Extending network to home office using ethernet - keeping existing network ssid

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theoog wrote:

Hi

 

I'm hoping you can help a newbee with a networking issue.

 

I have a home office at the bottom of my garden,  I have a LAN cable that runs from my router to the home office.

 

I'd like to buy a Wireless Access Point that I can connect via ethernet cable to my existing router, which will then extend my existing wireless network, ideally keeping the same wireless network name.

 

I have read that some models create a second id that copies the existing one and adds a .ext extension. 

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Wireless range extenders do this. You don't need to worry about this with a wired Access Point; it can be configured to broadcast the same SSID.  You should, however, use a different Wi-Fi channel to prevent interference with the main Wi-Fi network.

What are the implications?  Would this mean a loss of service when moving from home office back to the house?  

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Many devices can be programmed to connect to multiple SSIDs (though not simultaneously).  They'll just switch SSIDs as you roam about, although not all devices are good at switching at the right time.

I would like to have some additional ethernet ports so that I can hardwire things such as my laptop into the network to ensure performance. Most of the products I have seen seem to connect via electricity plug sockets, but my home office electrics are not on the same circuit. 

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You're thinking of Powerline networking products.  Since you have Ethernet, don't even consider them.

Can anyone help suggest a model that would achieve the above? 

 

I do have a WN604 Wireless Access Point that I purchased a year or so ago but have never tried to install.

It doesn't look like I can connect this via Ethernet to my existing router?  Is that correct or would this work? 

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Your WN604 should work.  Connect one of its Ethernet ports to the router.  You're not going to get great speeds out of it.  It only has 100 Mbps Ethernet ports and it only supports 2.4 GHz.  You'll probably get, at best, 35 Mbps out of it via Wi-Fi.

If you need something faster, then most of Netgear range extenders can be set up as Access Points.  There are something like 2 or 3 models that won't work.  You can look at the online manuals at http://support.netgear.com.  Search for "Access Point".  The higher end models, like the EX7000 have multiple Ethernet ports.  But you can get a model with a single port and plug that into an Ethernet switch.