| Linksys Wireless-G Range Expander WRE54G |
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Model: WRE54G
Brand: Linksys
Manufacturer: Linksys
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 416
Platforms: No Operating System
Operating system: Windows
Form factor: External
Hardware platform: PC
Data link protocol: IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g
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| Features: |
Expand your wireless networking coverage to eliminate dead spots
Works with both 802.11b and 802.11g wireless networks
Supports 64 and 128-bit WEP encryption
Configurable through your networked PC's Web browser or the included Setup Wizard
Compatible with the Linksys WAP54G Access Point, and both the WRT54G and WRT54GS wireless routers |
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| Description: |
| The WRE54G Wireless-G Range Expander increases the effective coverage of your wireless network. Unlike other access points, this wireless expander doesn't require connection by a data cable. Just place it within range of your wireless router and bounce the signals off remote wireless devices. It's perfect for any wireless home or business network that requires wider coverage: Multi-story homes, warehouses, outdoor spaces and more. |
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| User Reviews (416 total): |
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Look out for version of this device you purchase, May 1, 2006
By donpar (Sunnyvale, CA USA)
There are 2 versions of the WRE54G-- one with a ethernet port on the front and one without. I have a wired/wireless router, so was able to set up the one with the Ethernet port with no problems whatsoever. This one gets the 4 stars.
A second one I purchased, however, did not have the Ethernet port and depends on the configuration CD mention in the other reviews. I was not able to get this one configured. Zero stars.
Although the picture on the Web Site shows the unit without the Ether port, would expect that all the recently manufactured units would be the one with the port. No guarantees, though!
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It worked for me!, April 28, 2006
By FMCP (Virginia)
Hi: Given my 50% return rate with Linksys products, I was concerned that this product might not work as well as I hoped. However, after following the directions posted by Alex J. Rassey (in his review of this product) I had the product up and running in less than 15 minutes...Thanks!
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Incredible expander!!!...once you get it working, April 21, 2006
By S. Chojnacki (Joppa, MD USA)
I am sharing internet with my mom who lives 3 doors down (single family homes) and across the backyard. We were getting a very weak signal at our house (no signal in the basement), and after trying the linksys antenna to boost the signal (did nothing), we decided to try the WRE54G. We were trying to connect with the linksys BEFW11S4 router and knew it would be hard. After about an hours worth of attempts, I tried another search for information on how to connect them and hit the jackpot. One user stated when trying to connect the WRE54G with the BEFW11S4, you must downgrade the router firmware to 1.5 version. I did this and connected within 5 minutes using the set up cd. I now have an excellent connection on my main floor and a very good connection in my basement. I am just in awe of the difference this has made and the range it can provide. Bottom line, if you can get it running, it is well worth the money and then some.
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Linksys Wireless-G Range Expander WRE54G, April 20, 2006
By Adrian Giezendanner (Nassau, Bahamas)
Auto of the the box the autoconfig is working fine as long as you have no security enabled in your wirless environment.
Also the guided setup on the CD Rom is working fine.
It gets a little tricky when you want to change your setting in the network. I had to try several times to find the expander
after I changed the channel on the network. I had to reset the expander 3 - 4 times. until I was able to reconfigure it.
But I does a job good. It expands the range of my wireless network to the upper floor, where I had almost no signal before.
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Works - but configuration is VERY Tricky, April 18, 2006
By S. Huff (Florence, KY)
The tips that Anthony Taylor left helped me get it working... but I still had some issues. I've added onto his tips from his review below
1-Disable WEP on your Router or AP
2-Hold the auto-configuration button for 30 seconds(if everything goes well both lights on the expander will turn blue) and unplug while still holding button. Plug back in after 10-15 secs.
3-open your Internet explorer browser and type 192.168.1.240 (default ip of expander), a window will pop up. leave the user name blank and put admin as a password (this is default password).
4-make sure that the default gateway and subnet mask settings are identical with your Router or AP,change password on the expander if desired & save settings. (all settings should be correct due to auto configuration)
5-Enable WEP on the expander, once again remember use same settings that you will be putting in your router or AP in step 6 -- aka same passphrase), save settings again.
