Linksys N300 Wireless Dual-Band Range Extender (RE1000)

1. The CD did not come of much use. It was not connecting to the Extender. Period. Then I called them and got help from a GREAT technician with Linksys2. The ConceptYou obviously have a wireless router. This must sync with the Extender. Let's say you just plug in the extender. Windows Wireless refresh will pick up the extender, but will do nothing beyond that. Since this is not connected to the main router yet, it will not even give you internet. Again the extender must be made to sync with the main router in ALL respects.3. Simply connect the extender to the lap top computer using an ethernet cable. Put the extender close by in a power outlet and turn it on i.e. until the CSCO stops blinking and stays lit.4. From the windows refresh wireless networks, choose the extender ( it always shows up)5. Try to open an internet browser. IT will not work, since the extender does not connect to the internet.6. It will ask you for user and pw. type in admin in user id and admin in pw7. this will open the web interface for the extender.8. Now you have to sync with the router.9. Go under wireless and click on the main router SSID and click Connect. This will ask you for the router password. Once you put that in your are done.10. Disconnect the ethernet cables.11. Again choose the referesh wireless networks. Now you will not see the extender. You will see the main router. However since the extender is synced with the router, you can now move the extender somewhere midway between poor and good reception.The main thing now. My iphone started dropping the signals and I had to reconnect each time with the password. Since I knew the CONCEPT, i went back to the web interface of the main router and checked the TYPE of pass phrase. It was WEP2 Personal. IT does not matter which one, but must the same in the extender. Just putting the pw is not enough. It must be the same TYPE.So in the main router, I verified the DHCP Reservation to check the RE1000 (extender. Check its IP address.Open a browser and type in this IP address of the RE 1000type in admin for user id and admin for pw- Go to Basic Wireless Settings- Go to ManualIn Security Mode, choose the same TYPE of Security Mode as in the main router.Of course put in the same Passphrase as in the main router.If not the extender will drop your devices and you will have to reenter the password.I have all the bars working now in our 5000 sq ft house and even gets WIfi on the deck with 2 bars and 1 bar even when I go to the Stop sign and the end of the road.FYI : Disclaimer : I am just a computer lay person. I wrote this to help people like me. Maybe if you have better computers it will work like they say i.e. just plug in and it will work. The problem, we make so many changes to our wireless routers over the years etc that you will have to do some work.Good Luck.

I purchased the RE1000 to extend the signal of a Cisco 4200 wireless router in a large home where I was not getting a good signal in the opposite corners of the home from where the original router was located.I tried to use the Setup CD and while it seemed like it worked, it did not / could not recognize the router. After about 2 hours of attempting the automated and manual setup processes I finally got this to work, but I probably could not repeat the exact steps again if I had to. The setup process is RIDICULOUSLY COMPLEX and UNDOCUMENTED.None of the Cisco provided documentation or website support is useful in any way.A few notes:1) If you opt for manual setup (which is the only way I can get it to work), the security settings on the Range Extender need to be EXACTLY the same as the security settings on your router. This includes not only the password, but also the security type (WEP, WPA, etc.)2) The "Wi-Fi Protected Setup" button is completely undocumented and I have no idea what this does or how/why to use it. Even following the steps recommended in the manual admin console it does nothing.3) The rate at which the Cisco logo blinks on the router will tell you if it is working properly or not. Good luck finding out how to interpret the different blinking rates/patterns.4) There is much discussion on the internet about needing to set up a Static IP address. I did not need to do this in order to get it to work.5) There is a very important screen in the Range Extender admin screen where you click the wireless source you would like to pair the range extender with. When you click the radio button it then pops up an OTHERWISE HIDDEN SCREEN which allows you to pair the devices. The main screen should say something simple like "Pick the router you would like to link the Range Extender with" but it does not say anything of the sort. I think I clicked the right thing by accident and this is what ultimately was required to get the range extender to work.6) It is possible to reset the range extended to the factory settings (which I had to do about 5 times before it worked). Good luck finding out this undocumented trick.7) Most importantly, and this is my favorite part, if you can see the Network Extender appearing in your list of available wireless networks, this means that it is NOT WORKING properly. If it is working properly, it DISAPPEARS from your