Our D-Link DI-624 has been most reliable, and for under S$100 it was a steal. It had 4 ethernet ports (wired) so we could hook up all our computers as well. However its range isn’t long enough to reach computers upstairs, on the other side of the house.
We also only have one cable modem (rented from Starhub) and we don’t intend to rent another one for the upstairs part of the house.
So all this while I’ve been unscrewing the cable modem and wireless router from downstairs, and fixing them up in my music studio upstairs so the Mac can download my email. It’s terribly ma fan (troublesome).
To solve this problem, I thought of two alternatives (as far as my limited knowledge of wireless routing goes):
- A wireless access point upstairs. AirPort Express didn’t work there – signal from downstairs was too weak so I assume it couldn’t bridge the gap).
- Stronger wireless router. This is where I need your help. I am thinking of this Netgear model, WGU624, which claims to have a range 3X further than other 802.11g networks.
Does anyone have any other products to recommend?
Comments
I would without a doubt recommend linksys to you. I have it running and it easily reaches anywhere in my pretty large house. Very strong. I’m not sure if it fits in your price range though.
It also is very compatible with netgear products.
Site survey for radio signal strength is an actual profession. I’ve discovered that every base station, with different antennas would have different results, depending on the layout of your home.
Signal from my Netgear 614 is weak beyond my room. I doubt that the same single-antenna 624 would perform between floors.
You’ll need to do an actual signal strength measurement on-site, because marketing media can be hogwash 🙂
the netgear model was something i had in mind for the flat here but it was far too dear for the buget of my other flatmates so we ended up with something much cheaper.
have you tried belkin?
I have wired (not wireless) solution.
1. Buy a cheap wired router. I do not know how much it would cost in Singapore. I use a D-link. It costs about Can$50.
2. Connect the router to the output of the cable modem.
3. Connect one of the outputs of the router to one of your computer.
4. Connect another output of the router to the input of the wireless hub. (You may need longer ethernet cable.) Place the wireless hub somewhere central to all the computers or printers of your house.
This method will let the transmitting antenna to be located somewhere in the middle of all your computers. It may solve the out of range issue. You may not like this method because not all your computers are connected to the wireless hub. Some ethernet cables may show. Tell me what do you think.
hello,
i don’t know much about how these things compare, but we’ve got the Billion 5100 wireless router which works fine (we live in a 2 storey house).
This may work:
Linksys WET11 Wireless Bridge
Someone actually told me that they purchase Apple’s Airport Extreme base station because it is “faster” for their Powerbook compared to off-the-shelf AP routers like Netgear and Linksys 😉
The easiest solution is to get a bunch of repeaters to perform the task of bridging. There are numerous available as consumer solutions in the market these days.
I have has some good experiences with SMC, and I know that Apples AirPort system has a similar capability.
DLink also has such these days, but only on the newer equipment.
For this kind of setup you need only have the primary access point hooked in physically to the cable router. The other wireless points simply “reflect” off each other to extend the signal. I have networked a 3 storey house this way.
Other tips to note:
1. opt for the lowest channel number available. These are situated on the longer wavelengths (slightly longer only I must add), that punch through walls better.
2. use 802.11b instead of 802.11a/g. The faster transmission systems have a generally shorter distance and weaker ability to traverse walls.
3. reposition the main access point for shortest range to all probable access locales.
4. directioinalize the signal. All RF comms are transmitted from the source in concentric circles. These “waves” bounce off RF reflectors and can create their own interference. Again there are 2.4Ghz sheilds in the market these days that can be had for like 20 bucks. Place the sheild so that it “faces” the primary antenna, this reduces interference from reflected signals.