What can I put between my Modem and Wireless Router

[benga]

I have wireless devices in the house that suffer from poor signal. The only solution is to bring the wireless router into the house which we've been reluctant to do because all the hardwired devices get their connection off of the wireless router ports so we don't want a bunch of cables going in/out of the house. 

The goal is to have connection everywhere with as few cables as possible going in and out of the house. I've tried many repeaters and they've all been garbage and a hassle. 

It's just a matter of what is that X Device.

 

We purchased a TP-Link 5 port Switch in-between the modem and Wireless router but the devices weren't receiving any packets. 

 

Current Setup(See Image 1): The modem we have takes the Coax and has one output port that is connected to our Linksys EA6350 from the Linksys we have our wireless and hard wired connections. 

Future Setup(See Image 2): We need the modem of course, but from the modem which is in the garage we want to have a hub-like device that we can connect our hard-wired connections too that are in the garage. Then we want to also connect "hub-like" device to the wireless router that we've now moved into the house.  

 

 

Devices:

Garage:

Modem

X Device

Hard-wired computers

 

Home:

Wireless Router (Linksys EA6350)

Wireless Devices

 

Image 1- Current Setup

Spoiler

 

Not signed in

 

Not signed in

 

Image 2- Future Setup

Spoiler

 

Not signed in

 

[SnipeYa]

X Device would be a switch

[unsubscribed]

Powerline is also an option. As for your setup ISP router must be switched to pass through mode if available. If not your wireless router will have to be used as access point instead. And the X device as mentioned above - switch.

[benga]

36 minutes ago, SnipeYa said:

X Device would be a switch

Tried it and it didn't work. No devices were receiving any packets.

 

 

30 minutes ago, edsdrafts said:

Powerline is also an option. As for your setup ISP router must be switched to pass through mode if available. If not your wireless router will have to be used as access point instead. And the X device as mentioned above - switch.

 

 

Sorry the image was a little misleading. The first device in the chain would be the Modem. 

Powerline though I've never heard of and seems pretty interesting.

 

 

28 minutes ago, gFrenken97 said:

X device in garage = powerful router

Wireless router in home = powerful range extender

 

I have the Netgear Nighthawk AC1900 router and the matching Netgear AC1900 Range Extender, works perfectly and we have some pretty thick walls.

The range extender is downstairs and I get 5 bars 5GHz and full 300Mb/s speed over Wi-Fi.

 

Powerline could also work, depends on your wiring, our house is old so I only got 20Mb/s down through powerline.

1

 

Well I have the exact same range extender perhaps its position isn't optimal i'll test different positions some time. 
That's a sick router, but i gotta utilize what i already have to be cost efficient. 

However powerline is something i'll definitely be looking into. Know any way to test the throughput of the home wiring? 

[RezidentSeagull]

You need a router in-between your modem and the rest of your network, or else you'll have no way to rout internet traffic between your devices (which kinda defeats the purpose of it all).

 

@gFrenken97's solution of using a strong wireless router combined with a good range extender is probably the easiest and most reliable to implement, but there are also two other options:

 

1. Powerline connections (which @edsdrafts mentioned), which are almost as good as wired ethernet, as long as your home electrical circuits are not crummy; or

2. Run a long-ass Ethernet cable to a second, wireless AP

 

For reference, Powerline is basically where you plug an adapter into a wall electrical socket, and you can transmit data over the electrical wiring in your house (which is a pretty sweet alternate form of wired connection, in theory). It's reliability is dependent on how good the wiring in your house is, so if you have crummy/old electrical wiring, or breakers in-between the electrical circuits you want to connect, you tend to lose speed and reliability, which... sucks. I use Powerline to extend my wireless signal, and it's... a mixed result. Better than nothing though!

 

EDIT: Testing the thoroughput of Powerline is pretty much the same as testing any other network connection. For device to internet speeds, something like fast.com or SpeedTest will work, I believe. For device to device speeds, just try transferring a file from one device to another I suppose?

Edited July 30, 2016 by RezidentSeagull
Updaaaates

[Xineas]

In my apartment the modem is unfortunately located in a closet under the upstairs neighbors stairs, which has 6 inch reinforced concrete walls around it, I guess it's a fire break wall or what not. I first had my router in the same closet, but wouldn't even get a signal at all 20 ft away from it, which is ridiculous. My solution was as follows.

 

 

Router behind modem does NAT and gives out IPs, everything else is wired into a gigabit switch. In your case the easiest would be to run a cable into the living space and hook up a wireless access point to it. Using a powerline adapter may work, but it's hit and miss. In some homes it works great, in others it's a pain. The switch cannot be in between modem and router. The ethernet cable from the modem goes directly into the WAN port of your router. Then you can plug the LAN side of the router into anything you want. The switch can be between the router and other devices.

[Ziggidy]

As @Xineas noted above, a Layer 2 switch WILL NOT WORK between the modem and the router. The modem needs to be connected to a Layer 3 device, which performs NAT.

 

Here is what I would do in your situation. Leave the setup as it is, bringing 2 cables from the garage into the house. (Are we talking an attached garage, or a separate structure here?) Depending on what the garage is determines how you get the cables into the house. The reason I say TWO cables, if one of them for some reason has issues and goes bad, you already have another one in place ready to go, just swap the equipment to that other cable while you make repairs on the first cable. 

 

I would then connect the 5 port switch to the cable, giving you ports for any hard wired devices IN the house. I would then get a wireless access point, and connect it to one of the ports on the switch, giving you 3 free ports. If you already have other wireless AP's try them, or do research and make a purchase. If funds allow, I would recommend a Unify UAP-LR - under $80 US on Amazon.

 

https://www.ubnt.com/unifi/unifi-ap/

https://www.amazon.com/Enterprise-System-UBIQUITI-NETWORKS-UAP-LR/dp/B00HXT8S9G