WRE54G Range Expander -- Not Very Powerful

Here is the situation.

I have a house that is laid out from north to south at about 60 feet, with
two walls between one bedroom on the opposite end from the access point, and
the same with the other bedroom except it is not in direct line with the
access point. Without an expander there is no signal to these two rooms,
except in the doorways. Placing a wireless laptop in the doorways gives me
2 out of 5 bars according to one Vista laptop, and a weak signal on an XP
SP2 desktop no higher than 11Mbps. But for practical reasons they cannot
reside in the doorways.

The expander, if placed at an outlet in the hallway near the doorways, gives
no boost at all. If mounted on either doorway, it boosts the signal
significantly to the workstations no matter where they are in the room, but
ONLY for the room in which the expander is placed. I've upgraded the
wireless card on the XP PC to the "Speedbooster" version that touts 35%
extra power, and it hasn't helped at all. So in this situation I would need
TWO expanders unless someone can tell me what I am doing wrong.

I have the expander working steadily now. This was helped greatly by the
fact that I trashed the install disk that came with it and did it manually.
(In fact, all LinkSys wireless cards in the house operate more efficiently
when installed manually, using the Windows interface.)

Any suggestions are welcome.

Thank you.

"The Walrus" <nospam@please.com> hath wroth:

>I have the expander working steadily now. This was helped greatly by the
>fact that I trashed the install disk that came with it and did it manually.
>(In fact, all LinkSys wireless cards in the house operate more efficiently
>when installed manually, using the Windows interface.)

That's interesting as the install disk only sets the password, SSID,
channel number, and encryption. No other parameters are set or reset.

>Any suggestions are welcome.

Sure. Time to have some fun at your expense. Setup a little test
network consisting of a fast PC or laptop running as an Iperf server.
It gets plugged into a wireless router using a CAT5 cable.
<http://dast.nlanr.net/Projects/Iperf/>
On the "server", run:
iperf -s
No internet connection is required or desired.
Do NOT power on the repeater at this point.
Note that this should be done with everything in one room.

Connect to the wireless router with a wireless client, preferably a
laptop. It runs Iperf in client mode as in:
iperf -c ip_address_of_server
You should get a TCP thruput equal to about half the wireless
connection speed. If it's in the same room, a 54Mbit/sec wireless
connection will yield about 25Mbits/sec thruput.

Now, setup the repeater for the same same SSID as the wireless router.
Nothing else, just the SSID. Don't even bother to check if the laptop
is going through the repeater to the wireless router. Just turn on
the power. My guess is you'll get less than 20% of the thruput from
the previous measurement. On some repeaters, it was less than 10%.

However, if you drag the wireless router and server to some location
where the laptop CANNOT directly connect to the wireless router, with
the repeater half way in between, then you'll get about 30-40% of the
initial thruput. 50% is the theoretical maximum.

I'll explain what's happening if you want details.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

On 2 Apr, 05:03, Jeff Liebermann <j...@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us> wrote:
>
> I'll explain what's happening if you want details.
>

Yes please. Sounds like this may be what I'm seeing which I described
in my post below (Belkin Repeater)

Would still like a Windows tool that tells me which AP I'm connected
to thought.

Thanks and Regards,
B

bob.binz.ut@googlemail.com hath wroth:

>On 2 Apr, 05:03, Jeff Liebermann <j...@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us> wrote:
>>
>> I'll explain what's happening if you want details.

>Yes please. Sounds like this may be what I'm seeing which I described
>in my post below (Belkin Repeater)

It's past midnight and I'm ready to simulate dropping dead. You get
the short version without numbers. I don't wanna try thinking much.

What's happening is that only one transmitter can be on at a time. By
necessity, all these transmitters are on the same channel. In the
room, we have the wireless router, the repeater, and the client, all
of which have transmitters on the same channel. The FCC does not
allow sychronized transmission so the repeater has to operate with a
collision avoidance mechanism (CSMA/CA) and a timed backoff in case of
a collision. This works fairly, but is not perfect. The repeater is
usually set to retransmit immediately upon receiving a valid packet
because it has almost no buffering. So it spends most of its time
rudely hogging the airtime and tailgating the access point and
wireless client. The results is a substantial number of collisions
and corresponding delays in transmissions. Collisions are
particularly bad because they are a total waste of airtime. When you
move the wireless router and client away from each other, it
eliminates the main source of collisions, and throughput improves.

>Would still like a Windows tool that tells me which AP I'm connected
>to thought.

Most of the 3rd party connection managers offer connection by MAC
address. See:
<http://wifihopper.com>
It's mostly free. However the connection manager section times out 15
days in the free version. $35 to register.

Also, WiFiFoFum, which I use on my XV6700 PDA, shows MAC's:
<http://www.aspecto-software.com/rw/applications/wififofum/>
Note the multiple MAC's per SSID on the screenshot. Unfortunately,
it's just a war driving sniffer and not a connection manager.

