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Wanting to extend the range of my wireless network, I endeavored to search for some help in this area and what I found was more confusion than I would have liked to see. So, I did what comes naturally, I wrote about it.  

When it comes to wireless repeaters, the benefits are all “hyped” to consumers in a fairly consistent way. Purchase this device, plug it in, and you instantly can extend your existing wireless network. This is a pretty broad claim coming from a networking device that is still fairly new in this age of wireless networking. The problem with these devices is that few come with sufficient documentation and if it wasn’t for fairly high end users, most would not even work. However, what is the problem they are attempting to solve? Who needs them? We will attempt to answer these questions in this article. 

Beyond Two Rooms 

Wireless networking, sounds like such a convenience – networking without wires – what could be simpler or better. Only what consumers don’t understand, is that wireless networking is still complicated stuff – in some cases it is like black magic. True, you can purchase a wireless router from your nearest retail store, plug it into your DSL or Cable modem, and with a few keystrokes, you can roam freely. However, wireless networking has it limitations. First of all, the range is extremely limited – unless you have paper thin walls. In fact it is so limited that most people who want to work on different floors in their house should seriously consider buying these custom antennas that can be purchased separately. These may just prevent one from needing a range extender. So unless you are roaming between a couple rooms in your house, the average wireless router probably will not have enough signal strength to allow you to freely surf. Certainly there are exceptions - some people can install a wireless router in their basement and work freely and wirelessly throughout the house and even from their deck. However, in practice, this is very rare. Commonly, wireless networks only span a couple rooms – perhaps 3 or 4 if you are really lucky. If you want to span more distance and not pay a heavy performance price, you need to look for those special antenna add-ons that are available for certain wireless routers, or go look for something called a wireless repeater (also called a wireless range extender). 

A wireless repeater is supposed to look for all wireless signals and then boost them. However, the current version of this product is still a bit rough around the edges. Instead of amplifying all available wireless signals, today’s repeaters a still pretty crude and must be manually configured to select just one frequency and then amplify that and only that frequency. Very few wireless repeaters work with other manufacturers’ routers – in fact at this time, I’ve been unable to find any vendor promoting their product to interoperate with other wireless vendor products. You need to take this under consideration when looking for your repeater. Your best be is to initially purchase a wireless router with a hybrid or high-gain antenna. Then and only then, would you look to purchase a repeater should you still experience distance or access issues when roaming beyond the rooms you want to have convenient wireless Internet access from. Once you’re in the market for a wireless repeater, there are many choices as evident from the listing of products below: 

	About:	Good/Bad Points:	Purchase:
	Buffalo Technology WLA2-G54C AirStation 54 Mbps Wireless Compact Repeater Bridge	Insufficient information to determine.	[Buy from Amazon]
	D-Link DWL-G710 Wireless Range Extender, 802.11g, 54Mbps	Mixed reviews with poor phone and documentation support most common. Claims compatibility with other wireless networking gear, but success in this area is rare.	[Buy from Amazon]
	D-Link DWL-G800AP Wireless Range Extender, 802.11g, 54Mbps	It does not support WPA or WPA-PSK in repeater mode. Very poor documentation.	[Buy from Amazon]
	Linksys Wireless-G Range Expander WRE54G	Only Compatible with the Linksys WAP54G Access Point, and both the WRT54G and WRT54GS wireless routers. Signal can drop in and out from time to time, but overall works ok – better than no repeater. Like its ability to plug directly (flush) into any outlet without leaving any dangling wires.	[Buy from Amazon]
	Netgear WGXB102 54Mbps Wall-Plugged Wireless Range Extender Kit	Excellent reviews but no personal experience.	[Buy from Amazon]

Table 1.0 Wireless Repeater Options 

There is this notion of wireless repeaters extending the range of existing wireless networks. While all of these products can do that, they don’t work as you might expect. One would think that if you had a repeater, it would listen on a certain frequency and than retransmit whatever it heard on a separate frequency. Since wireless networks have some drifting, you shouldn’t run two wireless transmitters on adjacent frequencies (say, 6 & 7). Rather you should run them at least 2 frequencies apart (so 6 & 8 would be minimally optimal). In the case of a repeater however, it would appear that most repeaters retransmit what ever they hear on the same frequency – seeming counter intuitive to the way other repeaters work. While this seems to work, it still begs the question of why one would want two stations broadcasting on the same frequency. 

Homogeneous Heaven 

I have not tried all the products displayed in Table 1.0, however I did break down and buy the Linksys repeater since I had a Linksys wireless router. My comments were added the good/bad points above. From my research however, it would appear that consumers have two choices in wireless repeaters: Linksys and Netgear – all the other choices are buyer beware. However, even in my case, its not a perfect solution as if the source signal is weak, it doesn’t matter how many amplifiers you place on it – garbage in = garbage out. Your best bet is to invest in the antennas first off and then later the repeater. The two together makes for a pretty good combination.

In the end, I ended up taking my Linksys Wireless Range Expander (WRE54G) back to Staples within my 14 day grace period. While the unit did work (after I upgraded the firmware), it didn't work consistently because of the weak signal. I then poured over the Linksys website when I came upon this unit called a Wireless Access Point - which is without a doubt the best wireless repeater you can buy! I ended up buying this device along with the upgraded antennas and could not be happier. This WAP can work in many modes among them - as a Wireless Repeater, and additionally as a Wireless Access Point (WAP) Client. If you go this route (which I highly recommend), you can only configure it from its Ethernet connection - so plug in the Cat5 cable between your laptop and the unit, configure your laptop with a static IP address such as 192.168.1.180 and start up a browser and surf to the WAP's default IP address 192.168.1.245 and log in using the default admin password. After you do this, go to the AP Mode, select the Wireless AP Client radio button and click the adjacent button to find nearby wireless networks and select the one you want (this results in populating the AP with the MAC address of the remote wireless transmitter), then copy the learned MAC address obtained by this step, select the Wireless Repeater mode (radio button) and then paste the MAC address obtained previously and then save settings. Unfortunately, Linksys does not provide you with an easy way to do this and very little of this is explained in the user guide. However, I have to tell you that this box is the real-deal - especially because of the upgraded antennas, it allows you to plug into all kinds of wireless networks no matter how weak - a wireless squatter's dream!

Note: This paper is the product of Broadband Market Research  which is available from Birds-Eye Network Services. 

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