5.5 - As soon as you enable WEP on your expander - you will loose your connection to it as it's now setup for WEP and your router isn't - keep this in mind - drove me nuts.
6-Go to your Router or Ap settings and enable WEP.
7 - UNPLUG your expander for 10 to 15 seconds and plug it back in -- Bang you're DONE. Enjoy
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Great results....tough to set up and configure, April 15, 2006
By wireless guy (San Diego)
I had weak signals in my 2 story house (averaging 1 to 3 bars and speed rates from 11g dropping to 2Mbps...) hence the desire to get the repeater
to save everyone hours of setup (since the manual is not good), here is what I did
For configuring the repeater wireless (no plugging into anything)
a) plug the repeater into a electrical outlet in the same room as the wireless router.
b) hold down the autoconfig key on the side of the repeater for 5 seconds...then let it sit for 15 more.
c) unplug and then move to the location in the house that you want...and plug into the wall
d) insert the config disk into any wireless connected PC and run through the config setup...that includes letting it find the "new" repeater....at this point it is NOT configured with WEP etc...you need to let it use the existing PC config (which will enable the WEP) which it asks if you want to use your existing config and then move to the next step...
e) it then downloads the config to the repeater and after that (if no errors) it finishes.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
it took 2 minutes after that for the configuring wireless PC to acquire wireless access (don't ask me why).
if you want to unplug it and move locations, I had to repeat the whole process again BUT started by hitting the reset key on the side of the box for 10 seconds...then starting with the notes above.
After installation? All rooms 4 to 5 bars and 20Mbps upto 48...very impressive!
hope this helped
Alex
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Got it to work with Belkin Pre-N Router, April 14, 2006
By Vidaman (usa)
After about an hour or two of trying to get a link, I finally got this extender to work with my Belkin Pre-N router. The Belkin covers our entire house quite well with excellent coverage. I was hoping it would reach to my office, about 300' away. I got an intermittant signal on my laptop in my office, sometimes approaching 44%. I added the WRE54G extender and placed it in my office. I now get a 97% signal quality on the laptop and can access my broadband router from the house. I almost took the Linksys back because I figured it just would not work with the Belkin router. But it does! I am also using it with 128 bit WEP security. The only downside is that the Exander is 54G and so my speed is limited to 54Mbps rather than the Belkin's 108Mbps. I even added a PCI desktop wireless card to my office desktop, but the speed on this drops to 18-24Mbps.
So after initial skepticism (esp. after reading your reviews!) I tried it and it works like a charm.
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Hidden Problems Await, April 14, 2006
By Scott Newbury
Buyer Beware!!! I have a WRE54G range extender that is less than one year old. I just bought a brand new Linksys WRT54G router, thinking they would seemlessly work together since they are both Linksys products.
After an hour on the phone with Linksys customer service, I was told the range expander is compatible only up to version 4 of the router. I had purchased a brand new version 5, meaning I needed to DOWNGRADE the router in order to use the range expander. Customer service told me to return the new router, gave me a barcode number for the old version 4 router, told me to search local stores by reading barcodes on each box I could find, and good luck...I might, just might, get lucky.
Version 1 of the range extender does NOT have an ethernet jack. Version 2 apparently does, making it easier to connect to the extender's utilities. However, there are loads of compatibility problems between various routers and range extender combinations, and the technical explanations are very dense. Make sure you are educated on the subject, and for best results, get a doctorate in computer science or engineering before you buy.
Oh, and don't ask about the problems I had connecting the Linksys WVC54G webcam to the Linksys router...I have already spent 3 1/2 hours on the phone with customer support with no solution in sight. Linksys has HORRIBLE support.
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Tricky set up, once its on, its good..., April 14, 2006
By Harry
I was a little skeptical buying this after reading all of the negative reviews, but the few positive ones kept me curious. I just bought it an hour or two ago and the spots that I could not even get A signal in my house, now get good to excellent. It does work, but I WAS NOT impressed with the setup disk at all. To be honest, I just plugged it in a few times and after the 4th it found my network and set itself up. I turned my encryption and security features back on and it still works. The only thing the guy at CompUSA told me was that you MUST have the correct router, or it WILL NOT work. So far, so good.
