Today my friend Bandar helped me think of another new segment to by blog. I call it Help a friend. Since I am the techie between all my friends a lot of people ask me for help with computer related problems. Sometimes the direct answers of which can not really be found on google since they can be very specific. So I thought what a great idea for a segment on my blog; help a friend out, and possibly others online while also adding more proper content to my site!
Today Bandar asked me about extending his wireless throughout his home to some dead spots upstairs, and wanted to know whats the easiest way without having to plug a lan cable to his existing router. After doing some research I found that you can do it many ways, either by hacking an old router to use DD-WRT firmware. Or by buying a wireless repeater/extender. After quickly going to newegg and searching for wireless extender (wireless repeater didn’t yield too many results) I organized the results by best Rating. The best rated product for the job by neweggers was the Encore ENRXWI-G IEEE802.11g 54Mbps Wireless LAN Extender. According to most reviewers it’s easy to setup and does the job just fine. A quick view on the product page of encore usa provides this information for wireless extension.
Extender Mode
Place ENRXWI-G within the range of your current wireless network. Subsequently, ENRXWI-G can pickup signal from the wireless router (or access point) and transfer the signal further away than the original coverage area. You have thus effectively extended your wireless network without wiring or complicated configuration. Also, you can improve the reception at dead spots, areas characterized by poor signal quality, by placing ENRXWI-G between the dead spots and the wireless router.
Anyways thanks Bandar for giving me an idea for another great segment. Hopefully it will stick around!
I want to really thank you Kushari your knowledge and help really saved me alot of time… and you always end up giving me a great solution
Hi. I just recently bought an Encore Wireless Lan extender. But, i don’t know how to use. I only want this to extend the range of my wifi signal. As what you have said in your blog, in extender mode there is no need for wiring or complicated configuration. I am really having difficulty setting up. Do I only need to plug it for power supply then the wifi signal will already extend? or do I have to follow the manual. That is, i have to go to 192.168.1.1. Sorry, if this sounds stupid. Thank you.
Hey Yuji, Yes you will have to follow the directions, and most likely go to 192.168.1.1. You can find instructions online also on how to do so. Don’t worry there is no question too stupid!
I have an “Encore” ENRXWI-G, I bought this hoping that , since the campground we stay at has WIFI, I could hook this up in the R.V. and more than 1 computer could be hooked up to the internet, WIRELESSLY. The reason being only 1 notebook at a time is because I had to put up a HAWKING antenna outside, I do have excellent signal strength, but I had to buy an usb wifi card to be able to screw the RP-SMA connector from the coax to. confused yet? I AM. I also cannot connect to the encore by cable cat5e to set it in repeater mode or whatever it needs?
THANKS
I have setup my Encore ENRXWI-G as a repeater to my Netgear router and my PS3 is now getting 100% wifi signal off the extender. The only issue is that the PS3 or my iPhone cannot connect to the internet even though my signal strength is showing 100%. I’m not sure how to get my settings done correctly. I’ve communicated to the router (192.168.1.1) the MAC address of Encore ENRXWI-G (192.168.1.2) too.