range expansion/signal boosting

Hi - has anyone used (or have experience of) the Linksys wireless-G range
expander ? From their website it looks like it's just what I'm after - keen
to hear any feedback or recommended alternatives (weak/poor signal strength
and dead spots in upstairs rooms).

Thanks

Steve

My dad got one and it didn't seem to help. He has the router
downstairs in a family room in a wooden cabinet. The extender is in a
bedroom directly above and the computer is in a room down the hall.
The numbers went from 36 to 54 but flucuated wildly back and forth
BOTH with the extender on AND with it off! I really didn't notice a
pickup in signal strength or reliability with it on. It could be that
the router was putting out a good enough signal and the extender just
wasn't designed for such a small area. We even moved the extender to
line of sight with the computer and no increase in strength was
noticeable.
Yes the whole system is a LinkSys G.

On Wed, 22 Dec 2004 12:59:45 GMT, "Steve" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Hi - has anyone used (or have experience of) the Linksys wireless-G range
>expander ? From their website it looks like it's just what I'm after - keen
>to hear any feedback or recommended alternatives (weak/poor signal strength
>and dead spots in upstairs rooms).
>
>Thanks
>
>Steve
>

Steve said the following on 12/22/2004 4:59 AM:
> Hi - has anyone used (or have experience of) the Linksys wireless-G range
> expander ? From their website it looks like it's just what I'm after - keen
> to hear any feedback or recommended alternatives (weak/poor signal strength
> and dead spots in upstairs rooms).
>
> Thanks
>
> Steve

I use a WAP54G in repeater mode. I understand this is just about
equivalent to a WRE54G. The WAP54G has the advantage of customizable
firmware (see HyperWAP at http://www.hyperdrive.be). I had problems with
very weak signal strength in upstairs rooms. This caused frequent drops
of internet connection.

My experience with the WAP54G has been that it didn't do magic things to
my wireless network, but it did give me more reliable wireless
connections and that's about it. If you're after increased speed -
forget it.

Three hints:

The WRE54G is only compatible with WAP54G, WRT54G and WRT54GS.

When setting up the connection between router and expander, follow the
directions EXACTLY. No shortcuts.

You have to experiment to find the best location for the expander. After
I got everything working, I tried 4-5 places and walked around the house
with a laptop each time to see which place gave the best coverage.

Lance
*****

f/f george <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I really didn't notice a
>pickup in signal strength or reliability with it on.


When you install an extender, you need to check very closely that your AP is
associating with the extender and not the router. It's easy to overlook that.

Thanks for the replies - seems like it's a bit hit and miss and probably not
going to make a big difference.