Wireless repeater

[bogart]

Was considering getting one of these until I read an article in CNET which stated

"You can also use a wireless repeater to extend your range. Repeaters receive data packets and retransmit them at full power. Unfortunately, this double job of receiving and transmitting each individual packet cuts the throughput of your network connection in half."

Is it true then that my connection currently 1MB will be effectively halved?

[Jay]

no, what it means is that the repeters bandwidth will be halfed eg if its a 54Mbps repeater then its effective transfer speed will be halfed to 26Mbps. Your internet connection will stay the same.

[bogart]

Me thinks I didn't phrase the question to well. What I meant to say was my supposed connection speed is 1Mb/s so I assume this will halve to around 512Kb/s, ie to download anything will take approximately twice the time.
Cheers

[Jay]

no

Your internet speed will not change.

[bogart]

So what your saying is if I stick a repeater on my network I will not notice any difference in performance?

[kalniel]

So what your saying is if I stick a repeater on my network I will not notice any difference in performance?

*If* you had an internet speed anything like as fast as your wireless network speed then you would notice a difference. However your current wireless speed is 50x faster than your internet speed, so halving the wireless speed will mean it's still 25x faster than the internet, so your limiting factor is still the internet thus you won't notice a difference.

[matty-hodgson]

the only way you'll notice a difference is if you transfer files over your wireless network.. and even then you'll only be doubling the time it takes to transfer these files.
which instead of a couple of days, it's a few days .

[schmunk]

So what your saying is if I stick a repeater on my network I will not notice any difference in performance?

For connecting to the internet, you should not notice a difference. Repeat - this will not affect your internet connection.

Where you may notice a difference is if you are sharing files between PCs across a local network (e.g. streaming a movie stored on one PC in your house to another PC in your house). Then again, if you are currently doing this and experiencing trouble, you probably won't see any worse performance, as the repeater can only help...

[Jay]

So what your saying is if I stick a repeater on my network I will not notice any difference in performance?

I think its time to start drawing a picture...

[bogart]

Thanks guys got the message finally! Repeater it is.

[bogart]

Well it was until i read of the horrors one can be presented with in getting the repeater to work correctly, especially if not the same manufacturer as the router. Has anyone tried using an RF amplifier, ie the ones advertised on Ebay such as 20mW input = 1W output ?

[bogart]

Yet another query. Have tried using the router in the garage and the resilts are a bit odd re which antenna is connected. I get a reported signal strength of 85% using the standard router antenna think its classed as 2dBi one. Using an antenna supposedly classed as a 9dBi my signal strength drops to around 55%, Im baffled Any ideas