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Does what it's supposed to do but docs are out of date, April 14, 2006
By Software Craftsman (The Colony, TX United States)
Like other users I wrestled mightily to get this puppy working with my router which happens to be a Linksys WRT54G. You'd think it would be pretty much a slam dunk but alas, no. One huge issue with Version 1 was that it had no Ethernet port. So make sure you get Version 2. Although, connecting to the Expander was not really the biggest problem.
I have WRE54G version 1 and on the advice of tech support and various Linksys articles, upgraded my firmware. I did this because I could not get my expander talking to my router, or rather it would talk to somebody else's router first when running auto-config. This was a huge design flaw. I guess their test labs run exactly one access point within range of the expanders. The major flaw was they relied so heavily on the automatic setup that they made it VERY difficult to configure manually. As most users point out, ignore the documentation unless you are on a wireless island. Or make sure your expander is auto-configured with the router only a few feet away (though this didn't even work for me).
I upgraded to firmware version 1.06.05 which was a huge mistake. Why? Because that firmware eliminated the option to manually set the Access Point MAC Address. Unfortunately Auto-config did not capture the MAC address (or at least it could never connect). And the Setup Wizard could not detect the expander. While on hold during my second support call, I took a quick look at the source (the browser lets you do that) on the setup page (setup.asp). The MAC address portion was in the source but was commented out so that it was not available. When the support tech came back online I asked him to point me to an earlier firmware upgrade. I ran the 1.04.17 version of the upgrade (downgrade in this case -- at ftp://ftp.linksys.com/pub/network/). After reconnecting, everything worked perfectly. I was able to enter the MAC address of my router, and set up security. Everything now works exactly as I had hoped it would but it took about 7 hours longer than it should have.
I suspect that the latest firmware was designed with V2 in mind, not V1.
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Should be NO stars. Useless piece of garbage., March 27, 2006
By unhappy_with_it
Am experienced computer user, tried everything posted by others on this review board. The light nevers turns blue, never seems to connect to my network. Although I can access it via its web-based interface, I can't get it to actually work with my WRT54G router. After multiple attempts at trying to get this to work, I have to simply draw the line and say FORGET it. Don't be the fool who buys this torture device.
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Range extender review, March 25, 2006
By Teresa Kirkpatrick (USA)
This is a great product to expand your wireless network. Very easy to setup and use.
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Works, once set up, March 23, 2006
By C. Meinhold (North Carolina, USA)
As others have mentioned, this works like a champ - once you can get it set up, that is.
The instructions and "setup (f)utility" are a joke. Best bet is to use Mr. Taylor's instructions as a starting point, and then call up Linksys if they don't work.
Also, if you your router is WRT54G and is v3, you will need to upgrade your firmware to at least 4.0.2 before anyone at Linksys will talk to you. They actually made me hang up, update my firmware and then call them back.
However, the second person I spoke to at Linksys was a great help and we got the thing running in a couple minutes. The main issue that I had was that my router was running on .2.1 and the expander defaults to .1.240 so I couldn't connect with it.
The solution was to:
- Hardwire into the expander using the network cable they provide
- Give the machine you are connected to a static IP such as 192.168.1.2 - or whatever, as long as it is .1.xx
- You can then access the expander's setup page (192.168.1.240).
- Change the expander IP to .2.240
- Change the machine back to its original IP or DHCP
- Remove the cable and restart your wireless
You could also just change the router from .2 to .1 and not go through the hassle above, but I have too many machines with static IPs on my network and it was easier to get the expander modified than to go through each machine.
Anyway, this thing just about doubled my range, so I am happy with it. I completely understand the frustration offered by users here, though.
I'm throwing three stars at it:
- 5 for functionality
- 1 for documentation
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This thing does not work, March 22, 2006
By developer13 (Chicago)
1. I gave it one start because I could not give less(no option).
2. Linksys went out their way to make management software incompatible with standard Windows interface.
3. Anything you change requires reboot.
4. When I call support they ask bunch of personal info first, then told be to disable security (WEP) then they made me reboot my computer couple of times.
