Sending Wireless Signal FROM Laptop to second wired wireless router?

You see, my laptop can see my wireless signal but my PDA can't when in the same room as my laptop.

I have two routers (and wiring the second router from the first and using it as an access point isn't an option).

Is there any way I can send the wireless signal from my laptop obtained from the parent router to the other wireless router (through an ethernet cable) and then connect my PDA to the second router as an access point?

I tried connecting the router from the LAN and WAN port and bridging my wireless connection with the LAN connection from the router connected to my laptop. In both cases (through LAN and WAN ports on the wired router), I was not able to connect to the original wireless signal after I bridged the connections.

Any help would be appreciated,

Thanks.

 

Well, first off, what wireless capabilities do both your laptop and pda support. It sounds like the router may not be set to the right network (IE if your pda is only wireless-b, the router could only be sending out g).

 

My router sends mixed b/g, my HTC Dream can detect the signal but it's so weak it drops out more than it connects.

 

OK- it seems half of my posts in this sub-forum start this way but…
Use inSSIDer to see what signal strength is and what channels are being used.
It may be enough to change the wireless channel to one that’s not occupied and preferably one that is not overlapping (that is 1, 6, and 11 for the US and 1, 5, 9 and 13 in Europe)

EDIT: inSSIDer is here: http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider

 

I have an app on my phone which I used to scan wireless channels when I lived in an apartment with many signals. At the moment I'm living up in the middle of nowhere and there are no other wireless signals so I shouldn't have any problems with a channel being occupied. Although I'm not sure what you meant about overlapping.

 

Overlapping would concern you only if there were some neighbouring networks.
I'd recommend using inSSIDer anyway- that's unless your PDA reports signal strength, but on the other hand it's the PDA that has problems connecting not the laptop so I'd rather use laptop for scanning.

 

Yeah I do trust the inSSIDer signal strengths more than I would the app on my phone. However, my phone can connect perfectly to my wireless connection when I'm closer to the router, it has no problems connecting, it just doesn't have as good of a receiver as my laptop's (which I'd expect).

I'm trying to find workarounds that are free and don't involve me hardwiring ethernet cables around the house (that's not an option). That would rule out buying a wireless router capable of ddwrt and setting it up as a wireless repeater halfway between the router and the room I'm trying to get signal in.

I'm looking for an option that could involve transferring the wireless signal from my laptop to a second router I have that I hooked up to the ethernet port on my laptop, then having that laptop send out the signal which I could then connect to it with my phone as an access point.

 

No it doesn't. You can set dd-wrt up in repeater mode so that it both connects over wifi and also extends over wifi.

 

I know, I was saying it's ruled out because I'm looking for a workaround that's free. =) The second router I have doesn't support ddwrt and the first router isn't mine to tamper with (belongs to the landlady).

 

What's your operating system and wireless card?

EDIT:If you are using Win 7 this may work for you: http://www.connectify.me/about.html
There is also an option called SoftAP for Broadcom drivers but there are some things I'm not sure of at the moment- does it work as AP only when internet access is provided via cable connection and does it even work with systems other that Win XP and/or drivers newer than 3.100.xx

 

I'm on XP Pro. My Wireless card is an Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN.

I spent some time trying to see if my wireless card can inherently act as a router but couldn't seem to find enough info on it. The advanced settings of my wifi card don't really include something that would turn it into an access point (I read up some tutorials describing how you could do this if your wireless card has the right settings available).

I also looked into some SoftAP solutions but got nowhere, the information on it is very vague and it appears the major SoftAP software is disbanded (I managed to find it but my card doesn't support it).

 

Yeah, it seems Intel cards are never supported by apps like these :/

 

Damn, I guess I'm stuck having to buy a cheap ddwrt compatible router and setting it up as a wireless repeater. Any recommendations? I was thinking just a WRT54G.

 

Try used one but if you can't verify what version number is it, go for WRT54GL.
WRT54G from v5 onwards is VxWorks based with half RAM and flash compared to previous Linux versions. It is possible to run Linux-based DD-WRT on it but it used to require special procedure to flash it and due to limited amount of flash memory you could only run micro-edition.
WRT54GL is what used to be called WRT54G/GS and it is Linux based.

 

Damn, routers really don't depreciate in price much. Looking around the regular price comparison sites, even some of the older BEF Linksys models are going for 50+ and the cheapest I can get the WRT54GL is 60$ (Canadian).

I feel like I might as well spend 100 and get an ASUS N16 or something.

 

100$ for Asus RT-N16 is a bargain- that's a fact. Still you can go form pretty much anything that supports DD-WRT (or similar solutions). Linksys WRT54xx is a legend by now so it may be priced higher that i.e. Buffalo routers that are very good.
http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/support/router-database

 

You can get asus WL520GU. You can run dd-wrt with usb support for under $30.

 

Really? Looking here:

http://www.shopbot.ca/pp-asus-rt-n16-asus-price-206879.html

100 is about the average, and that's in Canadian Dollars (about 95$ USD).

Well in any case, I'll have to do some research, might as well get a good router that I can use in the future if I need to (my laptop has an N-receiver as well which I could make use of).

 

Hmm I'm seriously considering this model now after looking into it (though it's more like $35ish where I'm searching).

 

Asus RT-N16 has 480MHz CPU, 128MB RAM, 32MB flash, 1Gb Ethernet, 2 USB 2.0 ports that can work as USB host for memory (HDD, flash drive) or print server, not to mention N capablity and compatibility with DD-WRT.

But we started looking for a free solution...

 

Haha I know, damn. The easiest thing to do would have been if I could wire my second router somewhere where I can see it's signal with my phone if I set it up as an access point. However, it's not my house to be doing that so I can't.

Next, I started thinking about using my computer and second router to configure an access point in the same room as my laptop. However that didn't seem to work out and in my opinion is damn confusing to try and find information on.

So now I feel like my main option is to purchase a router I can setup as a wireless repeater.

The N16 sure seems like overkill, not to mention I'll only be using it as an access point from an older Netgear router.

I'm still open to any free suggestions anyone has but I can't think of any anymore.

 

Have you though about using powerline adapters to get to the other side of the house. Their pricey, but they work when nothing else does.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10011799

 

Bought an Asus WL-520GU. I looked into it and it seems like a great router to setup as a repeater.

Thanks!