OK, here's the problem.

I recently installed shared Internet access at home so that I didn't have to keep persauding my dad to leave his computer. I did the sensible thing and hit eBay in search of a cheap WiFi router and spent £15 on a D-Link DI-524. I didn't need anything fancy so this seemed a decent choice. When it arrived though I realised that it was only a router and didn't have a built in modem. So, eBay again and I came across an old BT Voyager 190 that had been hacked to work with any ISP which it did perfectly (Thanks Glenn!) I set everything up and all was working well, albeit with not too great signal coverage in my room (where it's needed most. It's just my luck that I live in a 150 year old house built of 1' thick stone walls with a steel girders supporting most of it. And my room is on the other side of the house to the router!)

Well, a few days ago my dad asked me to move the router/modem to a more discreet location where they couldn't be seen (under his desk). I told him that the signal coverage in my room was bad enough but, you know... He's my dad. Before it at least worked well enough to use the Internet. Now though I'm getting regular dropouts to the point where I've strategically placed empty drinks cans on my desk to attempt to reflect and focus some reception to my laptop.

Currently the modem and router are downstairs under my dad's desk. The modem is connected to the phoneline through a microfilter. The router is then connected to the modem and my dad's computer via Ethernet. There's a WiFi link between the router and my laptop upstairs to provide me with digital goodness. Here's a pic that's hopefully a little clearer than my description:

   

Dark blue lines are walls/stairs
Yellow box is the phone jack/microfilter
Light blue line is the phone line
Blue box is the modem
Red box is the router
Green lines are Ethernet/wireless links

I've tried moving the router to a more prominent location without being too visible but it's just not working. I can't move it back to where it was because it's space has been taken with other things. The only real solution I can think of is a hard-wired link between the router and upstairs. This of course requires lots of Ethernet cable and tearing up of carpets. I've had a look at the HomePlug system but its a bit too expensive to be a viable solution. I'd rather spend less on buying 15m of CAT5 (I'll probably be able to knock something up for free) and spend a day tearing up carpets. The idea then is to have downstairs all-Ethernet and to move the router upstairs and have it linked to the modem over the newly-installed link. I've got an Ethernet switch lying around somewhere that could link everything downstairs.

   

Key is as before except the dark green box is the Ethernet switch

With the router upstairs I enjoy a much better connection in my room (and probably outside in the garden too). It also means it's at the end of another Ethernet link (not pictured) between my desktop and my brother's computer meaning he could have Internet access too. I could also link up my laptop via Ethernet instead of WiFi giving me some extra bandwidth...

What does EP think?