Extending Wireless Networks?

[stoid]

I don't understand the signal that a wireless base station sends, so I don't understand how the extending capabilities of an Airport Express function. When I sit at my desk upstairs, I get one to two bars from the Airport Extreme base station downstairs. It seems to me that if I plug my new Airport Express base station in up here, it'll only be picking up one or two bars and it is only extending a degraded network. I'm sure I'm not understanding this correctly, because that seems nearly useless. Can someone explain this too me in laymen terms what's going on?

 

[stoid]

FWIW, I just noticed that when enabling the wireless bridging function it warns that it may degrade the overall quality of the wireless network. I guess that limits how far you can bridge...


I still don't understand how the whole bridging thing can work though. A crappy signal is a crappy signal no matter what picks it up or how loud it repeats it.

 

[sandman42]

I'm sure I'm not understanding this correctly, because that seems nearly useless. Can someone explain this too me in laymen terms what's going on?

The idea is that if your computer and your base station are too far apart, you would install the Express somewhere about half-way between the two. That way, it's in adequate proximity to talk to each, even if they're not close enough to talk to each other.

In light of this, installing the 'bridging' device right next to where you're going to use your computer would not be very helpful (they're both seeing the same signal anyway, as you point out).