An Ethernet Bridge Too Far?

The Problem

The property where you want wireless network coverage is laid out in such a manner as the signal from your one and only wireless AP will not carry very far. If you start out with the correct wireless router then you may be able to add a repeater of the same or similar model. Otherwise you are into running Cat 5/6 cable to feed a second or even third wireless router.

The Solution

The WGX102 is a two part repeater that extends the wired network connection through the AC power wiring of the property to a 802.11g transmitter plugged into the AC where the signal is required.

Let me just go through that again…… locate the XE102 bridge near the existing router or switch and plug it into the AC wall outlet. Connect the existing router or switch with a short Ethernet cable and you are now sending network traffic through your AC wiring.

Plug the WGX102 wireless part into an AC wall outlet a good way from the XE102 bridge and it intercepts those network signals and broadcasts them as 802.11g.

Simple huh? Well yes it is – the system I installed worked straight out of the box (without security, of course). Logging onto the set-up interface is straightforward with a little help from the manual (Included, on the CD-ROM). And from the interface the entire set-up can be carried out much as any Netgear router or switch.

How does it work?

Or perhaps I should say How does it perform?. You can plug a 100Mbps Ethernet connection into the wired end and hook with a 54Mbps wireless adapter at the wireless end and be seriously disappointed. The connection between the two is the house AC wiring. The Ethernet signal is superimposed onto the AC 110v line and then is filtered out at the other end. The quality of the signal will influence the speed of this link and in a household it can vary greatly as a result of what else is plugged into the AC power and how well they are filtered.

In tests I was able to reduce the transmission speed down to 33Kbps using 100Mbps in and 54Mbps out. Yes, 33Kbps is as slow as an older dial-up modem. Remember those? No, well let’s keep going.

The second problem, apart from the poor AC transmission speed was the need for resetting. During operation the wireless device frequently lost contact and needed to be unplugged and plugged back into the wall outlet. I did not go to Netgear’s web site and upgrade the firmware, but I did notice a newer model had been released which may have cleared up this problem.

Set-up is OK. The device sets up like any other Netgear switch with the same passwords and same capability. I will not go into detail as the full manual is downloadable from Netgear’s site and contains the full capability in detail.

Conclusion?

If you have a remote location, like a bonus room above a garage and need to have a network connection and you cannot run a cable, then this might be for you. My advice would be to buy the strongest signal 802.11g router you can get, and consider buying a second one and configure it as a repeater. Buy this as a last resort and test the speed using something like a speed test at www.dslreports.com. Move the two components from AC outlet to AC outlet to get the best performance. Be careful with other devices (such as laser printers) plugged into the AC outlets and never try to run either of the Netgear-102 components behind a surge protector or power filter.