

 

You don't; you either replace the wired router with the wireless router, or you plug one of the routers into the modem and the other into one of the LAN sockets on the backside of the first router. In your case, it might be easiest to drop a length of good ethernet cable from the second floor down to the basement, plug that into one of the LAN sockets on the backside of the wired router, and then plug the wireless router's WAN socket into the other end of that ethernet cable. Depending on what wireless router you get, you will either set the router up to act as a mere access point (i.e., it doesn't do things like DHCP and doesn't create new subnetworks), or you set it up as a new subnetwork on your existing network.

 

The ethernet cable from 2nd floor is because I won't have good signal or whatever on the 2nd floor? Can't I log in wifi even if it is 2 stories down?

 

Mainly for signal strength (just to give you the complete possibilities). If I were you, I'd start off with just the wireless router in the basement connected directly to the wired router (or better yet, in place of the wired router) and see if you can get a generally reliable signal from the place on the 2nd floor where you'll be using the laptop. If the signal isn't that reliable, then you'll probably have to consider putting the router at least on the 1st floor, if not the second.

 

not 100% sure if this is what you asking but here:

http://www.dslwebserver.com/main/fr_index.html?/main/wireless-router-as-access-point.html
or
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/wxpbrdge.html

 

Sparky's links are a good place to start.

Before you do anything, though, you need to identify the CURRENT router and the new router, or at least the current one.

Some routers can be used as an access point like you wish, but they don't always play well together depending on what you have. For example, some routers come with pre-set networks and the inability to disable or change them-- if that doesn't match your current network it will result in problems connecting.

 

Thanks for the links and help guys. My current router is a normal linksys (model BEFSR41). I haven't bought the wireless one yet. So what should I look into to make sure they go well together?

 

Here's the thing about this router. As the first device on your network it is going to be your gateway (router) from your internal network to the external. It is also going to perform as the DHCP server for your network (hand out IP addresseses).

This router tightly restricts your internal network range to only 254 ip addresses because it locks you into 192.168.1.x with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0

The other router you are buying is going to basically act as a wireless access point.

To make this work, your second router must allow you to disable DHCP (two DHCP servers on one network is a headache) and must be able to accept a network address in the 192.168.1.x range. If your second router cannot be set with an internal network address in that range your wireless it cannot communicate with the first router, and therefore it cannot talk to the Internet.