WET54G does not seem to make WRT300N signal better

Question

Greetings,
A friend of mine is using a WRT300N, firmware v0.93.3, as his router for both wireless and wired connections. The signal does not reach the other side of his house for whatever reason. The router is less than 25 feet from the other side of the house but the signal does not reach, so he purchased a WET54G. I set it up for him, while it was hardwired to one of the computers, then I unplugged it and moved it about 15 feet or so away from the WRT300N and kept it wireless. It does not seem to make the signal any better at the other side of the house. I went into the WET54G's settings and performed the Site Survey, selected the WRT300N's SSID and everything seemed to connect just fine. Is there anything else to this? What else could I try to make this signal better? I feel that there is probably some obstacles in the way of the signal, like an electrical breaker room and an air conditioning unit, as well as some dry wall, but I didn't think that would make a big deal. Anyway, here is some pertinent information about the devices, maybe my settings are just not right. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also any recommendations on antenna's would be appreciated as well. Thanks in advance.
WET54G:
SSID: home
Network Type: Infrastructure
Security is Enabled and set to WPA Pre-Shared, TKIP, same password as WRT300N
Device Ip: 192.168.0.109
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.0.10
Transmission Rate: Auto
Authentication Type: Open
Threshold: 2347
Frag Threshold: 2346
Cloning Mode: Disabled
WRT300N:
SSID:home
Network Mode: Mixed (Which N,B, & G)
Radio Band: Wide-40Mhz Channel
Wide channel: 3
Standard Channel: 5 - 2.432GHZ
SSID Broadcast: Enabled
Wireless Security: PSK Personal, TKIP, same pass as WET54G
Mac Filter is Disabled
Device Ip: 192.168.0.1
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Start Ip: 192.168.0.100
Maxium Number of Users: 10
Also, when I go to DHCP Reservation, which I am not using, I do not see the WET54G, but the desktop and the four labtops are listed.
All the settings on the WRT300N, under  Advance Wireless Settings are all default.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Message Edited by MeGGa on 04-21-200705:44 PM

Answer 1

I am a little confused by your post.  Are you using the WET to receive a wireless connection from the WRT300N, or are you trying to use the WET to retransmit the wireless signal, and thereby increase your wireless range?   The WET is designed only to receive a signal, then pass it along an ethernet wire to the computer's ethernet port.
The WET54G is set to an improper fixed LAN IP address.  Fixed (static) LAN IP addresses must be OUTSIDE the DHCP server range.  Your DHCP server range is 192.168.0.100  thru 192.168.0.109.    I would suggest you set your WET to 192.168.0.226  (similar to its default), unless you have another device at that address.  At least get it out of your DHCP server range.   Because 192.168.0.226 is automatically recognized as a fixed LAN IP address, you do not need to make a "DHCP Reservation" for it.    Additionally, the gateway on the WET should be the same as the WRT300N's address, 192.168.0.1
I'm not sure why you are getting such a poor wireless range.  However, there is no reason to expect the WET54G to have any more range than an ordinary wireless g card, unless you have put a high gain antena on it, like the HGA7S.
Your WRT300N would be expected to have its best range if the computer that you were connecting to used a Linksys wireless N adapter.
Also, make sure your WRT300N is properly located.  Try to minimize the obstructions between the router and computer.  Make sure the router is placed in an open area, and several feet up off the floor.   Do not place it behind your computer monitor, or with other obstructions around it.  The antennas should be verticle.  I am not sure of how to position that square antenna - perhaps twisting it to the right or left might help.
Make sure the WRT300N has a unique SSID.  Do not use "linksys".  Do not use any SSID that your neighbors are using.
Poor wireless connections are often caused by radio interference from other 2.4 GHz devices. This includes wireless phones, wireless baby monitors, Bluetooth (including Bluetooth game controllers), microwave ovens, wireless mice and keyboards, and your neighbor's wireless network. Even some 5+ GHz phones also use the 2.4 Ghz band. Unplug these devices, and see if that corrects your problem.
In your router, try a different channel. There are 11 channels in the 2.4 GHz band. Usually channel 1, 6, or 11 works best. Check out your neighbors, and see what channel they are using. Because the channels overlap one another, try to stay at least +5 or -5 channels from your strongest neighbors. For example, if you have a strong neighbor on channel 9, try any channel 1 through 4.
Also, you might want to try separating your own channels.  I see you are using 3 and 5.   Maybe further apart would help.
Hope this helps.
Message Edited by toomanydonuts on 04-22-200705:42 AM
Message Edited by toomanydonuts on 04-22-200705:45 AM
Message Edited by toomanydonuts on 04-22-200705:50 AM
Message Edited by toomanydonuts on 04-22-200706:10 AM
Message Edited by toomanydonuts on 04-22-200706:11 AM