There are probably other wireless clients and connection managers that
show multiple MAC addresses for a given SSID. I think (not sure) that
the Netgear client manager that comes with my WG511 card, also shows
individual MAC addresses. It certainly does show hidden SSID's. There
are others but I'm too lazy to searching.

Of course, there's Netstumbler, which shows all the MAC addresses.
<http://www.netstumbler.com>

You might also succeed with ping and arp. Ping the IP address of the
router and then run:
arp -a
The MAC address that is next to your routers IP address is the device
MAC address. Of course, if you ping the IP address of the repeater,
arp will show the MAC address of the repeater. If you're going
through a repeater to the wireless router, I think (not sure) that it
will show the MAC address of the repeater, not the router, with the IP
address of the router. It's been so long since I've used a repeater,
that I don't recall. Try it.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Jeff Liebermann wrote:

> Also, WiFiFoFum, which I use on my XV6700 PDA, shows MAC's:
> <http://www.aspecto-software.com/rw/applications/wififofum/>
> Note the multiple MAC's per SSID on the screenshot. Unfortunately,
> it's just a war driving sniffer and not a connection manager.
>
How do you like the xv6700? I have been sitting on the fence about
getting a PPC phone. I would be using it on VZW.

George <george@nospam.invalid> hath wroth:

>Jeff Liebermann wrote:
>
>> Also, WiFiFoFum, which I use on my XV6700 PDA, shows MAC's:
>> <http://www.aspecto-software.com/rw/applications/wififofum/>
>> Note the multiple MAC's per SSID on the screenshot. Unfortunately,
>> it's just a war driving sniffer and not a connection manager.

>How do you like the xv6700? I have been sitting on the fence about
>getting a PPC phone. I would be using it on VZW.

I wish you hadn't asked. Ever see a device with so much potential,
but which doesn't quite deliver the potential? The XV6700 is one of
those. It can do literally everything I want, and does all of it
badly. Every feature is 90% functional. Wireless works, but is
802.11b only. Wi-Fi is also a battery killer. The earphone volume
sucks but works ok with a headset. BlueGoof setup and operation is
clumsy and non-intuitive. Most of the Windoze based features have the
traditional permanent Windoze bugs. Much of what I needed to fix
involved registry tweaks. Verizon does not support the latest
revision firmware and has no intention of even admitting that it has
Wi-Fi built in. It will probably not support WM6. The most serious
issue is that during a call, the screen will go into battery save
mode, thus preventing me from checking my schedule or looking up a
phone number while talking. Despite all these problems, I still like
the idea of having everything in one PDA and use mine heavily.

I wrote a web page on setting it up, but left out most of my
criticism:
<http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/xv6700/XV6700.htm>
I also suggest you dig through:
<http://pdaphonehome.com/forums/ppc-6700-xv6700/>
for additional data.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

On Mon, 02 Apr 2007 09:49:55 -0700, Jeff Liebermann
<jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us> wrote in
<edc213t5vshbdjra15qpb7m3im68mk9lss@4ax.com>:

>George <george@nospam.invalid> hath wroth:
>
>>Jeff Liebermann wrote:
>>
>>> Also, WiFiFoFum, which I use on my XV6700 PDA, shows MAC's:
>>> <http://www.aspecto-software.com/rw/applications/wififofum/>
>>> Note the multiple MAC's per SSID on the screenshot. Unfortunately,
>>> it's just a war driving sniffer and not a connection manager.
>
>>How do you like the xv6700? I have been sitting on the fence about
>>getting a PPC phone. I would be using it on VZW.
>
>I wish you hadn't asked. Ever see a device with so much potential,
>but which doesn't quite deliver the potential? The XV6700 is one of
>those. It can do literally everything I want, and does all of it
>badly. Every feature is 90% functional. Wireless works, but is
>802.11b only. Wi-Fi is also a battery killer. The earphone volume
>sucks but works ok with a headset. BlueGoof setup and operation is
>clumsy and non-intuitive. Most of the Windoze based features have the
>traditional permanent Windoze bugs. Much of what I needed to fix
>involved registry tweaks. Verizon does not support the latest
>revision firmware and has no intention of even admitting that it has
>Wi-Fi built in. It will probably not support WM6. The most serious
>issue is that during a call, the screen will go into battery save
>mode, thus preventing me from checking my schedule or looking up a
>phone number while talking. Despite all these problems, I still like
>the idea of having everything in one PDA and use mine heavily.

By comparison, I love my new Cingular-branded Motorola V3xx, which is
blindingly fast on data, pretty darn stable, an excellent phone, and
capable of doing everything I'd want from a PDA. I run the Gmail app
for email, Google Maps for directions and local businesses, check my
Calendar with the browser and SMS messaging, tether my laptop for true
broadband HSDPA Internet access, etc. On a dirt cheap 1 GB microSD card
I store lots of podcasts for listening at my convenience. Beautiful
display. Rugged. Long battery life. Highly recommended.

--
Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_How_To>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>