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A
word about "bricked" routers
A
"bricked" router is a malfunctioning router. It's
as usefull for networking as a brick. This is typically a
result of a bad firmware flash. It is possible to recover
a "bricked" device in most cases but there are varying
degrees of difficulty. To avoid bricking always follow instructions
carefully.
There
are times when you may have to use TFTP to flash the router.
If your operating system does not support TFTP you can download
a free Linksys
TFTP utility. It is very easy to use and has saved me
several times.
A
"bricked" router is a malfunctioning router. It's
as useful for networking as a brick. This is typically a result
of a bad firmware flash. It is possible to recover a "bricked"
device in most cases but there are varying degrees of difficulty.
Always follow instructions carefully.
Setting
up the repeater mode
A
very good guide by Aaron Weiss with step by step instructions
and screen captures is provided here.
Several
sources claim that although you can increase the transmit
power to 250mW the practical limit is around 82mW. Anything
beyond increases the noise in the signal. I'm currently operating
at 92mW for testing purposes and it seems to work fine. There
may be some legal considerations regarding signal strength
depending on the country you live in. In the United States
FCC regulates such matters. You can find out official FCC
information here.
I
have noticed that WRT54GL is not as sensitive as my Buffalo
PCMCIA wireless card. At any time I can see more networks
with my card than I can with the router. I suspect that this
is just how the things are with the hardware that Linksys
uses.
Based
on observation the connection speed when in repeater mode
is roughly a half of what I can get connecting to the source
network directly. This makes sense to me but I have seen writings
that claim that this should not be the case with repeaters.
External
antennas may be very useful depending on your configuration.
Using two different antennas on WRT54G i.e. a directional
antenna and an omni-directional antenna is not recommended.
It may decrease reliability of connection due to multipath
distortion. However, it may be worth a try. I have a working
system with two different antennas.
Netstumbler
is excellent free software for troubleshooting spotty signal
coverage and antenna positioning.
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