WiFi repeater

What is a WiFi repeater? A wireless repeater is a stand-alone unit that is positioned within range of a wireless router. Repeaters, which are also referred to as range expanders, serve as a two-way relay station for WiFi signals. Clients who are located far away from the original router can associate with the wireless LAN through the repeater.

How does a WiFi repeater work? Simple really when we think about it. It just takes in the WiFi signal from a remote radio device and then blasts it out locally. However, there are a few problems with this. First of all, very often, radio devices fail to repeat if the make/models differ. Secondly, it is essential for the repeater to get a good, reliable and stable signal from the radio first device. And if this fails to happen, then it ends up repeating rubbish or even worse, just slows the system down with repeated resend messages.

If you want to use repeaters then, probably the best solution is in using a WDS or Wireless Distribution System. In a WDS system, you are able to use multiple repeaters. Each repeater can talk to any other repeater and decides which repeater it needs to talk to in order to reach the destination. You still have the other problems, but WDS is more resilient because it can dynamically reroute its traffic to use different radio devices.

Here is one product that is quite popular in the market.

ASUS WL-330 Wireless LAN Pocket Access Point

This one is really small. It serves not only as a wireless access point but also as a wireless repeater and a wireless Ethernet adapter and provides superior flexibility when building a wireless environment. But probably the biggest advantage is that it is really easy to set it up. Just plug and play and you are on.

WL-330 can efficiently convert all devices with Ethernet support into wireless devices. From desktop PCs to set-top boxes to game consoles to printers or notebooks, the WL-330 is simply great.