multiple access points to blanket an area?

can i use multiple access points to blanket a rather large two-story area? for instance, lets say a two story motel with an open patio in the middle. in one corner of the building we have a wireless router. and then put APs up the length of the patio so all rooms are covered. if there is a better way to do this, please suggest something anonymous. (i have already thought about range extenders and have ruled them out unless you can convince me otherwise)

Depends on how many WAPs you're going to use, and how many switches each one is going to have. I'm going to assume you're using DHCP. Where is your gateway and firewall in relation to where you're going to set up your WAPs, How big are you talking? You say pretty big, but that's not the best indicator.

let me rephrase my question. can i do this:

wireless router <-> wap <-> wap <-> wap <-> wap <-> wap and so on and so forth to cover an area adequately

easy answer:
you need a piece of hardware called a repeater or range extender to do this

i read that if i use a repeater, each repeater will halve the throughput.

repeater is great, but if you're trying to separate collision domains...meh good luck with that.

short answer. yes. but it won't be cheap... see >>4

was a guy on the gold coast in australia that offered free wifi (if you could connect and therefore sign up) 8 years before Telstra (largest telco in oz) even thought of the idea.

fuck we're fucking dumb in oz - that same guy then went to the states and made an absolute fortune setting up wifi hotspots there.

so yes, possible, not easy though.