Overcomplicated home network?

We all know that home networking is generally pretty simple. Buy a router, connect it to the modem, connect the PC's to the router. Wireless is also pretty simple since there's only 1 extra step for security. In my home though, things are never straightforward. In fact, they're so messed up that I'm currently running three, yes, count that - THREE, routers to connect 2 desktops, 4 laptops, a PS2, and a PDA to the internet.

What does any of this have to do with gaming? Well, I want to play Eve Online on my laptop while watching TV, damnit!

The story begins just a few years ago, in my old home. Over there, we had a single Microsoft 802.11b router (now out of production) to do the job. The router was positioned in the basement and the signal would maintain a strength of over 80% all the way up on the second floor. Then, we moved to this place.

This is a fairly old home and for whatever reason, wireless signals don't travel very far. I believe it has something to do with the fact that my laptop can see something along the lines of like 8 wifi routers not including my own. Combine this with some rooms just naturally 'blocking' wireless signals, and I found myself in a shitty situation in that it would only cover fractions of the 2nd and basement floors. I compromised by placing the router on the second floor since 4 of the computers connect from up there 99% of the time.

However, this didn't solve the problem for anyone wanting to connect from the living room. My first response was to upgrade to a better router - something I was considering for months before the move, but couldn't be arsed to do. I went with a Linksys WRT54G because of their ability to take 3rd party firmwares and the fact that getting bigger antennas isn't difficult.

With the WR5T54G (Base station from now on) in place, I found that it helped cover a slightly larger area of the first floor of the home, but not effectively. Going through the hallway into the family room resulted in a signal drop from 50% to 0 instantly. Even in the 50% zones, it was difficult to maintain a solid connection for an extended period of time. Because of this, I went ahead to install HyperWRT onto it. The theory being that Linksys defaults the router to use only 50% of the transmitter's total power. Third party firmwares unlock the ability to use 100% of the transmitter's capacity and ideally, extend the range and improve signal quality. Signal quality improved a bit, but I still had that family room problem. I attribute this to the fact that the fridge and microwave sit partially within the line the signal would follow from the router to family room and the fact that the area does have a few major ducts running through the wall.

Still with an unresolved and messed up network, I was down to 4 options.

1. a wireless repeater which would essentially be guaranteed to work at a cost of about $140 Canadian
   
2. a high gain antenna but no guarantee on the range it would provide at $80
   
3. buy a wifi bridge and connect it to the old MS router at a cost of just over $100 and a lot of hunting to actually find one
   
4. buy another WRT, install a 3rd party firmware and convert it to operate as #3. This cost about $80 as well
   

I went with #4 in the end since I couldn't find any place in the area wth reasonably priced bridges in stock. A network diagram has been provided to explain how all of this comes together

So, as the diagram shows, that the PCs on Floor 2 connect to the primary base station as they get the best signal. Computers on Floor 1 are running between either the bridged, secondary router or through the 2nd floor base station depending on which gives the stronger signal. Basement connections are facilitated by the Floor 1 setup.

Click for Full

I jumped the gun there for a bit though. The bridging router was configured with DD-WRT as the firmware and is running in bridged mode in order to connect to the base station. The old Microsoft router is effectively running as a switch and is connected to the bridge via the WAN port (on both ends). Unfortunately, computers running under the Microsoft router have to connect to a different SSID and also operate on a different subnet, making it impossible to effectively run Windows file sharing. A minor inconvenience, but one I can live with. My PS2 isn't online either since I have no way of reaching it wirelessly yet.

At the end of all of this, I learned that 1) I really don't like network configuration despite being an IT student. 2) I also learned that wireless network setups are a pain in the ass if you get even 1 setting wrong. 3) I learned that I could have saved some time and used only the two WRT routers if I was running in WDS mode, and 4) as a result, my PS2 and future consoles/HTPC could have been connected to the MS router running in bridge mode.

I seriously would have started over and reconfigured for WDS mode, but with my sister and me both having exams, I couldn't risk downtime. Add onto that the fact that my first WRT router is borked and refuses to take any new firmwares. HyperWRT is nice, but I find DD-WRT to be far, far easier to work with and more powerful.

For anyone wondering, this place is just about average for a 'large' home in this area @ about 2500 square feet.