Wired/Wireless Networking Question

I have the Asante Friendlynet FR-3000C router/switch handling my home LAN. I have successfully been using it with my 3C589C/J720 to sync and fileshare with my desktop. Now that I have a Cisco Aironet 350 Series PC Card for my J720, it would be nice to surf the web from anywhere in my home, not just at the desk. There have been several 802.11b wireless access points (WAP) advertised very cheaply, lately. Would it be possible to connect such a device to my existing wired router and access my network/internet with my J720 via Aironet 350? Alternatively, Asante also made a wireless router in the same series. It features a WAN port, one port switch (wired) and a PC Card slot for a proprietary wireless card to perform the wireless communication. This could replace my current router, unless I wanted to connect more than one wired device. Basically, the question remains the same: could I tap the WAN port (on the wireless router) back to one of the available LAN ports on the wired router for wireless networking/internet? I ask the latter question in case I need to have a wireless router and not just a WAP for the Aironet 350 to reach the internet.

I hope that all made sense to someone. It makes sense in my head, but you don't want to know what's up there!

TIA,

WAP + your existing router: easy
not sure about the other option. C:Amie will tell you for sure

As said, buying a plain Wireless Access Point to add to a wired router is the "ideal" method, from a technical stand point. I setup my home network this way too (for the moment anyway).

But, thanks to economy, there are a lot of Wireless Routers sold for less than a plain WAP. Therefore it is much simpler to just chuck your existing wired router and replace it with a wireless.

If for some reason you wish to keep the wired router, and add a wireless router just as an access point, simply connect them thru their "LAN" ports, not "WAN". Use a crossover cable on normal LAN ports. Or if there is a crossover or "uplink" LAN port in one of the devices, you can use a normal cable.

Also remember to assign the AP a different LAN IP from the router.

I hope I made sense too

The wireless router isn't a cheaper option, in this case. I just like the asante equipment I have now and saw one on eBay. It's actually rather interesting, because it's a stripped down wired router with the PC Card slot for the Tx/Rx. Neat. Anyway, I mentioned the router because I wasn't sure if the router functionality would pass through to the WAP or not. My desktop is wired, so I won't be eliminating the wired router. I've seen 802.11b WAPs as low as $4.99 after rebate and 802.11g WAPs as low as $9.99 after rebate. That's even better than eBay prices!

What does through me off is that you wouldn't use the WAN port if you plugged a separate router into the first. I'm not looking for an explanation of networking theory, so I'll just accept it and live in ignorance. ;+)

However, my wired router is plugged into one of the ports on the DSL modem and others are available. I just realized this--when I switched DSL carriers, the new modem is also a router/switch, but I didn't want to mess with my existing setup, so for ease of installation, I just left the legacy router and wiring as is. If I did go with the wireless router, I could probably plug it directly into the DSL modem and still use the WAN port. Correct?

Either way, thanks for the input. I'll just be safe and go with a cheap WAP. :+D

Thanks!

Altho you were not looking for an explanation, I guess a simple one is no harm The reason why you connect the two "routers" with LAN ports is that only one of them (wired one) is actually being used as a router, the other (wireless) is only acting as an AP.

I could go on to explain what happens if you use the WAN port of the second "router"... but that isn't need2know info

So yes if you go for the single all-in-one wireless router, it's as simple as plugging in the DSL modem into the WAN port.

Anyway, the WAPs are that cheap really? Hmmm I guess the economy is just different where I live. The plain WAP is actually a rare item here.

Frey's offered the $9.99 "G", while Best Buy and CompUSA have each offered a $4.99 "B" version. The CompUSA offer is current this week. It is a Zyxel, I believe.

I stand corrected. The CompUSA offering is, indeed, a router--and a "G", at that. I am not sure about the others I mentioned. If I see the deals again, I will know, but these were in past ads.