Customer Reviews

Cisco-Linksys Wireless-G Range Expander WRE54G

5 star:		(172)
4 star:		(158)
3 star:		(84)
2 star:		(60)
1 star:		(259)

 

 

If you're having trouble setting it up, definitely call the 800 number as opposed to going online. I tried with three different people through their website online and none could help. Right before I sent it back I decided to try phone support and it got the expander a reprieve. I've copied some instructions that Y.A. Escalante was kind enough to leave in his review, but corrected and elaborated some of the items based on my experience. I would've given this 4 stars, but I deducted 1 for it not having clear enough instructions with its initial shipping. (Would've saved Linksys some headaches)

Here goes:
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 as in your Router or AP, save settings again.
6-Go to your Router or Ap settings and enable WEP. Bang you're DONE. Enjoy

Hope this helps some of you...if not call the 800 number on the box and be patient. :)

I picked this up because I had a Linksys router (wrt54g), and wanted to extend the range of my wireless signal. My router is upstairs in a large old house, and my office is downstairs in a old porch converted into a sunroom. The walls of the house are 1 foot thick concrete, and the signal has to penetrate 2 of them, and the windows of my sunroom are aluminum framed. Lots of stuff that interupts the signal from my wireless router. I could get intermittent low signal before getting the wre54g extender. I positioned the extended downstairs, and set it up based on the reviews here. It was very simple to set up, provided, I disabled the WEP encryption, and used the auto-config setup. I later reenabled WEP encryption and MAC filtering and entered the MAC address into my MAC filter on my router.

This was a very simple setup, and I am now getting 4-5 bars and 54Mbps, rather than 1 bar and 1 Mbps. It took me less than 5 minutes to set up with my Linksys wrt54g router.

One note, my router is version 6, and the firmware only goes up to 1.1, so far (I got the latest from the Linksys website, which is 1.1). The pamphlet in the expander says it only works with this Linksys router if it has 2.02 firmware or better. But, this later version of the router works great with it despite it not having the higher numbered firmware for it.

I gave it 4 stars because the instructions are so bad, and because the price is kind of high for me, even after Amazon's huge discount.

With help from tips here, I was able to get up and running in less than 1/2 hour. What I have found missing from many reviews is the router (and version number if Linksys) that they are using as well as the firmware version. This may explain setup nightmares that many have had.

This set of instructions (found below) was used to get my setup running in 1/2 hour. I have a Linksys WRT54GS 801.b/g router with Speedbooster version 1.1 (found on the bottom of the router). This is basically the same as the WRT54G router. I am using Firmware v4.70.6, May. 26, 2005 (found in the Status area of the setup page URL 192.168.1.1 using password, "admin" to access).

This is exactly what I did to get up and running with the WRE54G ver 2 range expander:

1. Download the latest Linksys firmware for your router and WRE54G (for later use). You will need to know the version number of your router and WRE54G (found on bottom of both devices). You can get the updates at www.Linksys.com/downloads. Once you download the router file, you need to go to the online Router Settings page to select the file and update the router. The default URL is http://192.168.1.1/ with "admin" as the password. Go to the ADMINISTRATION tab at the top and then FIRMWARE UPGRADE. Then browse to find the file you just downloaded and hit UPGRADE.

2. While you are still in the settings, disable the wireless security that you (should have) had on your network router. This is TEMPORARY.

3. Open box and plug range extender into an AC outlet near/next to your existing router (not at the edge of your wireless network).

4. Hit the autoconfig button. I did NOT have to hold the button in for 30 seconds as others did. I just hit it once for about 1-2 seconds. I also did not unplug the WRE54G from the A/C wall outlet. Wait for both lights to turn blue.

5. Using the wired computer with the router, connect to the range extender settings page at http://192.168.1.240 using "admin" as password. You can change the password and save it. Your SSID on the expander should be the same as your router network.

6. Update the firmware of the WRE54G by going to the Help TAB at the top of the settings screen. Not the HELP link on the left of the page. This takes a long time. Be patient.

7. Turn on WEP on the range extender and save the WEP key somewhere because you need to use the same one on the router.

8. Turn on WEP on the existing router using the aforementioned URL and unplug your WRE54G from the A/C outlet and go put at the edge of your network. Both lights should turn blue when you plug it in. Everthing worked fine for me but I did have trouble accessing the settings page from the wired computer once I moved the WRE54G. However, both lights are blue and I now have an extended network for wireless use upstairs.

Before you purchase this item you should know the following information available from the technical support section of the Linksys web site (but not on the data sheet or user manual for the product):

1. The WRE54G is ONLY compatible with products having WDS (Wireless Distribution System) support. Lynksys (as of 01/20/06) only lists the following three products as compatible:
WAP54G (firmware version 2.07 or later)
WRT54G (firmware version 2.02.2 or later)
WRT54GS (firmware version 2.07.1 or later)

2. Wireless MAC filtering has no effect on clients connected through the WRE54G. There is no way to specify which MAC addresses can and cannot access the network when they are connecting through the WRE54G.

3. If you do have MAC filtering enabled on your router or access point you must enter the MAC address of the WRE54G in the "permit" list for the expander to work.

4. The range expander will reduce the transmit rate to approximately half of the original source data rate transmission.

5. If your computer has a firewall such as Zone Alarm, you need to enter the expander's IP address in the list of trusted IP addresses in the firewall in order to configure the WRE54G.

   My wireless-G router is in the basement and even with a Linksys High Gain Antenna Kit the 3 computers on the 2nd floor were only getting 11 mbs. When I finally got the Range Expander working, I had a solid 54 mbs on all of them.