5. Last and main $100 + 5 hours the damned thing still does not communicate to the Linksys router. I can not reset it, I can not access it even thought the wire connection.
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Solved my low signal problem, March 11, 2006
By James Dunn (Ohio, USA)
I had a problem with a low wireless signal from a Linksys WRT54G v.5 router connected to a Direcway DW7000 broadband satellite modem and a desktop computer on the first floor of my house to a Linksys WMP54G v.4 PCI adapter in a desktop computer located on the second floor. Both computers are Dells running Windows XP Pro with all updates.
The signal has to pass through several walls, a floor, some metal HVAC ducts and a concrete wall and is about 70 feet away. I plugged the WRE54G v.2 expander into a wall socket close to the WRT54G, pressed the auto config button on the WRE54G for 10 seconds or so and both blue lights came on. Then I unplugged it and moved it to a location still on the first floor but closer to the upstairs desktop and plugged it back in. The signal level on the upstairs computer went from fair to excellent. Before doing this the upstairs computer would not connect to the internet because of low signal strength.
It was very easy to set up since I had no security to deal with at the time. I am always amazed when something works right out of the box like this but it has been several hours so far and all is well.
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Only if don't have a choice..., March 10, 2006
By giame (San Francisco, CA)
This is not a very good product. But in my case I came to the conclusion that I didn't have an alternative if I wanted to easily extend my wireless coverage.
First, forget the installation instructions that come with it. In order to make it work I had to go to Google and find unofficial instructions.
Also forget about placing the expander at the edge of your existing coverage, it won't be very useful there. The device will cut in half whatever bandwidth will detect, so the farer you position it from your access point the slower the connection will be when going through the expander.
I'm also having problems because a neighbor (secured) network is stronger than mine in certain areas of my home. The expander simply repeats the strongest signal when using the automatic configuration button. In order to program it you have to physically connect to it (not immediate). Which is annoying but even worst is the fact that the set up will be lost easily...
Well, better than no signal I guess...
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Itr deos work with the Wireless G Router..., March 7, 2006
By me
People keep saying it does not work with [their] router?
It comes with a set up CD that is so easy (if you can't read [like most of the reviewers]it has pictures)!!
Once you put the cd in bang, you have expansion:
This from their support regarding compatibility with LINKSYS WRT54GS WIRELESS-G BROADBAND ROUTER WITH SPEEDBOOSTER,
"This router will work with the range expander. Make sure that a latest firmware should be loaded on it to work with the range expander. You may follow these procedures to configure the WRE54G using the setup wizard:
1. Insert the Setup Wizard CD into your PC's CD-ROM drive. The Setup Wizard should run automatically, and the Welcome screen should appear. If it does not, click the Start button and choose Run. In the field that appears, enter D:\setup.exe (if "D" is the letter of your CD-ROM drive).
2. Click the Setup button to continue this Setup Wizard. Clicking the User Guide button opened this Guide. To exit this Setup Wizard, click the Exit button.
3. Make sure your access point or wireless router is working properly before you continue with the SetupWizard. Click Next to continue or Exit to exit the Setup Wizard.
4. The Setup Wizard will run a search for your wireless network. If found, you will be asked to confirm the settings. If the settings are correct, click Continue and proceed to step 7. If you'd like to choose a different wireless network, proceed to step 5. If no wireless network is found, a screen will notify you when no access point is detected on your network. Click Continue to survey your network for any access points or wireless routers, and proceed to step 5. You can click Cancel to exit the Setup Wizard.
5. The site survey results will display all available access points and wireless routers in your network. Select the one you want and then click Yes to continue. Then proceed to step 6.You can click No to return to the Welcome screen of the Setup Wizard.
If you want to manually enter settings, click Manual. The Configure Wireless Settings Manually screen will appear. Enter the SSID of your network. Then select the channel setting of your network.
If your network uses WEP encryption, select WEP from the Encryption drop-down menu. Click Next to continue and proceed to step 6. If your network uses WPA security, select WPA. Click Next to continue and proceed to step 6.
