Help with amplifying Wifi

[swaytech]

Some of my friends live in the same apartment building as myself and my fiance.
To save some cash I would like to piggy back off of their wireless connection. The problem is that the signal is only strong enough to be used in one of the rooms of our apartment.

What I would like to do is set something up in the room that gets the best signal and then blast it out to the rest of our apartment. I'm not really sure what will do this for me ... repeater? bridge? access point?

This is what I've been looking at
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817201523

Assistance is appreciated

 

[JackMDS]

Extending Distance - http://www.ezlan.net/Distance.html

Wireless Router as an AP - http://www.ezlan.net/router_AP.html

Wireless Modes - http://www.ezlan.net/Wireless_Modes.html

Wireless Bridging - http://www.ezlan.net/bridging.html

Hi Gain Antenna - http://www.ezlan.net/antennae.html

The general approach that I take for Coverage issues is the following.

The best way is to lay few CAT6 cables to central locations in the house, install Access Points, or Cable/DSL Routers configured as an Access Points ( Using a Wireless Cable/DSL Router as a Switch with an Access Point ), and connect them to the Main Router.

You do not want/can not/hate/your client hate to lay Cables.

You start with One affordable Router that can Do WDS (the reason for the WDS support is in case you need to add more Wireless hardware).

If you are lucky and your environment is conducive to get covered with one Wireless Router you are done.

Routers that can do WDS as is are old by (Zyxel, SMC, Belkin, and some others have models that do WDS as is out of the Box ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W...ss_Distribution_System ).

Linksys WRT54GL, and Asus, 520GU can do WDS when flashed with DD-WRT firmware ( http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page ).

Using a Laptop loaded with Netstumbler, do a Wireless survey in the house, http://www.netstumbler.com/downloads/

According to the Netstumbler's signal strength reading, identify spots that have strong signal. and spot with weak, or No signal.

Evaluate how you can cover the space and start placing WDS units.

Additional Wireless Routers in WDS Mode (Wireless Network - Configuration Modes. ) has to be placed in spots were the signal is good about Half way to the dead spots.

How many WDS units are needed? It depends on your specific environment (that is a good the reason to buying WDS units one at the time, try it, and decide on the Next step).

 

[bobdole369]

Keep in mind that going above the "effective radiated power" level specified by the FCC is quite illegal. Some antennas when connected to a router at full-legal power exceed this. You'll need to do a survey and ensure that your ERP is within legal limits.

That being said - you won't easily find any amplifier that is available for sale in the USA - it's illegal. THe best you can hope for at retail are the antennas (which could also be illegal when used with an otherwise legal access point.)

Possibly one solution is to use routers with WDS and place a 3rd one midpoint between the other 2 - it'll act as a repeater.