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Engenius ERB9250 Wireless N Range Extender

15 Dec 2011

The ERB9250 works with most wireless access points and wireless routers, and is compatible with wireless b/g/n devices so users can get increased coverage even with a mixed network.

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			<h2 class="header-green">Engenius ERB9250 Wireless N Range Extender - Say Goodbye to Wireless Dead Spots</h2>
		<span class="byline">Reviewed by Andy Sim on Friday, 16 Dec 2011</span>
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		 		<h2 class="page-title">Engenius ERB9250 Wireless N Range Extender</h2>
		 		<p><em><strong>This article first appeared in HWM&nbsp;Sep 2011.</strong></em></p>
<h3 class="page_title">Say Goodbye To Wireless Dead Spots.</h3>
<p class="rtecenter"><img height="500" width="500" src="/files/img/2011/12/EnGenius_ERB9250.jpg" alt="" /></p>
<p>Dead spots are annoying, we won&rsquo;t deny that. To work around them, there are two alternatives &mdash; either get a pair of HomePlugs, or whip out a wireless extender. The Engenius ERB9250 extender&rsquo;s primary purpose is to extend your SOHO router&rsquo;s Wi-Fi coverage, although it can also be deployed as a client bridge as well, which in other words, means the ERB9250 can be used to extend your wired network by connecting a network switch to the unit.</p>
<p>Dressed in white with two detachable antennas, the ERB9250 looks very much like your average router except that it comes with a single Ethernet port instead of the usual four. At the top of the device sits three LEDs, with dedicated indicators for the extender&rsquo;s power, Ethernet, and Wi-Fi status. The latter two indicators turn solid blue when enabled, and blink when there&rsquo;s network traffic. You can ignore the rest of the dummy LEDs since Engenius is using the same chassis top for the ESR9752 model.</p>
<p>There are two ways to attach the ERB9250 to your existing home network. If your current Access Point (AP) supports WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup), you can simply press your router&rsquo;s WPS button, followed by the one on the extender. If all goes well, the extender should replicate the router&rsquo;s current wireless settings and SSID. That&rsquo;s the easy way.</p>
<p>Alternatively, you can wire the ERB9250 to your computer to configure it, which was what we did. To access the extender&rsquo;s setup page on the web browser, we assigned a static IP address to the computer&rsquo;s NIC with the same network segment as the extender.</p>
<p>To clone our router&rsquo;s SSID, we headed to the ERB9250&rsquo;s Wireless page and clicked on the Site Survey button. You should see a list of available access points. To complete the cloning process, we selected our router&rsquo;s SSID and keyed in the relevant encrypted WPA2 key.</p>
<p>For our tests, we placed a notebook approximately 28 meters away from an N-router where its Wi-Fi reach is almost out of range. The adapter&rsquo;s signal strength dropped to a single bar, with a measured downlink throughput of 1.116Mbps. Next, we brought in the Engenius extender, positioned midway between the router and laptop. The notebook&rsquo;s Wi-Fi signal strength bounced back up to five bars, with Windows displaying a theoretical speed of 270Mbps on the notebook.</p>
<p>In reality, however, we only saw a slight improvement in the downlink throughput at 5.366Mbps. Nonetheless, the Engenius ERB9250 managed to provide a viable WLAN link at a distance where signal drops are likely at longer ranges. As added icing on the cake, the wireless connection remained sustainable at a distance of approximately 35 meters away from the AP.</p>
<p class="rtecenter"><img height="228" width="300" src="/files/img/2011/12/verdict_Sep11pg109.jpg" alt="" /></p>			</div>
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Engenius ERB9250 Wireless N Range Extender

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