If it does not use wireless security, select Disabled. Click Next to continue and proceed to step 7.
6. If security is disabled, then proceed to step 7. If security is enabled, the appropriate Security Settings screen
will appear. Enter the WEP or WPA settings. Then click Next to continue or Exit to exit the Setup Wizard.
7. After the Setup Wizard has found an access point or wireless router with which to communicate, it will now search for the Range Expander. Select the one you want. Then, click Yes to continue, or click No to return to the Welcome screen of the Setup Wizard.
8. You will be asked to enter its password. Enter the default password, admin. Then, click Enter to continue. To exit this Setup Wizard, click Exit.
9. The Configure Network Address Settings screen will appear. Enter an IP Address and appropriate Subnet Mask for the Range Expander. Then enter the IP Address of your network gateway, as well as a descriptive name for the Range Expander. Then, click Next to continue or Back to return to the previous screen.
* IP Address. This IP address must be unique to your network. (The default IP address is 192.168.1.240.) If you are not sure about what to do, keep the default IP address.
* Subnet Mask. The Range Expander's Subnet Mask must be the same as your network's Subnet Mask.
* Gateway. This IP address should be the IP address of the gateway device that permits communication between the Internet and the local network (this is usually your network router). If you are not sure about what to enter, keep the default Gateway IP address.
* Expander Name. You can assign the Range Expander any name up to 32 characters in length, such as its location (garage, downstairs, living room).
10. If you have the WRE54G v2, proceed to step 11.
If you have the WRE54G v1, enter the MAC address of your access point or wireless router. You can find theMAC address on a label located on the bottom panel of the access point or wireless router. Then, click Next to continue or Back to return to the previous screen.
11. You should now review the settings you've chosen. If these settings are correct, click Yes to save these settings. If you wish to change any of the settings, click No. You will exit the Setup Wizard and can start it again to change your settings.
After the expander's configuration, you may now locate an optimum location for the Range Expander. The best placement is usually at the edge of your wireless network. Fix the direction of the antenna. Try to place it in a position that will best cover your wireless network. Normally, the higher you place the Range Expander's antenna, the better the performance will be. Proper positioning of the antenna can enhance its receiving sensitivity.
If you have further questions, you may send us an E-mail at support@linksys.com so that we may further assist you."
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I got lucky?, March 4, 2006
By Mattyjsoldier
I had a weird situation, I actually first tried upgrading my 4 year old router to a new Linksys wireless router because I was told it would increase my range.I have 5 home computers that some are hardwired into and a few laptops that run wireless. I bought the new one and it got worse? Go figure! So I was told to get rid of the new wireless router, use my new vonage wireless router and get this extender....I first read the reviews and was very reluctant!It seemed like everyone had problems? I did buy this extender, I plugged it in the wall, loaded the disk, and it walked me right through the set up? Wireless router was on the second floor and the living room got a low poor signal prior, now it gets High Very good signal. I had absolutely no problem with it and it works great? I was very affraid of going through the customer service in India or Pakistan situation so I can sympathize with the other peoples problems....But it worked very easy and fine for me. I recommend getting it!
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Yes it works, and no it doesn't work., March 1, 2006
By James G. Magnano (Los Angeles, CA. USA)
Lately Linksys/Cisco products are all but useless. Support is a joke. This expander will work, however ONLY with the Wireless G access point, or Wireless G router. It is NOT compatible with the G Router with Speed Boost, (Speed Boost doesn't work anyway) or the Wireless Routers with SRX Range/Speed boost (Which again, don't actually work anyway) If you have a standard G router, I suggest the WRT54G, then yes this item will work well if you ever figure out how to set it up, which took me a long time, and I do this sort of thing daily. So make sure you have the router it works with, and a lot of patience.
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It's a great device but...., March 1, 2006
By Luis Villalobos Noriega (Mexico City, Mexico)
It needs you to know what you are doing, it isn't as easy and friendly as you would think or like, at least for configuring it for a WEP enabled WLan. Eventhough, regarding the coverage, it's an awsome equipment, I really recommend it.
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