Linksys WRE54G - Wireless-G Range Expander

[Blackcat]

Has anyone had a chance to check this out? I'm contemplating on picking one up rather than another AP for my upstairs. I have the Linksys WRT54G downstairs and I receive a pretty low signal when I use my laptop from upstairs. I'm hoping that this model will at least provide a more descent signal. Any thoughts on this model, Pro's/Con's or should I not even bother looking at it.

[skroo]

Has anyone had a chance to check this out? I'm contemplating on picking one up rather than another AP for my upstairs.

If you've got a WRT54G for your AP, you might also want to look at the WAP54G. With the correct firmware load on both devices, the WAP54G can act as a repeater for the WRT54G, which is essentially what this box is doing but at a radio-only level.

I don't have direct experience with using the Linksys gear in this configuration (though I do have a WRT54G and really like it), but from what I've heard it's meant to work extremely well. My personal preference would be to use the WAP54G as a repeater ahead of the radio-only unit for signal reliability reasons, but that's just me.

[Blackcat]

Thanks for the reply Skroo, I see your point. I'm glad I put this topic out there cause I almost got caught up in the new hooha of the new model. I think I'm gonna go with your preference. I can see it being more reliabe in terms of signal degredation.

[dataworm]

If you've got a WRT54G for your AP, you might also want to look at the WAP54G. With the correct firmware load on both devices, the WAP54G can act as a repeater for the WRT54G, which is essentially what this box is doing but at a radio-only level.

I don't have direct experience with using the Linksys gear in this configuration (though I do have a WRT54G and really like it), but from what I've heard it's meant to work extremely well. My personal preference would be to use the WAP54G as a repeater ahead of the radio-only unit for signal reliability reasons, but that's just me.

Is there a advantage for the WAP54G over the WRT54G? Or is it just WRT54G without the switch/routing part... I find WRT54G less expensive than WAP54G just because they are more available / produced in bigger quantity, while in fact WAP54G should be cheaper than a WRT54G in my opinion...

Also WRT54GS should be considered... it's the speed booster model, but the real advantage is the fact it got twice as mutch FLASH and twice as mutch memory (Can be handy if you consider running openwrt).

[skroo]

Is there a advantage for the WAP54G over the WRT54G? Or is it just WRT54G without the switch/routing part... I find WRT54G less expensive than WAP54G just because they are more available / produced in bigger quantity, while in fact WAP54G should be cheaper than a WRT54G in my opinion...

For anyone wondering about the differences: the WRT54G is a routing access point, providing things like DHCP and a 4-port 10/100 switch to drop out to multiple machines or switches on a network. The WAP54G is basically just an 802.11g -> ethernet bridge - it has a single 10/100 port that drops back onto your network to forward DHCP from a server, etc.

As for the two being the same... AFAIK, it's not just a firmware difference (the lack of a 10/100 switch being one of the immediately-noticeable hardware differences). However, I'm not really up on the specifics.

Also WRT54GS should be considered... it's the speed booster model, but the real advantage is the fact it got twice as mutch FLASH and twice as mutch memory

Ehh. I'm not real keen on the non-standards-compliant APs, and usually turn those options off when I have to configure them. Bear in mind that they usually double speeds by bonding channels (similar to how shotgun modems worked), so you're halving the amount of usable 802.11 spectrum you have available. This may be a problem if (like me) there're more than a half-dozen APs in your area and people start turning the double-speed options on, or if you plan on having a lot of people connecting through it.

Also remember that there is no one universal speed-boost method out there, so if you invest in Linksys APs with speed boosting, you'll most likely have to use Linksys wireless cards to be able to take advantage of it. Same applies for D-Link, SMC, etc.

(Can be handy if you consider running openwrt).

It's probably worth mentioning that when I said the WAP54G could act as a repeater for the WRT54G, I was talking about using the standard Linksys firmware loads. For the WRT54G you should be using version 2.02.7 or higher, and for the WAP54G 2.07 or higher.

Also, as an off-the-cuff comparison: I set up the networking at LayerOne using a D-Link DI-624 router and DWL-G800AP access point set in repeater mode.

