Guidance on Wireless repeaters

[Syd]

I have recentley moved in to a larger 3 bedroom Victorian Semi - with nice thick brick walls.
My router is currently one end of the house and I am struggling to get a good wifi signal with my iphone/lappy when at the other end. So I have read a little about repeaters and have seen these advertised at Scan. Would the least expensive Edimax do the job, or is there a reason to spend the extra few quid on either of the others?

I am on Be Pro and I have a Be Router.

Thanks

LN24573 Edimax EW-7416APn 300mbps nMax multi-function wireless access point / repeater £38

LN24819 ZyXEL G-570S 4-in-1 802.11g 108Mbps Super G AP, WDS Bridge, Repeater, and Wireless Client Modes £46

LN31389 Edimax EW-7415PDn Wireless 300mbps Access point / repeater with PoE port £50

[abaxas]

Before you throw too much money at the issue.

Why not try a better antenna?

[Syd]

Before you throw too much money at the issue.

Why not try a better antenna?

Ok will do, thanks.

[Syd]

Having searched online it looks like the antenna on the Speedtouch 585V6 is fixed so I may have no option but to buy a repeater

[watercooled]

You could try using a bit of tin-foil coated cardboard as a signal reflector, works quite well sometimes I've heard.

[peterb]

You could try using a bit of tin-foil coated cardboard as a signal reflector, works quite well sometimes I've heard.

Distance is critical - needs to be a quarter wavelength behind the radiating element.

I think Id be looking at ethernet, or at least move the router to the centre of the hose. As for repeaters, I don't know if a more expensive one would be better (in terms of receiver sensitivity and output power) one of those things that you have to determine by experiment - which doesn't help if you end up buying something that doesn't work.

[nichomach]

If it's that much of a problem, http://www.dabs.com/products/devolo-...PL.html?fb=165 or, for silly cheap money, http://www.dabs.com/products/bt-comt...tml?q=comtrend .

[Ceefer]

I had an almost identical problem in the old farmhouse where I live. In my study I have my ADSL modem/router and attached to that is a 3com wireless access point. This gives me a good wireless signal in about half of the house but the thick stone walls were seriously attenuating the wireless signal and I was struggling to get any signal at all in my living room which is 2 floors down and 2 rooms across.

I tried installing a Hawking Range Extender about halfway between the living room and study but this did not result in any significant improvement. Maybe if I'd spent a bit more time moving it to different positions I might have has more success, but there's only so many power points I could plug it into.

My rather expensive but very effective solution to the problem was to use a pair of Belkin 200Mbps Powerline AV Networking Adapters, one in the study and one in the living room. Connected one of the adapters to the ADSL modem router in the study and plugged in a Netgear wireless access point to the Powerline adapter in the living room. Now I have a fantastic wireless signal all over the house - one half supplied by the 3com box in the study and the other by the Netgear box in the living room. Great wireless signal in the garden now as well!

[nichomach]

I set up something similar for one of our directors; he lives in a 17th Century house with walls apparently designed to repel roundshot, and they don't do a bad job on wireless ethernet, hence my recommendation of the powerline kit in my post. I used devolo kit - I prefer them to Belkin - and Edimax combined WAPs and 5-port switches (incredibly useful little boxes and dirt cheap - OK, only wireless-G, but still...). By the way, the Comtrends in my second link were on offer half price but they've gone back up, so I'd get devolo instead.

[Champman99]

A word of caution on repeaters:

Not all of them work this way, but some repeaters create a seperate network using only the internet connection of the initial wireless network, this works fine for getting the internet over long distances, but means you cant share files etc over computers connected to the repeater and computers connected to the main router.

I'm not sure how prevalent this is, but it was the case with the repeater I bought, and I cant remember the brand of it! I think it was some generic thing from ebuyer.

Eventually I just wired the house... its awesome!