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Buffalo Tech AIRSTATION 54MBPS WLS RTR-AND REPEATER KIT ( WRB-G54K )

Buffalo Tech AIRSTATION 54MBPS WLS RTR-AND REPEATER KIT ( WRB-G54K )

List Price: $259.00
Your Price: $111.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Worth it? Not for me.
Review: I'm not an experienced wi-fi user, perhaps it's due to my near novice status but I found the perfomance of this set-up unpredictable and capricious. The base station was simple enough to get running, although it's range was less than a similar Netgear unit I'd tried the week before. However when I introduced the repeater, in an effort to connect my living room ( a consistant dead spot), I was only able to achive intermittant connection. This in spite of trying many different positions for the two units and following the enclosed set-up guide to the letter.

I also found the security options somewhat ambigious, I was able to get MAC addresses to work, but I had to disable the WEP to get the base station to communicate with the repeater. I had the nagging feeling that I might be exposing my network to any "war drivers" who happened to be in the neighborhood. I don't mind providing free internet access to passersby, but my files are my livelihood and I need to be careful with them.

My guess is that I could have eventually made the whole thing work by adding external antennas (which would have added 50% to the cost of the set-up) and spending a couple of hours on the phone with tech support. But the bottom line is that I was willing to spend the money but not the time.

If you have more available time than I do, this might be worth it. I'm returning it and waiting until theres a simpler way for me to get complete wireless coverage in my (not very big) house.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Worth it? Not for me.
Review: I'm not an experienced wi-fi user, perhaps it's due to my near novice status but I found the perfomance of this set-up unpredictable and capricious. The base station was simple enough to get running, although it's range was less than a similar Netgear unit I'd tried the week before. However when I introduced the repeater, in an effort to connect my living room ( a consistant dead spot), I was only able to achive intermittant connection. This in spite of trying many different positions for the two units and following the enclosed set-up guide to the letter.

I also found the security options somewhat ambigious, I was able to get MAC addresses to work, but I had to disable the WEP to get the base station to communicate with the repeater. I had the nagging feeling that I might be exposing my network to any "war drivers" who happened to be in the neighborhood. I don't mind providing free internet access to passersby, but my files are my livelihood and I need to be careful with them.

My guess is that I could have eventually made the whole thing work by adding external antennas (which would have added 50% to the cost of the set-up) and spending a couple of hours on the phone with tech support. But the bottom line is that I was willing to spend the money but not the time.

If you have more available time than I do, this might be worth it. I'm returning it and waiting until theres a simpler way for me to get complete wireless coverage in my (not very big) house.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Best? solution for extending wireless range.
Review: This is the best solution I found for extending the range of Wifi. But, it isn't a perfect solution and I have had troubles with the system.

I had a Netgear wireless router. It had trouble reaching a remote bedroom in my house (it was an addition to the house, and the walls used to be exterior walls). The Netgear router (and most routers) come with a 2dBi antenna. I tried replacing the antenna with a 15 dBi one, but it did not make any difference. My other solutions would be to move the router (and all the wiring), rewire with CAT5 cable or try something like Apple's Airstation that works through your electrical wiring (but that is expensive and slower than wifi).

I got this Buffalo setup instead. It works OK for extending the wireless range.

But, I have had problems with it. Documentation is poor. Setup was not easy. The documentation on the website is not much better. I had to call the Buffalo support line. They have knowledgable people located in the US, but I had to wait on hold for up to an hour before I could to talk to someone.
I finally got it running.

After getting everything running, the repeater kept dropping out. Every few days, I had to unplug it and plug it back in to reboot it.

Then the wireless card in the router went bad. After talking to tech support (after waiting on hold for 30 minutes) we determined the unit was bad. But, then I had to call back the next day (waiting on hold for another 30 minutes) to get the authorization to send the unit back. I got a new about 2 weeks later.

When I got the router back, I had to reconfigure the router and repeater so that they could talk to each other. I called tech support, and they sent a pdf file that was very hard to understand. I ended up calling tech support 4 times. Each time, I would get one piece of the information I needed to get the system working.

It now has been working for about 2 weeks with no troubles. We will see if this continues.



Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Solid Router and Repeater Package
Review: This kit includes a wireless 802.11g router and repeater. Both products work as specified. There could be improvements. First, the documentation is not great. The issues I had were resolved through a call to customer support (which actually had a live person!).

The good - Out of the box, the router and repeater work with minimal configuration. Customer support experience was good.

The bad - The documentation needs a bit of work and the interfaces used to setup the router and repeater could both be improved. These units do not come with external antennas. They work well but I highly recommend the use of external antennas for improved coverage.


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