Which Apple product to use to get better range at home?

Question

I have several Macs at home; all but one is wired since my whole house is wired. however, I recently bought a Macbook Pro and have successfully used it in the house both wired and wireless.
However, my office is situated at such an angle to the dsl modem that I have (from Qwest) which basically gives me no wireless signal in my house. This is true for other devices that I've tried to use there. There are multiple drywall walls "in the way" and given the angle and foundation in my house, there is likely some cement foundation also in the way.
Is there a device (Apple or otherwise) that I can use as a wireless signal repeater that would get me a better connection in my office? If so, what is it, and if not, then I'll just run another RJ45 wire to my laptop. Just had hoped to avoid that.
Thanks
Dennis

Answer 1

It is possible to use a second wireless access point to extend the first. But based on things I see on the web it looks like both access points have to be from the same vendor, and both must support this ability. It seems to be a fairly rare features. Apple's Extreme base station and Express appear to work this way, but it is unlikely that you could use an Apple product to extend your existing non-Apple base station.
Some base stations have better range in difficult situations than others. I've had good luck with products using the Airgo True MIMO technology (currently I'm using Netgear Rangemax 240). But there's no way to know without trying whether that will be enough improvement. It took me from mostly working but slightly flaky to a solid connection. I'm less optimistic that it would take you from nothing at all to a good connection.
There are also base stations that allow an external antenna. If you're concerned about a single remote location, a directional antenna could help.
Clearly running a wire to a nearby location is the safest. (Either to connect directly or to put a base station near where you use your laptop.)