Connecting Router and Xbox

[jl5212]

So I have an xbox and a wireless router. I also have some system in the basement that has ethernet cables running to almost every room in my house. Currently I have a cable modem in the basement that connects into this wired system to the ethernet cable in my living room, the wireless router is then connected to the port in the living room which is activated by the connection to the modem in the basement. So essentially I want to connect another ethernet cable into the wired system in the basement to activate a connection in a room on the second floor for my xbox. I know I can move the router from the living room to the basement and directly connect it to the modem, and then have an ethernet cable connect to the xbox room via the system in the basement. Problem is I don't want to move my router because it gets very low signal strength to the rest of the houe from the basement. I orginally did some research and thought an ethernet switch could solve my problems, but apparently this isn't true because my ISP only assigns me 1 ip address according to another answer i got. I've been told to use a router for this, so does this mean an ethernet switch is useless and that i should connect an old router or buy a cheap one to connect to the cable modem and then run 2 ethernet cables from that junky router to this crazy wired system in the basement to activate both ethernet ports in the different rooms without having to move my main access point. Thanks any help or idea appreciated.

 

[HappyOldGoat]

We need to clarify:

"I also have some system in the basement that has ethernet cables running to almost every room in my house"

What kind of system. Is this connected to the cable modem(typically has only one ethernet port (and usb sometimes). The usual solution is to connect this to a wireless router. The wireless router should have at least 4 ports for pc's and xbox etc.
I have a similar problem that I had to solve by buying a second wireless router for the living room and connecting it to the one in the basement. My xbox connects to the living room wireless router.

Keep in mind that if you move your wireless router to the basement it will assign an address to the living room router from a different IP range. Also, you should assign different channels to each router (1, 6 or 11)

 

[jl5212]

Yea currently the system which has a small label on it called smart house, has the male end of an ethernet cable which you would see on both ends of any standard ethernet cable. Those ethernet cables then each run to a female or ethernet port as I called it in almost every room. Currently to quick fix the problem as I said I moved the router to the basement where the cable modem connects directly to the router and then an ethernet cable connects the port and the cable that runs to a room on the second floor to have an active connect there where I can then connect the xbox. But as I said problem is that I get very low wireless signal upstairs now. So essentially I could buy a cheap router have that connect to my cable modem then use the ethernet cables to activate the port in my living room for the router that I actually want to use for my wireless network and activate the port for my xbox upstairs? Once again a hub or ethernet switch will not fix this problem? Instead of using a cheap router to activate both of the ethernet lines?

 

[HappyOldGoat]

Excellent, as you said, the ISP will give you only one IP address. The very next component past the cable modem must use this address to translate the one address to many addresses in the rest of the house using NAT(network address translation). This means that the "smarthouse" device is most likely a hub or switch and will not do the translation. So we have no choice but to have the wireless router in the basement. You can connect the smarthouse device into the router and it should provide IP addresses to each of the ethernet ports including the one in the living room.
The problem there is that the ethernet ports on smart house share the bandwidth and can be a performance issue. In my case the wireless router has 4 ports to use that get full bandwidth and I bought a second netgear wireless router for about $80(US) to put on the ethernet in the living room. This netgear router has 4 ports as well with one for the xbox (the others go to the TV and blue-ray player). That router will take the address given by the basement router and provide IP addresses to the xbox and other devices.
Hope this helps.