Range Extenders and such... any tips?

Been having something of a fight with a Linksys range extender - I think! It
*seems* that, when it's on, it causes some sort of black-stop between the
router and itself. Is that possible? Anyone had any similar problems? Any
advice (other than "don't use them!" ;o) )?

Mike Roman wrote:
> Been having something of a fight with a Linksys range extender - I
> think! It *seems* that, when it's on, it causes some sort of
> black-stop between the router and itself. Is that possible? Anyone
> had any similar problems? Any advice (other than "don't use them!"
> ;o) )?

Use mains networking, then you won't get any black spots or speed
degradation, costs about the same for a pair of units to that of a
decent WAP which may or may not be able to act as a repeater.

If you must use wifi use mains networking to get into the area & then
use a WAP from there.

"kráftéé" <kraftee@b&e-cottee.me.uk> wrote in message
news:4aGdndlEY_ZeZmrbnZ2dnUVZ8s-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Mike Roman wrote:
>> Been having something of a fight with a Linksys range extender - I
>> think! It *seems* that, when it's on, it causes some sort of
>> black-stop between the router and itself. Is that possible? Anyone
>> had any similar problems? Any advice (other than "don't use them!"
>> ;o) )?
>
> Use mains networking, then you won't get any black spots or speed
> degradation, costs about the same for a pair of units to that of a decent
> WAP which may or may not be able to act as a repeater.
>
> If you must use wifi use mains networking to get into the area & then use
> a WAP from there.

Mains networking won't necessarily work between buildings.

If the buildings are fed from different supplies (eg a house from a 1-phase
supply and a workshop from 3-phase, or two buildings on different mains
phases) then mains networking almost certainly will not be viable.

I tried it between two buildings which were probably on the same mains
phase - a house and outhouse with, as far as I could see, only one overhead
supply to the house (and presumed underground cable from house to shed), and
the mains devices detected no signal. Plugging them into adjacent sockets in
the house, everything worked fine.

Sadly, the short distance of about 50 metres was also rather borderline for
wifi, despite the router being upstairs in the house, looking through a
window with direct line-of-sight of the wooden shed. Normally the reception
was a bit intermittent, especially with a PCI card whose aerial was shielded
by the PC case; with a USB adaptor on an extension cable, positioned higher
up, reception was just about usable. When the owner's 4x4 was parked in the
way, there was no chance!

"kráftéé" <kraftee@b&e-cottee.me.uk> wrote in message
news:4aGdndlEY_ZeZmrbnZ2dnUVZ8s-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Mike Roman wrote:
>> Been having something of a fight with a Linksys range extender - I
>> think! It *seems* that, when it's on, it causes some sort of
>> black-stop between the router and itself. Is that possible? Anyone
>> had any similar problems? Any advice (other than "don't use them!"
>> ;o) )?
>
> Use mains networking, then you won't get any black spots or speed
> degradation, costs about the same for a pair of units to that of a decent
> WAP which may or may not be able to act as a repeater.
>
> If you must use wifi use mains networking to get into the area & then use
> a WAP from there.

Thanks kráftéé - can you recommend any particular manufacturers or models?

> I tried it between two buildings which were probably on the same mains
> phase - a house and outhouse with, as far as I could see, only one
> overhead supply to the house (and presumed underground cable from house to
> shed), and the mains devices detected no signal. Plugging them into
> adjacent sockets in the house, everything worked fine.


Friend recently bought the mains networking kit to use between flats, one on
2nd floor the other 6th floor, I warned him about possible problems with
phase and of course it would'nt work.
He rang the EDF who sent someone round to swap phases amazingly FOC!
All now works ok.

Mike Roman wrote:
> "kráftéé" <kraftee@b&e-cottee.me.uk> wrote in message
> news:4aGdndlEY_ZeZmrbnZ2dnUVZ8s-(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Mike Roman wrote:
>>> Been having something of a fight with a Linksys range extender - I
>>> think! It *seems* that, when it's on, it causes some sort of
>>> black-stop between the router and itself. Is that possible? Anyone
>>> had any similar problems? Any advice (other than "don't use them!"
>>> ;o) )?
>>
>> Use mains networking, then you won't get any black spots or speed
>> degradation, costs about the same for a pair of units to that of a
>> decent WAP which may or may not be able to act as a repeater.
>>
>> If you must use wifi use mains networking to get into the area &
>> then use a WAP from there.
>
> Thanks kráftéé - can you recommend any particular manufacturers or
> models?

