Wireless access points?

Bullio

I'm looking to setup a dedicated WiFi access point in the house thanks to an influx of tablets, smartphones, and laptops in the house. The house is currently setup on a wired router which wasn't very cheap and has served me very well the past few years, so I'd like to keep it. I was using a USB WiFi dongle with Connectify, but the range is very limited and won't serve the whole house. Plus I'd like a solution that isn't dependent on a PC being powered on, so something that I can hook up to the wired router to create a WiFi network is the route I'd like to take.

Problem is is that I'm really not all that familiar with the options to get me where I want to go. The only thing I'm aware of is Apple's expensive Airport stations. I did a little digging for cheaper alternatives that I think are on the right track (this cheap thing, or something like this), but I'm not entirely sure if either is what I'm looking for. Could I even just plug a wireless router into an ethernet port on my wired router? I'm not in the market for anything fancy or expensive (as close to $50 as possible); I just need an easy way to get all these wireless devices onto the web. Thanks in advance for any help!

Foomy

You can use any wifi router as an access point.

Just have to turn off dhcp and upnp so the devices connecting to it get their connection information from the main router. and then give it a private IP address outside of the range that your router assigns addresses.

Here's a decent article from tested on setting it up: http://www.tested.com/tech/298-how-to-use-an-old-router-to-expand-your-wi-fi-network/

Alecthar

You can definitely use a cheap router as an access point, but I really wouldn't use a WRT54GL at this point. There are better $50 routers, even if you want compatibility with open source firmware like DD-WRT. If you can find a used ASUS RT-N12 for around 40-50 bucks (not the newer B1 revision, there appear to be some issues with it) then that's a good deal. The Cisco/Linksys E1200 is another solid option around $50, though I'm not in love with Cisco's firmware (you can always install Tomato or DD-WRT if you like). Netgear also has the WNR2000.

If you're cool with lower possible throughput, you could use the ASUS RT-N10.

Bullio

That article's nice and simple to understand and should prove useful once I start setting it up. I also went with the Netgear WNR2000 since it's listed in DD-WRT's database. I think I'm going to try setting it up with the stock firmware first, but having the option is appealing to me in case it's a pain or if I'm ever in the mood to tinker. Thanks for the help to you both!