Access Point / Repeater

[Shehab]

I am new to networking so please forgive my ignorance.
I want to convert my wired network into a wireless one. So after reading I realize that I need to buy an aceess point. However while searching this forum I found that a router can be used as an access point as well. So here are my questions:
1- Shall I buy a router or an access point?
2- Can the router work as a repeater as well? Because the access points I have seen can work as either an access point and a repeater as well.
3- If I do need an access point, I can only choose between Netgear WG602 and Thomson TG185n due to availabilty in my region. Which one should I choose? The Netgear is wireless G and the Thomson is wireless N. I know wireless N is better however it is inexpensive compared to other wireless N routers.
4- Can a repeater work with any devices? I have reviews about Netgear WG602 and they say that they can only work as a repeater with other WG602 devices.

Thanks in advance,
Shehab.

 

[JackMDS]

Question 2 - Most Wireless Routers can not work as a Repeater, check the data sheets of the Wireless Routers that are available in your region.

Question 4 - many Repeaters do not work with other devicess that are using a different chipset than the Repeater. Thus it is much safer to choose matching devices.

Question 3 - I am Not familiar with the devices that you mentioned however in General if you need a repeater system yu are better off with 802.11g.

Question 1 - Depending on the solution used a choice between a Wireless Router and an Access Point is is not a priciple matter, choose what ever works and is less expensive.

 

[Madwand1]

Try to avoid wireless repeating if you can -- it will always have a performance impact, and increases the complexity, points of failure, and wireless bandwidth consumption.

About the most general solution for your current and potential needs will be running DD-WRT on a compatible router. See DD-WRT's site for compatible hardware, and also take note of revision information. You can find several compatible wireless-g routers (e.g. the Buffalo WHR-HP-G54, Linksys WRT54GL or Asus WL-520gU) and a few compatible draft-n routers (e.g. Linksys WRTxxxN series -- here you have to be even more careful about hardware revision and DD-WRT support).

DD-WRT will let you run a router, access point, repeater, client mode wireless bridge, client mode wireless bridge with repeating and more. The client modes are particularly flexible as they connect to the main router/access point as standard wireless clients -- which means that the main router/access point does not have to be running DD-WRT or have any special capability beyond the basic wireless access point functionality.