   But the setup instructions are brief, incomplete and worthless. The setup CD is useful only as a drink coaster. If you are running w/o WEP or WPA, the Auto-config button is all you need.

   If you want to enable WEP or WPA the auto-config button will not work. For WEP/WPA, see Mr. Anthony Taylor's excellent instructions. I followed them and had minimal problems. If it were easier to setup with security enabled...I would have given it 5 stars.

   On another point, If you are using WEP there will not be a hardware problem. If you wish to use WPA you MUST have the Version 2 expander. Look at the picture on the back. Vers. 1 has no wires/cables coming out of the small picture of the router at the bottom in the grey strip. Vers. 2 has a cable/wire coming out of the router.

   And for the record, you must have Linksys hardware for this extender to work.

I bought the linksys range exapnder after experiencing utter failure with the similar DLink item. Clearly both of these items were rushed to market before they were ready.

I'm an engineer and I'd like to think if myself as pretty knowledgeable able network issues, but it took me four hours of trial and error to find the formula that would make this work.

The setup wizard on the included CD doesn't work at all. You need to power cycle the range extender to make almost any configuration change effective. It's very fussy.

Here's what I did to get it working with WEP:
---------------------------------------------

1. Make sure you have a compatible router or access point with up-to-date firmware. My recent linksys wireless-g was ready out-of-the-box for this.

2. Disable WEP on your router, and make sure that it's broadcasting its SSID. Test that it's up and running by going to its admin page from a wireless PC.

3. Power up the range extender, close to the router, so it finds your own wireless network when it self-configures. Press and hold the autoconfiguration button until the lights start flashing blue and red, then release. The link light should go blue. Go to the range extender's admin page (192.168.1.240) from your wireless PC and see that it's working. It would also be a good idea to try to hit the admin page from a PC on your wired network, to check the link that way.

OK, you're successfully configured in insecure mode. If you're happy with that, you can stop here and treat your neighbors to free internet, and unfettered access to your personal data. On second thought, let's try to get WEP working on this thing. This is the hard part.

4. Unplug the power from your router/AP. Link light on the range extender should go red. Hit the range extender's admin page on the wireless network to make sure that you're actually talking to it. Configure its WEP settings, and click the "save" link. You'll lose your wireless network connection as soon as these are effective. To make these settings stick, you will probably have to power cycle the range extender! Then try to connect to it wirelessly again, and verify the WEP settings. You may have to go through a couple of iterations here to make this stick.

5. Once you're satisfied that the range extender is configured, unplug it from power. Now go to the router/AP admin page, and configure its WEP settings identically. Verify connectivity, etc, to the router.

6. Now plug the range extender back into power. Stand on one foot and sing "I know this product stinks but I really hate pulling ethernet cable" in the style of a Gregorian chant, until the link light turns blue. Verify connectivity by going to both admin web pages, from both your wired and wireless networks.

7. If you got this far, you're golden. You can now place the range extender at the edge of your old network's range, and enjoy better network coverage. If that didn't work, I don't know what will.


I have to say that I'm extremely disappointed with Linksys on this product. Their routers are excellent, working right out of the box, so I expected more from them.

When i bought the range expander, i could not get it to work. I called the tech support people and no one could help me. They even transfered me to a senior tech person and she could not get it to work. So I returned the product, and I went to the linksys website and learned that the WAP54G could be used as a repeater. Not only is it cheaper but easy to set up. in less than 30 minutes i was able to set up all the computer in that part of the house and It works fine. What's good, also is you could use multiple WAP54G to work as multiple repeaters so if the area you want to cover is big you won't have a problem.
Plus it is very easy to set up WEP encryption.

I have a WRT54G wireless router in my home but unfortunately it was not covering all the rooms where my family members needed wireless access. I tried the Linksys high-gain antennas (don't waste your $$$ or money) and the Hawkings Technology antennas (worked ok but doesn't improve signal that much). With these options exausted I turned to the Linksys Range Expander (WRE54G) and it seems to have done the trick.

I was worried about the setup since many peoples' reviews stated difficulty in setting up the expander. I honestly had no problem setting up the device. I plugged the range expander into the router then pressed auto-configuration and it was all set. Setup time is a max of 15 min.

Summary: The expander works well and does improve signal strength to areas that were otherwise unreachable. The setup is simple and max time to be up and running is 15 min.

This was very easy to setup, however I based it on using these instructions and ignored everything else that came in the box.

1-Disable WEP on your Router or AP
2-Plug in range expander and 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.> I did not have to do the unplug but I have left it in for reference.
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). Also open up a second window for your router config settings as well.
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 as in your Router or AP, save settings again. Here is the only hitch - make sure you edit the security settings so that the WEP settings match your router WEP settings. You may need to jot these down prior to disabling WEP on the router in step 1. Save your WEP settings on the range expander. You may not get a confirmation box back until you have enabled WEP on your router.
6-Go to your Router or Ap settings and enable WEP. Bang you're DONE. Enjoy

Dear Valued Linksys Customer,


Thank you for contacting Linksys Technical Support.

I regret to tell you but the WRE54G is not designed to work with BEFW11S4 or WAP11. The WRE54G will work with the following Linksys devices: WRT54GS, WAP54G and WRT54G

If you have further questions, please contact us at (800) 326-7114 or send us an email at support@linksys.com so that we may further assist you. Please use this phone number given as reference for future support calls.


Sincerely,

Carmela Sy
Linksys - A Division of Cisco Systems, Inc.
Product Support Specialist
800-326-7114
support@linksys.com