Cisco-Linksys Wireless-G Range Expander WRE54G
by Linksys
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Our Price: $129.00 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $29.98 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Cisco-Linksys Wireless-G Range Expander WRE54G
Customer Review: Wireless-G Range Expander and WPA
Summary: 4 Stars
This device definitely works but is very difficult to set-up particularly if you are using security settings.
What I found works the best is to configure the range expander manually.
Here are the steps that I used:
1) Make sure that your wireless network works. (this is easy) Disable your security settings on the router.
2) Connect the device with the ethernet cable to your router ( I am using the latest Netgear wireless router WGT624.
3) open a internet browser
4) enter 192.168.1.240 (default address for the expander)
5) enter your security settings for WPA (ie. SSID, keyword, etc)
6) save the settings.
7) for some reason the SSID reverted back to the linksys default and I had to redo my SSID and save again
8) disconnect the ethernet cable, but leave power on.
9)Connect to your router and enable the security settings.
10) You will then see both blue lights on (this tells you that the expander is connected to the router). This can take up to 15 seconds and the lights may occilate between red and blue before both turning blue.
11) Now set-up you laptop or wireless device with the WPA settings.
12) This last step is extremely important and took me 3 days to figure out. The manual does not tell you this. You MUST put the expander near your laptop. I have my router in the basement and the laptop on the second floor. I figured that I would put the expander on the 1st floor between my computer and the router. The manual suggests that you put the expander and the end of your coverage. The signal was poor. When I put the expander next to my laptop the expander worked like a charm. The signal strength was excellent. I have even used the laptop across the street, but the expander was right next to the laptop. It is unfortunate that the documentation is poor. I am sure that a lot of people have given up on a device which is really good. I am extremely happy with it,(I wasn't so happy for 3 days) and I took a point off for the documentation.
Customer Review: It does the job, just follow these directions.
Summary: 5 Stars
This can be a nightmare for those new to wireless networks. It can be extremely nerve racking, but with some patience it'll all come together. Follow these instructions and it should work for you too.
If you're having trouble setting it up, definitely call the 800 number as opposed to going online. I tried with three different people through their website online and none could help. Right before I sent it back I decided to try phone support and it got the expander a reprieve. I've copied some instructions that Y.A. Escalante was kind enough to leave in his review, but corrected and elaborated some of the items based on my experience. I would've given this 4 stars, but I deducted 1 for it not having clear enough instructions with its initial shipping. (Would've saved Linksys some headaches)
Here goes:
1-Disable WEP on your Router or AP
2-Hold the auto-configuration button for 30 seconds(if everything goes well both lights on the expander will turn blue) and unplug while still holding button. Plug back in after 10-15 secs.
3-open your Internet explorer browser and type 192.168.1.240 (default ip of expander), a window will pop up. leave the user name blank and put admin as a password (this is default password).
4-make sure that the default gateway and subnet mask settings are identical with your Router or AP,change password on the expander if desired & save settings. (all settings should be correct due to auto configuration)
5-Enable WEP on the expander, once again remember use same settings as in your Router or AP, save settings again.
6-Go to your Router or Ap settings and enable WEP. Bang you're DONE. Enjoy
Hope this helps some of you...if not call the 800 number on the box and be patient.
Much thanks to the Anthony Taylor who posted this. Sometimes this doesn't seem to respond while connecting wireless. No problem, just connect through the ethernet cord provided. The installation cd is crap. I use it for a drink coaster;)
Customer Review: This is what makes this thing work!
Summary: 4 Stars
Okay, I plagierised Kevin B. on how to make this thing work because his review was buried in the reviews and it should be on the front page. This worked for me after all else failed. I will add to Kevins routine by saying while I had it hooked up, I had to press and hold the reset button with paper clip to get blue lights and able to bring it up in a browser to edit settings. This expander works great once you get it working at all.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Setup needs to be easier., November 16, 2007
By Kevin B (Richmond, IN) - See all my reviews
I played with this thing for hours trying to get it setup to use with encryption. I tried the advice of the other reviews and still couldn't get it to work secured. My network wouldn't access the expander wireless, kept getting page not found when trying to access the the expander at 192.168.1.240
I have a WRT54G router, a laptop and a desktop. The desktop is hardwired into the router via ethernet, this is the computer I used to configure the network. Here's what I did to get it to work.
