Wireless Signal Booster?

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Hey guys

Can someone help me figure out the best way to boost a wireless signal to go through several walls between the bedroom and the living room?

Computer is currently in the bedroom and so is the router (it's on a table, can't hang it high unfortunately) and the signal won't reach the living room but it gets about half way there.

I was thinking of a booster or repeater but it's proving to be quite difficult to find one as the products all seem to be routers or access points whatever that means.

The router is: NETGEAR RangeMax so whatever repeater/signal booster you recommend has to work with this. It's for a friend, and both her and I know very little about this stuff so ideally it needs to be something plug&play, very simple and works right out of the box.

She also has an Apple Airport collecting dust if that is of any use?

Thanks a bunch
 
Actually reading up some more it seems like the access point is a repeater so question is: Which access point is the right one to get?

Do they need to be the same type as the router? e.g. if the router is a RangeMax do you need a rangermax access point or will another one do?

Reason I ask is because im not sure which type of rangemax she has, there's a billion now and the router description just says RangeMax, doesn't say MIMO, MIMO2, or any other acronyms the rangemax series seem to come with now.
 
I believe originally the rangemax simply was that it was faster than the 54mb eg 108 mbs.

It is a speed thing, but with the speed boost they had also boosted the signal power to get it. A rangemax repeater would yield the best speed and range boost. Otherwise you will still be limited by the speed of your original router.
 
I fail to see any huge advantage that a rangemax access point will give you over a normal one (especially with the extra cost). I find the Linksys WRT54GL loaded with tomato firmware to be a very good repeater.
 
I'm sorry but I don't really understand what you're talking about...

Linksys with tomato firmware ? same with the speed rating...

The speed is irrelevant to her because a) her ADSL is 8mbps b) she doesn't have a home network so 54mpbs will be fine but what I wanted to know was:

With a rangemax router, if i want to get a repeater do I get a rangemax repeater and if so, which one?

or can she use her apple airport?
 
If all the computers can be plugged into the mains then stuff wifi and try homeplug (ethernet over the mains) adapters instead, very good at overcoming range and reliability problems provided all the power circuits are wihin the same house.

Also very easy plug and play (takes longer to unpack the box than to get working)
 
yes I was considering this but it has to be a completely wireless solution so we thought about:

Netgear XE102 (the wall plug with ethernet). This would sit next to the router and connect via ethernet into the router.

and then for the wireless part:
Netgear WGX102 (the wall plug with the wireless emitter).

So it would sort of look like this:


Phone line----Router----Wall Plug (ethernet)----mains line----wall Plug (wireless)

Has anyone had experience with these two before? does it work out of the box? Any issues I should be aware of?
 

can't access youtube from work but i'll have a look at it when I get home.

While I'm here though one other idea that came to mind...

What about if she bought a wireless access point as a second router instead which could act as a repeater? The question is, can these access points function alone?

i.e. Do I need to run a cable to it cause that would defeat the purpose. Ideally it would be nice if you could plug it in at first just to configure it and then unplug and stick it anywhere in the house where it would continue to act a repeater but wirelessly - does this work?

Thanks
 
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