Extending Wireless

Networking is one of those areas that I know enough to be dangerous but not enough to be truly effective. I am currently running a WRT54GL with Tomato. I had to move it to the basement for various reasons, the main one being the wife. Now I get spotty reception in the master bed room on the second floor. I tried bumping my Xmit power up, and changing to the less congested channel, which helped but the connection still drops out way too often. I have the xmit set to 75mw and the unit is noticeably warmer then it used to be, i really do not feel comfortable increasing any more and at ~55mw I noticed a point of diminishing returns.

I am thinking about getting another WRT54G to act as an AP. I do have cat5 running from the basement to the master bedroom, is it possible to bridge the connection via cat5 or does it have to be wireless?

The WRT54GL was a great device for its time... but it's old. Like, really old. IMO, spend $50-$100 on a new router (that supports 5ghz, N, and possibly AC), and you'll most likely see a dramatic improvement.

But yes, if you have a cat5 run from your main router to the master bedroom, you can just add another router in AP mode to serve as an AP for the upstairs.

My first thought was "why would a buy another router" the wireless on my current router is faster than my internet connection, I rarely transfer files wirelessly, and I really don't have an issue with the current router other then range.

Than I asked myself why I would spend $20+ to buy another 10 year old router....

So what is a decent $50-$70 router that has good range?