1) The network was up and running under WPA secure mode when I did this.
2) Plug expander into wall socket, I did not push config button, don't pay attention to the lights on the expander.
3) Run an ethernet cable from your router to the expander via the ethernet port below the lights on the expander.
3) Open up 2 browsers on your hardwired computer, one browser at 192.168.1.1 (router) and the second browser at 192.168.1.240 (expander)
4) Set the SSID and subnet mask on the expander, the same as the router.
5) Go to edit security settings on your expander, type in the security key that is in your router, and save settings on the expander. A couple redlight flashes and you should have two blue ones, your ready to move the expander anywhere to get a signal.
If you get a IP conflict when moving the expander, unplug and plug back in
Customer Review: It was a little tricky to set up, but works fine.
Summary: 4 Stars
I am using the WRE54G range extender with a Linksys WCG200 wireless cable gateway. I called Linksys before I bought it to make sure they would work together. They said version 2 of the WRE54G would work with my cable gateway and not version 1. There is no way to tell what version you are getting until you open the box and look at the product. I got lucky and got a version 2.
I did not turn off my wireless encryption before installing the product. The setup program could not find the WRE54G at first (probable because I still had the encryption on). I left the encryption on and ran a network cable from my router to the WRE54G the setup program then found the WRE54G and proceeded to set it up. I was able to set up the encryption type and enter a key into the WRE54G. You also have to enter the IP address of your wireless router/gateway.
I also had to change the IP address of the WRE54G. The default address of the WRE54G is 192.168.1.240. My Linksys cable gateway defaults to 192.168.0.1. Because the WRE54G is not in the range of IP address that my gateway recognizes, I was unable to configure the WRE54G using the web tool. I had to change the WRE54G to an IP address within my gateway's range. I just changed it to 192.168.0.240 and then everything worked like it should. Changing the IP address was easy to do and made the difference between a ten minute setup and a two hour setup with phone calls to tech-support. They did not explain any of this in the quick setup guide. I guess if I called tech-support they would have been able to help. Luckily I know just enough about networking that I was able to get it on my own. I am thinking about buying one for my father and he would definitely need help setting it up.
Overall, once I got the range extender setup it does work as advertised. Before the range extender I could barely get a signal on my back porch and the speed was slow. Now it says the connection is very good, and I get full speed.
Customer Review: Poor product
Summary: 1 Stars
I have had 2 of these of the past 3 years as I went and bought a 2nd one when the first stopped working but the first one revived itself the next day. I kept the 2nd one around just for better coverage. Well know 12 months later (only 1.5 years after buying the first one), the first one is completely dead. It will not power on. I popped out the power adapter and tested it - it still has power so it has something to do with the main product itself. Just won't light up and I tried the trick posted on the Linksys Forums:
1. Hold in the Reset button 30 seconds while plugged in.
2. Continue to hold the Reset button for another 30 seconds and pull product out of the outlet.
3. Continue to hold the Reset button for a final 30 seconds after plugging it back in again.
Rinse Repeat (you may have to repeat this a few times before it revives).
Well the above worked for some people but not my fine product. So after shelling out over a hundred dollars for this product at the local store - I am out of luck after just 1.5 years. I guess I will lose the other one in about 6 mos or so too.
Now that I have reviewed the un-reliability of this product, I will go into the performance. This was being used to extend the range of my WAP54G that is on the 1st floor to the 2nd floor. The performance was ok but I would constantly see the wireless signal fluctuating. Upgrading firmware did not resolve this issue. I was not happy about this but lived with it. For the price of this product, I would expect more.
Setup is the only part of this product that was good. It was a breeze and kudos to Linksys for at least getting that right.
My recommendation - I would avoid this product and perhaps similar products as well (reading reviews of other ones at this time) and look to just wire CAT5 to your weakest area and point a cheaper and much more reliable product like a second Wireless Access Point (such as the WAP54G). Just my opinion.