Home > Consumer Reviews > Wireless G Access Point w/ P.O.E. and Rangebooster.

I needed to wirelessly network a Brooklyn Brownstone approximately 45' long by 100 feet tall 4 floors. Initially started with the Netgear
RANGEMAX WIRELESS ROUTER Netgear RangeMax Wireless Router (WPN824)because of the advertised (last year Sept)
-MIMO (Multi-In, Multi-Out) technology boosts network performance with up to 10x the speed and 10x the coverage of Wireless-G

Result: Signal traveled straight up to the upper floor without a problem, but could not reach the rooms from the middle to the front of the house 2nd ,3rd ,or 4th floors (Comcast cable modem placed on the second floor back). Mysteriously connections would drop without reason from time to time. Theory Comcast equipment was causing that problem, too, wireless phone and fax interference too being the possible gremlins.

Phase 2-Linksys Wireless-G Range Expander WRE54G
used 3 Linksys Wireless G Extenders to act as repeaters on the upper floors. Could only manage to get a strong signal partially to the second floor but signal was intermittent. Could only link two extenders but the second, again dropped the signal intermittently and the dreaded `limited or no connectivity' message began. Observation proved these messages materialized while roaming-connecting to the second or third node (first node being Netgear WPN824). Though the signal was seen (in some cases very good) Netgear had a time issuing IP addresses past the first node.

Phase 3, after spending 1 whole day surfing the net for info. I decided to start anew....after much comparing and no reviews to go by. I decided on the Linksys WAP 200 because of its versatility and advertised signal strength - it could be an accesspoint, a repeater, or a bridge...and because I had the G extenders from Linksys that I became familiar with....

200AP 2 Linsys WAP200

Setup 1- Continue the Netgear as the Ethernet to cable box, wireless access point, with DHCP server, using the 2 200's as repeaters. The main problem, after becoming familiar with the WAP200 was still the `Limited or no connectivity' message. I `trial and erred' the settings ,I observed a correlation between RIP and the error msg. I also noted the msg occurring much more on my older lap (XP home), vs my girl friends newer (XP) lap.

Setup 2- using the Netgear as the DHCP server, Ethernet to cable box SWITCH. One of the 200's would account for a wireless access point (located on the second floor, 2 ft from the Netgear), the other a 200 a Repeater (3rd floor hall...I added a Hawking Technology's HAI15SC,Hawking HAI15SC 15dBi Hi-Gain Directional Corner Antenna 2.4GHz Hi-Gain Wireless Corner Antenna, boosts your wireless signal strength from 2dBi (standard) to 15dBi to the second floor 200...didn't think I needed it). This configuration covered the whole house, there were a few low signal readings at the extreme ends on the 4th floor 3ft from the front window , which I intended to eliminate with the Linksys G Extender.

Which brings me to the only concern- AP Mode gives you the opportunity to use the 200 in either 1 of 3 modes

AP Mode Screen
Use this screen to configure the Access Point mode. The three available modes are Access Point, Wireless Repeater, and Wireless Bridge.

The 200 that was used as the wireless access point needed the MAC address of the 200 used as a Repeater (in Repeater mode-- max 3 MAC addresses). Adding the address of the second wap200 (as Repeater) was'nt an issue, all worked perfectly. When I added the MAC addresses of the G Extenders `Limited connectivity' messages again appeared, I tried various combo's including changing the order but always a problem...perhaps the repeaters have to be legit repeaters or WAP200's...anywho I found this interesting and will be taking the 3 extenders back to Best Buy

Conclusions-
overall I found the Linksys WAP 200 a really good product. I don't believe you have to know the nuts and bolts about networking to get the WAP200 up and running. The documentation will not be of help to a newbie, but if you google your concerns you may learn a thing or two. $124 is a really good price for the endless possibilities one could use this 3-in-1 wireless network product......btw I speed tested the connections, watched video (google video, Youtube) while roaming around the house and it never dropped a signal.

it is now 11-28-2008 and this product has been running non stop since the original review..
asH

other reviewers have covered the good feature set of this unit. it's a good small business model. I was most impressed with it's inclusion of 4 separate SSIDs with selective isolation and security.

it has a great range. was able to cover an entire 7500 sq ft. machining facility with plenty of mechanical noise with just one unit in the middle.

cons: for me, the first unit I got would only transmit for 20 minutes before isolating itself from the gateway and the rest of the network. it eventually devolved into not responding at all. however, Amazon returns dept. took great care of me and the replacement seems to be working fine.

Buying an access point (or wireless equiment for that matter) is a tricky business since you never know how the different devices in the network will work together and setups it also a comfusing business...
I decided to buy this product after reading several buyers reviews that recommended this product.

I live in a three floors house and I have a Linksys router (WRT300N) in the upper floor. In order to deploy the wireless network aroud the house i bought two Linksys access points (WAP200) and placed each of them in a different floor. Setup was VERY easy, even with a WEP encryption.
The reception is excellent and I have full reception even through very think walls.

Nevertheless, when walking around the house, my laptop losses connection to the network and i have to manually "Repair" the connection in order to connect to the Internet again.

Bottom Line:
------------
+ Easy setup
+ Great Reception
- Doesn't work very well with roaming (moving aruond the house)

I purchased three of these units and used them for about 6 months. The WAP200 is not a quality product. There is a firmware bug in the unit that produces a ton of broadcast ping's throughout the network. After 6 months, Linksys posted a firmware update to address this problem. After attempting to update the firmware on two of my units, neither of them work. After reading the forum postings, it appears that this is a common problem with this model. I called Linksys to troubleshoot the problem on the phone. After 45 minutes I finally spoke to a person on the other side of the planet. They were not helpful at all. After talking on the phone with their technician for 30 minutes, the call was disconnected. I replaced these units with cheap Belkin Wireless G routers and set it to "Access Point" mode. The Belkin units have better range and are far more reliable.

The WAP200 is a terrible product.

Needs work. I first installed firmware 1.0.22 and then configured for a simple AP. After a few minutes I noticed that my wireless internet connection was slowing to a stand still from 5megs to 120kb and back to 5megs. I also checked my Xbox 360 by attempting to access pictures from the Twonky media server, and the Xbox 360 would just hang (this worked just fine with my old AP). Then I attempted to configure VLAN, which upon saving the AP restarted. After the AP rebooted the wireless SSID changed to "MY AP" with no security, but looking at the configuration page it only listed my SSID with security enabled. Reboot again and my SSID was being broadcasted with security. I'm returning the unit back to Amazon. Cool features, but needs lots of work.