By Ki Grinsing

Overview

When you subscribe to ADSL broadband internet service through local Telco company usually they give you ADSL modem for leased or provided free of charge for a subscription service for a certain period of time. Or you can buy an ADSL modem for home use so you do not have to pay the monthly rent. One of the popular ADSL modem in the market is Actiontec GT701. The model is simple box with air vents on the left and right side.

Actiontec GT701D 

What does it do?

Actiontec GT701 is an ADSL modem with routing capability, meaning you can share your broadband internet connectivity with up to one class C subnet up to 253 computers using wired connection with multiple LAN Switches or you can add a wireless access point for wifi network.

Main features

• ADSL 2/2+ compliant modem with routing function
• Speeds up to 24Mbps downstream
• Powered by eco-friendly green technology
• One 10/100Mbps Ethernet port

Click here for spec and pricing in Amazon

Generally a single computer is connected to the modem. Now, what are my options to extend the network either wired or wirelessly? Can I connect a wireless router?

Expanding with LAN Switch

With a single fast Ethernet port available, as general you have two options in expanding the internet connectivity: adding one or more wired LAN Switches and adding a wireless access point for creating a wireless network. Adding a LAN switch is easy, just use twisted network cable (UTP) and connecting one end of the cable to the Ethernet port of the Actiontec GT701 and the other end to one of the switch ports. That’s all, you don’t need to worry of configuring the IP address of the clients because your modem includes DHCP server which is enabled by default.

All you have to do is make sure that the tcp / ip property of your computer has been configured with the dhcp server client enable. Most of the Windows OS based computers has default configuration with DHCP client enabled.

Expanding Wirelessly

Actiontec GT701 is a router, meaning you don’t need a wireless router to connect for building a wireless network. Even though some wireless routers allow you connect it to another router by changing or disabling couple of features of the wireless router such as the UPnP feature, but each manufacturer has their own instruction to do so.

Adding a wireless router

There are some wireless routers which can be configured as the wireless router or as the wireless access point such as Buffalo wireless routers. For example Buffalo Ag300h wireless N600 dual band router a high power wireless router and access point.

Adding a wireless access point

So, the easiest way is to create a wifi network with the Actiontec GT701  is adding a wireless access point for example you can use D-Link DAP-1360 wireless range extender. Click here for guidelines in building a wireless network using DAP-1360 range extender.

For large home with AP20000G

If the house is large enough, you can try high power wireless access point such as AP20000G from amped wireless. This product is packed with high-power technology which is suitable for a long range wifi network.

Main features

• High Power Wireless-N 600mW with dual band amplifier antennas
• Add to your existing network with this product to create a long range wifi network
• Allows your mobile devices to roam within the large area of your large offices, warehouse and backyard.
•  Includes four gigabit Ethernet ports
• Includes one USB port to allow you share storage
• Easy to setup

The advantage of this product compared to wireless AP in general is furnishing with four gigabit ports allow you to connect up to four devices directly in addition to your Switch port.

Network diagram with AP

Here is a network diagram for the Actiontec GT701 with the amped wireless AP to create a long range wifi network. Some desktop computers can be connected directly to the AP and a USB storage device is also provided to be accessed over a network.

You can also consider of expanding your network wirelessly using the TP-Link TL-WA901ND.  TP-Link TL-WA901ND is an affordable wireless N300 access point with multi operation modes including wireless AP, clients, bridge and WDS bridging.