Nope, as I haven't tried them myself (I ran all the cables in before I
learned (silly me :-( )

I haven't heard of any bad ones in my travels, yet & have been told on
numerous occaisions that they work out the box.

So I'd say do a little bit of research & give it a go. Most pairs are
available below £100 so if they're charging above it's either got to
be something extra special (not) or just palin greedy (they certainly
are).

As Mortimer did point out though they are only good for one property,
one phase so if the problem is between your house & another building
it may not work (depending on the phasing & to some extent on how
they're fed from the consumer unit).

"kráftéé" <kraftee@b&e-cottee.me.uk> wrote in message
news:2badnSfCv-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Mike Roman wrote:
>> "kráftéé" <kraftee@b&e-cottee.me.uk> wrote in message
>> news:4aGdndlEY_ZeZmrbnZ2dnUVZ8s-(E-Mail Removed)...
>>> Mike Roman wrote:
>>>> Been having something of a fight with a Linksys range extender - I
>>>> think! It *seems* that, when it's on, it causes some sort of
>>>> black-stop between the router and itself. Is that possible? Anyone
>>>> had any similar problems? Any advice (other than "don't use them!"
>>>> ;o) )?
>>>
>>> Use mains networking, then you won't get any black spots or speed
>>> degradation, costs about the same for a pair of units to that of a
>>> decent WAP which may or may not be able to act as a repeater.
>>>
>>> If you must use wifi use mains networking to get into the area &
>>> then use a WAP from there.
>>
>> Thanks kráftéé - can you recommend any particular manufacturers or
>> models?
>
> Nope, as I haven't tried them myself (I ran all the cables in before I
> learned (silly me :-( )
>
> I haven't heard of any bad ones in my travels, yet & have been told on
> numerous occaisions that they work out the box.
>
> So I'd say do a little bit of research & give it a go. Most pairs are
> available below £100 so if they're charging above it's either got to be
> something extra special (not) or just palin greedy (they certainly are).
>
> As Mortimer did point out though they are only good for one property, one
> phase so if the problem is between your house & another building it may
> not work (depending on the phasing & to some extent on how they're fed
> from the consumer unit).
>
www.homeplugs.co.uk I use the solwise version. Work straight out of the box

On 24-Sep-2007, "Mortimer" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Sadly, the short distance of about 50 metres was also rather borderline
> for
> wifi, despite the router being upstairs in the house, looking through a
> window with direct line-of-sight of the wooden shed.

I've had very good range using a ZyDas chipset based USB adapter
with a reflector (I say ZyDas because a D-Link one was hopeless).

For the reflector a large approx thin walled 7" plastic flowerpot,
half coated with Aluminium kitchen foil, held with elastic bands
works very well.
Greater gain came with adapting a desk lamp with an approx
parabolic reflector/shade, using a length of brass tube in a cable
gland to carry the USB feed, and move the adapter along the axis
for best signal.
Even better would be a Sky satellite dish converted to prime
focus (removing the offset). Cable gland and brass tube again.
BBC's Click On Line featured tin can antennas, which seemed
to work very well.
There is the famous "Pringles Can antenna, Google for it.
Google will also return many weird and wonderful reflector
designs.
A focused beam has many advantages, it greatly reduces
off line of sight reflections, interference from neighbouring
networks and greatly ups the signal. Checking your adapters
control panel should show a much improved signal quality
(measure of error rate/correction).

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:46f82788$0$21088$(E-Mail Removed)...

..
> Even better would be a Sky satellite dish converted to prime
> focus (removing the offset). Cable gland and brass tube again.

The sky dish is prime focus.
Its an offset parabola and you need to keep the wifi stick in the same place
as the lnb was for it to work properly.
You would have to bend the disk if you want to make it into a plain
parabola.

On 24-Sep-2007, "dennis@home" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Its an offset parabola and you need to keep the wifi stick in the same
> place
> as the lnb was for it to work properly.

If you put the USB adapter where the LNB was then it would
pick up signals coming from the direction of the satellite, not
the horizontal plane that you need for point to point.
It's the offset of the LNB's arm that makes it's angle of
reception approx 30 degrees.

So if you don't want the USB adapter to only receive
signals from space you would need to get rid of the offset.