Is there a way to get WiFi NOISE levels for a mobile device?

Yes. Fundamentally, I would never use a home broadband router as an additional access point to gain coverage unless I had nothing better to do with the router (otherwise, for the same money, I'd use a far more powerful device designed for power).

Given that my old Linksys WRT54G was gathering dust in the attic, Jeff had walked me through connecting it as a wired access point to my newer home broadband router.

Since my WRT54G, by itself, without a firmware change to a different operating system, was incapable of acting as a wireless repeater, the way I set it up was, fundamentally:

1. I ran a wire from the main router to this "access point"
2. This access point has the same SSID as the "main" router
3. A different non-overlapping channel was chosen

In this way, as Jeff noted, the WRT54G access point receives on its Ethernet card in its Internet port, and then broadcasts on its WiFi card to the mobile devices in my wife's study (and to the kid's gaming consoles).

Then, from the wife's devices (and the gaming consoles), the WRT54G access point receives on its WiFi card, and sends the packets through its Ethernet port back to the home broadband router.

As Jeff explained, that's more efficient than if I had loaded a different set of firmware which would allow the Linksys WRT54G to act as a wireless repeater, because a wireless repeater has to do all that above with the same wireless card, giving the Ethernet card a sabbatical, where it does absolutely nothing.

Yes. The wired access point has the same SSID but a different WiFi channel than the primary home broadband router.

Correct.

Correct (AFAIK).

Thanks. I hadn't realized the terminology used, and, in fact, I was thinking (erroneously) that a WiFi repeater was different than a WiFi extender. I have been corrected and I appreciate that.

What I have set up in my house, is the spare Linksys WRT54G router is set up not as a repeater/extender (which would not require wires), but as an additional access point (which, in my case, required running cat5 cable a hundred feet or so under the house).

Ah, you are astute (and I am not!).

Thank you for clarifying that, as I have read Jeff's posts for years in the alt.internet.wireless ng, and he rarely makes a mistake (although he will also admit his faults as readily as I do)

So, I was surprised he made (what I thought was) a mistake. Turns out I misinterpreted what he was saying (the devil is always in the details, which is why non-detail people I consider partially brain dead).

Yes. I was not at all talking about the client to access point relationship. I'm was only talking about the access point to primary router relationship.

When it comes to the client, I agree, said client does NOT get to choose the SSID, nor does it get to choose the channel.

I recently pulled a WRT54GL off the shelf to use as an AP because I needed coverage in the living room. High power isn't required for that.

I agree with all of that. Just to clarify, when you say you ran a cable from your wireless router to the new AP, you connected them LAN port to LAN port, leaving the WAN port on the AP unused. Using the WAN port creates a second subnet, which usually isn't desirable.

I fully agree with you that, if you *already* have the router, and, if you don't need power, then by all means, a router makes a great wired access point.

The *wire* is what gets you the distance. For example, mine is something like 100 feet long (roughly). So that wire is what gives me the distance I need, not the router.

That's a GREAT point, which Jeff had walked me through years ago, but which I had forgotten to mention (thanks for catching that).

In fact, it's so unintuitive to NOT use the WAN port on the Linksys WRT54G acting as a wired access point that I had to put a piece of TAPE over the WAN port so that nobody plugged anything into that port accidentally, especially when moving the router around (which happens, from time to time).

You are as astute as Jeff is, so I thank you for catching that omission on my part.

Still - having said all that, if I needed to go from a few hundred feet to a few miles, on WiFi, and, if I did *not* have a spare router lying around, I would simply go out & buy a $75 radio instead of a $75 router, as the right radio and antenna will have ten times the EIRP as will the typical home broadband router for the same price.