Range Extender for Xmas?

So our house has this problem where the router is upstairs in the corner and I am a little more centered but towards the back of the house. My signal is pretty weak (hovers around 30% with 1-2 bars), and due to this I keep having to move around my antennas for my wireless card just to get some spurt of speed. For Christmas, I was thinking of asking for a range extender, because although I will be graduating from school in May and moving out of the house, I figured I could use it afterwards to *cough* borrow someone else's WiFi for the time being. Anyway, does this sound like something I should be looking at asking for? Our router is a WRT-310N, and although it has DD-WRT installed, it hasn't been doing much of anything to help, and the guys in the house refuse to move it because the last time we did it caused the connection to continuously drop. Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

Yes, decide whether you want wireless router for you or your house. If it's not something that meets your specific and immediate needs, I'd chose something more pertinent to ask for as a Christmas gift.

 

The extender would be nice. I'd ask for a Powerline adapter. It's about $100 but it is immensely more useful IMO. Maybe too much in your case though.

 

That was my first thought but didn't mention it for the same reason you stated. In fact, PCWORLD (can I mention the publication?) reviewed one in their November edition:

Belkin's Gigabit: The product claims 300 mbps, but the magazines results yielded somewhat less at 112-157 mbps. Still, that's more than enough to net a stable highspeed connection for full HD video. The magazine rated it 81 (very good). That unit list for $150

 

I have the Netgear Powerline at my place. It's good stuff.

 

I had the similar trouble, went the linksys range extender route and it can help but it also adds more work when you change settings.

The easy things actually worked well and that is what I use.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnV9D7p4Fyo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOBfxbpxosA

If you want to pick up signals from a distance then you might look at:

1. BlueProton GSKY Wireless G 500mW Adapter
2. Senao EnGenius EUB362 adapter
3. Alfa USB 500mW WiFI Adapter

With the Alfa being rated the best in most of the credible reviews I have read,

 

See, I considered doing that, but if you take a look at my router on Amazon or wherever, the antennas are actually internal, which completely defeats the idea off the bat. As I mentioned, this will only really be used for about 5 months unless there is real use after I graduate, but with my entire Christmas budget for presents for myself capped at $100 by my parents, I want something inexpensive but ideal for my situation. So, perhaps something under $30 would be great, so long as I can get that signal strength I need from being a short distance away. Thanks for the help thus far, though!

EDIT: Oh, and I would prefer something that allows Wireless N like my router for the best use.

 

Whatever happened to the idea of a wireless repeater? Isn't this the perfect scenario for one?

 

Heh. I use a craptastic WRT300n with DD-WRT as a repeater for my wireless N network. Sure, it limits the network speed to 150mbps from 300mbps, But I rarely use the network for file transfers (got an ethernet cable for that), so thats not very important for me.

 

I use a ENGENIUS ECB3500
Its a b/g type repeater and it works well
They also make a N type model number ECB9500


Alex

 

I'll have to check it out. How much was it?

 

I vote a repeater, see my post here. I haven't worked with them, but Hawking is a good place to look for inexpensive high gain stuff.

 

I'd go with what JayMac says. I have one and each my sons has their own and we all swear by it. If you didn't have a chance to look it up, I see it's $59 at the hfield site. I didn't check other retailers. But it works great where you're having trouble connecting with your internal. I've gotten tremendous distance and penetration through all types of walls with the Wi-Fire, hard to tell exactly how far, but the concrete wall thing is impressive - it cuts through like butter. If you want to check it out, it's just hfield.com.

 

This Wi-Fire sounds very interesting, and quite inexpensive. I may have to strongly consider it, because I am getting pretty frustrated with the slow speeds I experience downstairs! Thanks a lot!