I've had the WSB24 signal booster in storage since I switched from a Linksys wireless 802.11B router to an 802.11 B/G router, the WRT54G to be specific. However, I decided to give the signal booster a try with my B/G router. It is very easy to set up, just unscrew the antennas from the back of of the router. Screw the wires from the signal booster onto the router in the place of the antennas you just removed. Then plug the power adaptor in and Bobs your uncle (you're done, that is).
My signal strength went up 2-3 bars in the "dead" spots in our house and now goes to the farthest corner of our 2 story house with all signal strength "bars" lit up.
So even thought the WSB24 is not designed to work with an 802.11 G router, it does work fine with the Linksys WRT54G. Note that this booster has been pulled from the market by Linksys. If you want one, you will have to buy a used one. But you can't have mine. |
| I was very skeptical about buying this product. I already had good transmission rates in my townhome (60% being the worst, 100% being the best). I have my wirelress router in the ceiling of the attic of my house, thus, I get great reception both inside and outside my house. However, with the advent of wireless being cheaper, my neighborhood has become populated with wireless-lans (exposed and unprotected I might add...something that is useful for me in a pinch). However, the problem that I was suffering was that I get great reception from my router in some parts of the house, however, two floors down from the router, I was actually getting better reception from a neighbor's house. I also had interference from 2.4GHz phones and even the microwave oven (which sometimes caused dead-spots in my living room when running). All of these problems are gone now that I have the booster. I read quite a bit about this unit before buying it. It is straightforward enough. It takes the average router TX/RX power from 5W to 15W in terms of average power. The other thing it also seems to do (according to my wi-fi measures) is it significantly cut down the "variance" of reception. If you have a good signal - you have it all over the coverage area. Don't necessarily expect to see a 80% signal go to 100%. But, do expect to see a much larger 80% cone in your coverage area! Similarly, if you have a poor signal - it goes from poor to good within that area, and the cone will be much larger. Finally, before with linksys routers, my "signal strength" gauges would bounce up and down... now they hardly move at all (another measure of variance). If you already have very good reception and line of sight in your WLAN - I don't recommend this product as you are unlikely to see any of the alleged speed benefits. However, if you are contending with significant interference (from 2.4 phones, other WLAN's, etc.) this product does a good job at increasing signal reception in hostile wireless environs. This product also does well in penetrating drywall, flooring, concrete (since I can get reception from my router outside my house standing inside a concrete shed... although it is only 20%!), and other types of building materials. Under these circumstances, the extra bucks in the form of a booster may be a better solution versus WLAN bridges/repeaters. Overall, worth the price, but, you really don't know what kind of improvements you will get beforehand. I recommend you buy the booster if you have less than 80% signal strength (or signal strength jumps from 40-80%), but otherwise, save the money. The speed improvements are not really noticable if you already have a good signal. However, if you have interference (from building materials or other sources) - this may be a good stop-gap measure before investing in repeaters, bridges, and the like. |
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