I have to give the DI-624 credit: it actually worked remarkably well given the loads being placed on it (40-50 simultaneous active clients). However, the DWL-G800AP was crashy in repeater mode, and I had to keep manually resetting it (for anyone who was wondering why you could see our AP from the bar but not get DHCP, this is why).

Additionally, I did notice while comparing the two before deploying them that signal strength from the DI-624 was not as good overall as on the WRT54G. The main reason we used the D-Link gear was because they were first to market with a repeating access point for their router; had Linksys got there first, we probably would have used their gear instead.

Just some unsolicited opinion from my recent experiences.

[dataworm]

For anyone wondering about the differences: the WRT54G is a routing access point, providing things like DHCP and a 4-port 10/100 switch to drop out to multiple machines or switches on a network. The WAP54G is basically just an 802.11g -> ethernet bridge - it has a single 10/100 port that drops back onto your network to forward DHCP from a server, etc.

As for the two being the same... AFAIK, it's not just a firmware difference (the lack of a 10/100 switch being one of the immediately-noticeable hardware differences). However, I'm not really up on the specifics.

I do know it's not the same... But well if they charge you more to not have the switch / routing and that the only difference... You better pay less and get the AP that include the 10/100 ports and just disable those unwanted feature... That's what I do actually...

edit: Actually they are the same price now...

Ehh. I'm not real keen on the non-standards-compliant APs, and usually turn those options off when I have to configure them. Bear in mind that they usually double speeds by bonding channels (similar to how shotgun modems worked), so you're halving the amount of usable 802.11 spectrum you have available. This may be a problem if (like me) there're more than a half-dozen APs in your area and people start turning the double-speed options on, or if you plan on having a lot of people connecting through it.

Also remember that there is no one universal speed-boost method out there, so if you invest in Linksys APs with speed boosting, you'll most likely have to use Linksys wireless cards to be able to take advantage of it. Same applies for D-Link, SMC, etc.

The only reason I recomment the Speed Booster model, is because it have more RAM and flash, I don't use the Speed Booster at all I never liked the idea... I am the kind of people that buy that kind of hardware to play with... Got a WRT54G and a WRT54GS with OpenWRT on both...

[skroo]

You better pay less and get the AP that include the 10/100 ports and just disable those unwanted feature... That's what I do actually...

Ditto. My rationale behind it was that if my firewall ever blew up in a big way, I'd at least have an instant drop-in replacement for it until I could rebuild it.

edit: Actually they are the same price now...

Must be where you are. The WAPs are still cheaper than the WRTs here.

The only reason I recomment the Speed Booster model, is because it have more RAM and flash, I don't use the Speed Booster at all I never liked the idea...

Understood. IIRC, the WRT54GS also has a faster processor than the WRT54G.

[[Syntax]]

I have been told by several people, including linksys, that either the bridge or repeater feature on their routers does not always functioning correctly, and they do not offer support in getting it to work, since sometimes it does not work at all..

I was also told his by one of the techs at Frys. They had also seen problems with it. Just thought Id offer up that bit of information. I see reports of WET54G working when bridged with WRT54G. Even though they say you cant bridge a WRT model.

As to weak signal upstairs.
Obvious question, did you point one of the antennas sideways? horizontal. When an antenna is pointing vertical, you usually have a dead spot directly over it.. I think omni antennas have a vertical spread of something like 30°.

[skroo]

I have been told by several people, including linksys, that either the bridge or repeater feature on their routers does not always functioning correctly,

I can vouch for this being the case with the D-Link DWL-G800AP and DI-624 combo I mentioned above. The problem seems to be that the DWL-G800AP locks up and requires power cycling, from which it may or may not recover. I had to do a couple of manual resets & reconfigs on it to keep it going.

and they do not offer support in getting it to work, since sometimes it does not work at all..

Odd, given that they explicitly mention the repeater mode in paragraph 2 of the WAP54G product guide. In my experience, they've usually been pretty good about answering support questions, and actually calling back if they need to go look it up.

