Has anyone had success with using access points to rebroadcast a wifi signal to increase range?

I'm bound to get asked at some stage to install a wireless network where the
coverage from one access point (eg built into the router) isn't enough.

Now it's easy enough to install additional access points if these can be
hard-wired to the central hub - I presume in that case you set them to the
same SSID and same channel as the main AP's (eg the router's) SSID/channel.

But what if a wired connection isn't possible. I know some APs (eg Dlink
2100) can rebroadcast the signal to extend the range - you position the
repeater just within range of the main AP (the router) and then get extended
coverage. But whenever I tried this it hasn't worked. A colleague and I
spent the best part of an afternoon puzzling over the confident assurances
in the manual that you just set the main and repeater APs to each other's
MAC addresses and the repeater AP into repeater mode, and then it will work.
It didn't.

Should it work? Have people had success? Is there some undocumented secret?
No guidance was given in the manual about whether the repeater should be
configured with the same or different SSID/channel to the main one. Is that
because it's unimportant what settings are used?

I realise that most repeater APs are fussy about what they will repeat: for
example the Dlink 2100 will repeat the signal from another 2100 but not the
one from a Dlink G604 wireless router for some reason.

"Martin Underwood" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I'm bound to get asked at some stage to install a wireless network where the
>coverage from one access point (eg built into the router) isn't enough.
>
Hi, I've not used repeaters but have used mutliple APs to cover the
whole of Freetown, Sierra Leone. The longest distance was 17 km over
water!

One AP receives the signal then connects to another AP via a
hub/switch. You can add multiple APs if you want to point in
different directions, but the limit is 3 APs (you can sometimes get 4
if you are on a building and have antennas on the four corners. This
is because you are meant to have 3 channels between each broadcaster,
ie channels 1,5 and 9 (or 2,6,10) .

I think we had about 5 transmission sites, so it takes some doing to
make sure you don't interfere with each other. They now use 5.3GHz
between transmission sites to give extra coverage and reduce
interference.

My guess is that if you did use a repeater you would have to have a
seperate channel repeating or it would interfere with the original
transmission?

Not tried this on g, only the slower b.
>