Question : Product recommendations for wireless bridge

Hello, I will be setting up my first wireless network this fall for my frathouse. We will be getting DSL service so I need a wireless router to allow everyone to connect. I would also like to run an ethernet segment in my bedroom. I'm not a big fan of Microsoft network products so I'd prefer to use hardware bridging and NAT as opposed to doin this in software. I was interested in the D-Link di-614+ as it's dirt cheap and 44mbps, until I realized that this might not let me setup a network with entirely hardware routing.

The network will consist of a DSL modem going to a wireless router (or bridge) with ethernet ports, with an xbox on that ethernet segment. The other guys will all be running just a wireless station in their rooms, but I will be bridging my connection to an ethernet segment in my room. So as I see it there are 3 segments - 2 ethernet and 1 wireless. Here are my questions:

What is the best product to use in this situation? (I assume a wireless bridge)
Is there one that is capable of 4x like the di-614?(are those TI based units)
Will the bridge also handle NAT and DHCP? Will it run NAT across all segments?

Sorry if this is excessively long or confusing, but this is my first question here.

Answer : Product recommendations for wireless bridge

Simply put a zone is the area you wish to cover with wireless signal.  the reason a single would not likely suffice is because of the realatively low distance of the wireless signal from the AP   if a single AP will cover the entire desired service are then it should be fine.


ftp://ftp.linksys.com/pdf/wga11b_ug.pdf   This is the guide for the game adapter and sheds some light on it's capabilites and has a very good section on networking.  I would suggest giving it a read.   In fact to be hones tit makes me question my own knowledge a bit and puts it in much easier to understand terms.

in fact figure 3-2 appears to be what you want and if it reads correctly discounts the "a bridge cannot allow access to clients" idea.  perhaps this was worked around over time.  I will be the first to admit if what i said is wrong so please do read thsi document.   however in that diagram they do not address the issue of addressing and dsl connectivity, however i think that would be easily solved by chaning out one switch with a befsr41 (no wireless) or befsr81 depending on switch capacity needed.  this would allow everything to be dhcped and have internet access.

I would go with what the manufacturer says in thsi case and they appear to be saying that a bridge CAN accept wireless clients now.   :-)  

A teacher often finds themselves to be thier own best student at times. :-)

If you have any more questions please do feel free to ask.