location, location, location
 

If horizontal reception is the problem, put the AP unit as high off the floor as you can (a German T-Mobile installer put the AP on the floor. I later raised it to table height and increased the strength in the next room from 62% to 92%.

If better vertical reception is needed move the AP to at least 1 meter from a wall.

MisterNice

yes
 

Yes, the SIGNAL is a bell, falling from its height, down. So the higher one can put it, the better.

Netgear?
 

Or for Netgear routers? Thanks. :)

Or use higher gain antennas, since the stock ones might not be that great.

i bought one of those cantenna things. Only good if you are clear line of sight or something. I didn't really work at all for me not the advertised dB increase :(

i would try the firmware hack for the linksys. My friend's omnidirectional antenna did a lot for inside his home

Another Sveasoft proponent here. Cost is $20/year for really good firmware. FWIW, I've got nothing but good things to say about the coders at Sveasoft. Good guys, never had any "attitude" issues that I'm aware of.

Their new firmware (Alchemy) runs in Linksys WRT54G and GS routers. It's a thing of beauty as far as I'm concerned. Ability to adjust power and the ability to use WDS between multiple routers. That's what I do...one upstairs, one downstairs. My laptop just roams automatically to whichever is putting out a stronger signal. Easy to set up, fully encrypted and locked off via MAC filters.

They are currently developing/recoding the firmware for use in other manufacturers products (I don't remember which off the top of my head), then they will be adding some features such as VPN endpoint (passthrough is alread supported).

If I were the OP...I'd get a 1-year subscription to Sveasoft and buy another WRT54G (after rebates they're going for about $40 right now). Flash the firmware in both, create the WDS link (very simple) and put one at each end/each floor of the house with the power slightly jacked up. Likely that would permanently solve your signal strength issues.

Just so I understand, I can use TWO WRT54G's and link them with Sveasoft? Sveasoft allows me to put use them in "Repeater Mode?"

That would be great...and cheaper than buying a Linksys AP. I was looking at Sveasoft over the weekend.

FDuvall

Apple, anyone?
 

If you're looking for easy bridging, just build a network with a couple of Airport Express units. Connect the first to your router and simply plug the second into a socket within range of the first and you have a self bridging solution that also allows wireless streaming from iTunes.

Neat. Easy to Install. Works.

Yes, that's correct fduvall. Using WDS you link the two WRTs, greatly expanding their range (you can also jack up the power output w/Sveasoft firmware). One of the WRTs needs to be connected to the 'Net (typical setup), the other one can be placed anywhere it gets at least a bit of signal from the one hosting the 'Net connection. There's a how-to in the Sveasoft forums.

For the price of one AE you can get 2 Linksys routers.

Point the antenna down ;)

Imho
 

IMHO, the easiest and fastest and possibly best route, is to wait for the belkin 50% off sales, get yourself TWO Homeplug adaptors, get a cheap 9.99$ 802.11b, or g router and setup a home ethernet AP to anywhere you want in the house with far better coverage and range than any of these solutions will provide. heck, just run the cat five from the AC socket to the laptop.

regardless, for 60$ net, you've got a better solution than bridging or WDS or anything like that.

Better in what way?

Website for HyperWRT: http://www.hyperwrt.org/Home-Page.shtml

The links given above did not work for me.

Well, the BEST route is to do what I ended up doing, putting on overalls and pulling cables through the crawlspace. Nothing works better than good old copper.