Having trouble and looking for the best way to setup my home network with what I have and the restrictions of my house.

Here are the network devices I have: Linksys Wireless-G Router (WRT54G3G-VN), a NetGear SWITCH (FS105), and a Linksys Wireless Access Point (WAP200).

Items that connect to the network:

Hardwired - Two PCs in the basement (call them PC-A, which is mine, and PC-B), PS3 (I know, it could very easily be connected via wireless, but I prefer it to be hardwired for some reason), and a connection for my house's security system.

Wireless - We have a few laptops, most of which are used in the "den". The Nintendo Wii is LOCATED up in the attic.

Here's the deal: Router is located in the basement, and it's wireless signal gets very weak in the den. So, my father bought the WAP200 to improve the signal. Because of placement issues (my mother wears the pants), my father placed the WAP200 in a spot in the basement directly under the den.

I never knew how to setup the WAP200 correctly, and it is showing. For a while, we had it working, but now we cannot connect to it or access the GUI. I cannot connect to 192.168.1.245. I can see that it has a strong signal, but cant connect.

The switch was purchased when we ran out of ports on the router for all of the hardwired devices.

When the WAP200 was being installed, I spoke with someone who told me that the I could either use it as an extension of my original Wireless Network or as it's own wireless network. I am going to assume I went with the second option, because when I view what networks are available, both show up. Name of the original network is Mandlebaum (seinfeld reference), and the network associated with the WAP200 is called linksys-G.

I really am in over my head with this. Too much stuff I don't know.

Please don't assume I have everything connected properly (in terms of the router, switch, and access point). More specifically, what's the best way to have this stuff connected? Which device should be the one that the modem is connected to, and where should I go from there?

Thank you very much for any help.

Update: I was able to access the GUI. Please advise on which mode would be best: Access Point, Repeater, or Bridge.
The modem goes to the router. The router goes to the AP. Busy PCs s get fed from the the router. From the router run a cable to the switch to service up the lessor PCs in the chain.

The scenario you describe seems to be a common problem. You have computers in one room that are wired directly to the router, but several wireless router does not have ENOUGH range to extend to the other rooms of your house. The principal problem is that walls , floors and CEILINGS of the house are made of material the swords the microwave energy coming from a wireless G. routers and bear in mind, and fees are intended to be low powered devices to avoid interference with the neighbors.

 You can try moving the router around and finding a better position. But having three or four computers hardwired into the router makes it difficult to find the outcome position. So that's where your access point comes in handy. Try and get the access point as close as she can to the room that has the portable computers with wireless connection. The access point should be hardwired to the main router. Of course, it can be used as a wireless bridge if you're not able to rap that much cable around the ceiling or floor of your basement.

I'm going to refer you to an article that appeared in PC WORLD. Hopefully it won't blow you away with all the detail they give. Here's one little detail you need to be aware of. Your local network consists of computers that have local IP addresses all within very tight range. Typically, they will be assigned an IP address inside a range of about 50 possible addresses. The router, the wireless access point, and any other wireless devices such as printers and game consoles also have to be inside that there are range of addresses.

Here is a potential problem:
192.168.0.1     The access point default IP
192.168.1.254   The modem IP.
Can you see the problem? The modem and the AP (access point) have addresses that are too far apart. A modem, I believe, has a fixed address that can never be changed. But you can change the address of the router and the access point so that they lie within the same range of addresses.

Actually, the modem does not have to be inside the range of addresses that will be assigned by the router. But it has to be inside the range of addresses that the router can see..Normally in a home network environment a specified a mask will allow a subset of about 253 something addresses. The address  254 is for the modem. Your router may use a  block of addresses from100 to 150 as the DHCP assignments.  But the router can "see" anything from 1 to 254 .

 If you have a thing that is outside of that range, like the game console, it could be addressed to a low address in the same block. N normally all the PCs will make use of the DHCP feature of the router. But if you're going to do online games, you might want to use a fixed address for a PC that's going to be in a game.

As for the access point, you'll need to bone up on the documentation. I never have quite figured out how to set up the access point. I have one, and whenever I hook it up, it seems to know what to do and does it by itself. I can't help you very much there. Here is the reference to the PC World article.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/102461/how_to_set_up_your_home_network.html