list of available networks and you only see the original source router. When the range extender is working properly there is no evidence that the range extender is actually working (except the blinking logo, maybe? Note: it also blinks when it is not working at all. ) This sure would have been an interesting tidbit of information for Cisco to pass along to consumers.Ratings:Setup Wizard CD - FEnclosed Documentation - FOnline Documentation - FOn Screen Documentation in Manual Setup - FAbility to automatically ink with other Linksys/Cisco routers - FSignal strength - AConnection consistency - FSpeed - FMy recommendation is to buy the refurbished unit at half the price of the new one. There are probably thousands of these things in perfectly good working condition that get returned to Cisco simply because they are too difficult to set up. UPDATE - I do not recommend buying this product in any way. In fact if someone offers to give it to you for free, save yourself the headache and respectfully decline their offer (and recommend that they destroy the unit so they do not give it to some other unsuspecting person).Cisco does not deserve to make any money on this product due to poor documentation, lack of support, and generally horrible quality.==REVISIONS to intial review ================================I revised my initial review to include another "F" grade for connection consistency. This thing contantly drops the internet connection but still shows 3 bars of signal. This is the most unorthodox thing I have ever seen. Even if you do the firmware upgrade and change it to Static IP address, as suggested, it drops the connection continously (every 15 minutes or so).Also added an "F" grade for speed. When the extender does connect to the internet it runs at about 1/10th the speed of my wireless router (3 mbps, vs. 30 mbps). Basically this unit will pick up the signal from your main router and drop the speed by at least 50% as it transfers it. So while "range extender" is technically a correct name for this unit, it does nothing to increase the speed of an already slow signal. Whatever signal it picks up, it "forwards" that signal at 50% of that speed (best case).== Second REVISION to initial review ========================After messing around with this thing for over a week I finally got it to be marginally functional but still far below my expectations. And it pretty much requires a degree in wireless network engineering to get this thing working. Update:1) Location of Extender: The range extender is very tempermental and getting it in the right location in your home is critical. To do this I needed to test it in about 10 different locations and use one of the "speed test" apps on your computer to test speed at various points in your home with the range extender plugged into different location. However, you also need some other supplemental tool to see which router you are connected to because the Range Extender uses the exact same name as your main router. You need something that will show you the MAC address of the device you are connected to (you will quickly commit this address to memory by the time you actually get the unit to work). My range extender works best when it is as far away from my main router as possible (on opposite side, second floor of 5,000 sq ft home).2) Connection Dropping: As noted above, the range extender was dropping the connection (and still showing 3 bars!) about 10 times per hour on average. This appeared to have nothing to do with the location. I tried setting up the range extender with a static IP address and this did nothing to help. I found another tip on the internet and set up a "reserved IP address" on my main router to match the static IP address I chose on the range extender. This reduced the connection dropping problem significantly. Now I am dropping the connection about once per hour, vs. 10 times per hour prior to that. UPDATE: yesterday the unit (with a strong signal from the base) was dropping my internet connection about every 3 minutes.When I was purchasing this product I was confused as to how there could be so many different reviews with people either loving or hating this product. Now I know why. Sometimes the configuration and placement works perfectly (for no good reason other than pure, random luck in the initial setup, router pairing and location of the range extender). Everyone else hates it because there are 100 different things that can go wrong with the setup and there is NO DOCUMENTATION from Cisco-Linksys on how to fix it.It appears from the reviews that 50% of people who purchase this product are extremely dissatisfied and/or return the product. I cannot believe Cicso is doing nothing to rectify these issues. They could sell a zillion of these things if they actually worked.STAY AWAY FROM THIS PIECE OF JUNK! Sorry to be so harsh. If someone from Cisco would like to contact me, I'd be happy to tell you all the things that are wrong with this product. Please schedule a few hours for the discussion.Update: I updated the firmware and the extender still does not work properly. It drops the connection about every 5-6 minutes. The maximum connection time without dropping that I have seen so far is about 16 minutes. This thing is a headache.