I was also told his by one of the techs at Frys. They had also seen problems with it. Just thought Id offer up that bit of information.

Consider your source on this. Remember that Fry's employees could be replaced with wet paper bags and both their technical knowledge and customer service skills would improve dramatically.

[[Syntax]]

Let me clarify the post, I said Router.

The AP box does say it supports bridging, the RT box does not. Linksys realizes that people have attempted to bridge AP's to RT's ect..

The Wet11 box says "Wireless-G Ethernet Bridge. Put another one (or a Wireless-G Access Point, or our one-port Wireless-G Ethernet Bridge) at the other end"

No where does it say anything about Routers. But people claim it can be done. since the Router is a type of AP.
Linksys does not support trying to bridge anything with a router though.

As far as the Repeater functions, I heard you could use a WET11 in addition to another AP, to create a repeater. But with the WRE54G its cheeper to just buy the repeater now.

[Voltage Spike]

I have the Linksys WRT54G downstairs and I receive a pretty low signal when I use my laptop from upstairs.

Just a brief interruption here, but have you (Blackcat) tried changing the channel on your access point? In my case, it resulted in a boost from no signal to around "60%".

While you have sparked an interesting conversation, sometimes more mundane solutions are acceptable. :)

[skroo]

Let me clarify the post, I said Router.

Yes, I did catch that. That's why I was using the router in my bridging example (well, that and I actually own the router, not the other hardware we're talking about).

The AP box does say it supports bridging, the RT box does not. Linksys realizes that people have attempted to bridge AP's to RT's ect..

To expand on this: the specs for the WRT54G don't say that it supports bridging on the website, but from what I remember the actual announcement for that was in the readme included with their last firmware update (2.02.7, if memory serves). I'd grab it and check, but quite frankly it appears as though linksys.com has just been owned so I'm not too keen on that idea right now.

No where does it say anything about Routers. But people claim it can be done. since the Router is a type of AP.
Linksys does not support trying to bridge anything with a router though.

You might want to check that with Linksys. When I called them about three weeks ago to verify this, they indicated to me that both the WRT54G and WAP54G could act in a master/repeater mode, provided both had the correct firmware loads. Perhaps their stance on this has changed (and I would never expect a vendor to poo-poo their own product), but as far as I know it is possible. YMMV.

As far as the Repeater functions, I heard you could use a WET11 in addition to another AP, to create a repeater. But with the WRE54G its cheeper to just buy the repeater now.

True. My only concern with the repeaters is that they tend to be radio-only - which works OK for analogue signals like voice, but when moving data by radio you really want something that works on a frame-by-frame basis in order to cut down on retries. They work, but my personal preference would be for something that can store & forward rather than just parrot. Again, YMMV.

[musashi]

Are you using the default firmware?

If you are using linksys' firmware you can get more power out of your
wrt54g using sveasoft's firmware.
Check out: http://www.seattlewireless.net/index.cgi/LinksysWrt54g
for more info...

[skroo]

If you are using linksys' firmware you can get more power out of your
wrt54g using sveasoft's firmware.

I've seen this. It's actually pretty cool, but yes, I was talking about using Linksys' own firmware. This is not to denigrate the work sveasoft (or anyone else) has done, but rather to keep a single point of reference throughout the thread.

[Blackcat]

Originally Posted by Voltage Spike
Just a brief interruption here, but have you (Blackcat) tried changing the channel on your access point? In my case, it resulted in a boost from no signal to around "60%".

Matter of fact I have been switching the channels prior to me replacing the original antennas from the wrt54g with the Omni 7dbi antennas. With the new Omni antennas attached that made a tremendous difference in the signal strength in the same room that the router was in. And only made a slight signal increase when I'm upstairs. I haven't really noticed the change on the channels though, but the Omni antennas was a good improvement.

Thats why I struck this subject up to take advantage of the Omni antennas I attached on the wrt54g. I was about to pickup the WRE54G, but decided to go with skroos preference. I haven't had a chance to pickup the WAP54G, but I will let you guys know the results when I pick it up sometime next week