Linksys RE6500: How to Strengthen Your Weak WIFI Signal
Here is what you need to do.
A few months back my Wife came to me complaining about the network cable that is connected to her work computer was getting in her way and it looked ugly as it went from the Living Room to her Home Office where she worked from home.
Knowing that her job needs to have a secure connection because of the security of her job I had to come up with a way to make sure she has a secure connection as well as not leaving the network cable laying around.
My First Course of Action.
I looked and began to plan out what I was going to do. Maybe I can run a network cable up and around the moldings of the doors and bases but then I would have to drill holes through the wall and all that. I could find and buy a long network cable, but I would have to dish out some cash for that. So, using a cable was not a good idea and would be a huge job for me to partake and that is something I do not want to do since we live in an apartment.
Using the Network Cable that would go from her Docking Station in her Home Office to the Router in our Living Room would not look right.
My Second Course of Action.
My next course of action was using a range extender. By using a range extender, it would eliminate the need of running network cables from the living room to her home office.
I got dressed and headed for Best Buy to see what they have in stock. I got to my neighborhood Best Buy and checked what they had. They carried many different range extenders some of them were cheaply priced, others were mid-range and still there were others that were expensive.
I could not get just any other range extender I needed one that came with network ports in the back of the equipment. I found a mid-priced range extender from Linksys RE6500 which will work well for what I’m trying to do.
Linksys tends to be very good when it comes to their equipment and being an IT guy, I have worked with the brand many times which is why I promote it.
I went ahead and bought it and brought it home. Once I was home opened it up and checked it out, the first thing I noticed it was a sleek and nice piece of equipment no fluff just a light and ports in the back and that was about it. Of course, you have to open the instruction pamphlet on how to make it work which is very simple and to the point.
I plugged the Linksys RE6500 to my surge protector under my Wife’s desk and the Linksys quickly turned on giving me an orange which tells me that the Linksys RE6500 will need to be set up.
I grabbed a network cable and laptop and attached my laptop to one of the network ports in the back of the Linksys which by the way there are 5 ports in the back and typed in the IP Address that was in the manual and it took me to its console. I logged in and followed the preset install step by step and after I did the install the light went from orange to blue.
How Does the Linksys RE6500 Work?
The Linksys RE6500 works by grabbing the WIFI signal from your router making the signal stronger and giving you better range when you are in Wireless mode. It kind of takes the weak WIFI signal and amplifies it so you get a stronger signal. Linksys is a hardy piece of equipment as I have it going 24 hours a day on and very rarely do it have to refresh it.
It was an easy install actually once you follow the instructions that came with the range extender. The one that I have was about $60 dollars I think now Amazon has it for $46. So far, I had the range extender for a few months and my wife so far has not complained about slow internet or any weak signal.
In the end it worked out great!
With the Linksys RE6500 net extender turned out to be a great investment! No more network cables running across the floors, a very clean set up and ease of use makes it a great piece to add to your range extending needs.
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