Boosting wireless internet signal

[CigarNut]

I used to use a wireless repeater -- for years. I finally relocated my router to a more central location and no longer needed the repeater (I donated it to the Cigar Bar, which had a lousy signal -- repeater helped them a lot).

As others have said, you can use any brand as long as the signal at home and the wireless repeater both conform to the "N" standard. I ended up buying the same brand repeater as my router, because there are always some "gotchas" in each vendor's implementation and I did not want to worry about it.

If a repeater is easier (less expensive) than moving the router then just do that, otherwise move the router.

[markem]

My advice, which is worth what you paid for it, is this ...

Go to a local tech store with solid people (of all things, for me this means Best Buy over Frys - your solid people may vary), bring the manual for your router (or at least the make and model), and ask for advice. Indicate that you aren't planning to buy that day but are open to options. Best Buy (for example) has a 30 day return policy, which I find useful for trying out devices that I am unsure about. I've also had them spontaneously offer me 10-20% discounts.

Once you find what you really want, you can shop at various online and B&M stores to find the best price. Interestingly, for the past several months, Best Buy has been beating out NewEgg, which is quite strange in my experience.

If you want to experiment with antennas, there are some really good resources on the web for that. It's often tedious (says the man with the FCC Amateur Extra license) but the results can be both cheap and amazing. FYI, I gave up experimenting with antennas 6 years ago (did I mention tedious?).