Wireless Range Booster

[gamerguy2]

Hello.

I wanted to extend the range on my Time Warner Wireless Modem. Its an Ubee model. I just want a basic range extender to extend the range of the Ubee. There are so many products.

Can anyone recommend a Range Booster that is easy to install and more importantly will extend the range of my current wireless modem?

 

[JackMDS]

1. What exactly you mean by range booster?

2. How many devices (wire/wireless) will use the Rnage extended signal?

3. Give a description of the general environment.
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In general.

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 - http://www.ezlan.net/router_AP.html ), and connect them to the Main Router.

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

Start with One affordable Wireless Router that can do WDS (the reason to start with WDS capable Router is that in case you need to add more Wireless WDS hardware the original Router has to support it).

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

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireles...ibution_System.

Buffalo, Linksys, Asus and others have Wireless Routers that can do WDS when flashed with DD-WRT firmware.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

http://meanderingpassage.com/2007/04...on-system-wds/

Using a Laptop loaded with Wirelessnetview, do a Wireless survey, http://majorgeeks.com/WirelessNetView_d6102.html

According to the 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).

More about the topic (the pages bellow were written a while ago, ignore the specific hardware recommendation just stick to the principle and get current hardware)

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

 

[gamerguy2]

The two that seem most suited to my use are;


http://www.amazon.com/Linksys-RE1000...750310&sr=1-10

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833995088

These are for home use. Movies work etc (Ubee modem) is on first floor. Probably 2-3 upstairs computers/laptops (used simultaneously). Also a wired server downstairs will be running. How do they compare in quality and function?

 

[collstal]

Woo thankfully I found a post that isn't outdated. I've been using a similar Ubee modem that you've been talking about and I have to tell you that you need to make sure that your connection will be able to handle a decent amount of data. Simply because I was using an older model and it gave me some problems.

I used the DD-WRT link that JackMDS mentioned earlier (http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page) to help me get setup and sort of helped simplify things. When I did get a repeater I looked around for a bit and the two that you are looking at are alright but you gotta look at the consumer reviews to really know if they are a good fit for you. Hope that this helps!