Wifi Extender - Has anyone tried one?

I have to say that the WIFI on the M11x is awesome. I can get a good signal where EVERY OTHER DEVICE I have tried can't. Now that I am getting used to the great signal, I am getting greedy and want an even better signal. Does anyone know if there is anything that can get me an even better signal? What about the Bear Extender... Would that be pointless? Thoughts?

 

Went ahead and ordered it anyway... I guess I can do a mini-review when it comes in.

 

Please do dude, I've personally got crappy wifi where I am living

 

I swapped the dell card out for the intell 6200 and it doubled my signal.

 

I've found the default 801.11n WiFi in the M11xR1 to quite good in the areas I've tested.

Given the improvements in 801.11n over 801.11g with multiple antennas its boost in stability and or performance is noticeable even when your base station is an 801.11g.

If your network is pure 801.11n I'd expect good overall stability and performance over increased distances.

Now add an extender into the mix and I'd be very interested to see how that improves connectivity over distance.

 

Yep, hanging with a 6200 here. It definitely increased my sustained connection speeds at school. I could pull games from steam at 5.5 to 6 MB/s just sitting in class listening to a lecture.

 

Its supposed to come in in 2 days, lets hope that I made the right choice... Had I known, I may have just got a 6200 and called it a day. I guess there is some advantages to being able to switch this from machine to machine very easily...

 

Alright guys... It came in and I tried it out at my office. I Was able to pull subway's connection from across the highway... I went from seeing about 6 networks to seeing almost 20.

When it comes to speed... I tested it on my office connection. I was sitting right next to the router and I used speedtest.net and The bear extender was actually slightly slower. I was downloading at 5.6 with the internal and 5.3 with the bear extender.

So I guess this is sort of a win for me. I bet I will not get as many connection drops from home now, it just may not be any faster.

I took some pics too, just mainly showing the speed results... They messed up in my email for some reason (go figure) and I figured they were not that important anyway...

Either way, as of right now, I would recommend the product. 50 bucks and you can move it from machine to machine.

 

Pretty good deal and the reason for the drop in speed is mainly because since it can see 20 networks it refreshes itself to make sure u can see all the connections available. Small drop in speed not a big deal but going across a highway for internet = win

 

That was my thought. When I started reading up on how much power the bear extender uses compared to many stock cards, I was shocked. I am going to assume that the battery is going to be out of a good 30 minutes of life while using it, but I am not going to test that...

With there being so many places that offer free wifi now, having a good 1/4 mile range never hurts, lol.

 

As long as you have a plug(most places) then your good with it.

 

I tried this at home and got great results. I was able to travel to my bedroom with a good signal where before, I could not make it out of my kitchen...

 

Well, you could reduce the power setting for it on battery if you need the extra duration...