If your computer also has a wireless connection, temporary disconnect or disable it.Connect your computer to the extender's RJ-45 jack using an Ethernet cable.Follow the onscreen instructions to finish the setup.
Here's how to identify the Hardware Revision. Even with the speed issues, I would still seriously consider packing this device for CES where you have to pay PER device connected in some hotels.There are four(4) different hardware revisions for EW-7438RPn N300 WiFi Extender. This could come in handy while traveling you can actually turn this extender into a small router to share a single internet connection from a phone or even hotel wireless. While poking around I was shocked to find options for DHCP for example. You actually have a lot of options for such a small device. Last but not least, we took a look at the interface now that everything is setup. It only became an issue when using a much faster connection. It is still an improvement over no internet at all, and for those with a typical roadrunner or roadrunner turbo connection you will never notice the slowdown. Even though this is a major issue, the speeds I experienced are still more than enough for me to get my work done from the back yard. This seemsto be a compatibility issue with our Netgear N600 WNDR3700, firmware on both devices are up to date. When the N300 is running the overall network speed over wireless in the house drops from 50 down 5 up to 16 down 5 up. Testing the performance did bring up an issue that we didn’t expect. First and most importantly can we pick up our net network in the bathroom and in the back yard? Yes we now have coverage all the way across our back yard and in the bathroom, perfect for getting work done while enjoying nice days. Along with this I also tested our now extended network. To put the extender to the test I ran speed tests over our normal wireless and then over the extenders wireless.
Using the lights on the front you can check the signal strength without having to hook a pc up to it at all. Once everything is setup you can take the N300 and plug it in towards the end of your wireless network’s range.
Once you select the wireless network you would like to use and enter your password it will start a connection test to confirm that everything is setup correctly. You can also manually enter all of this if you would like or if your SSID doesn’t come up. The opening screen gave me the two wireless networks that the N300 picked up along with their channel, encryption, and signal strength.
When you log in it actually even gives you the default username and password, because of this it will be important to change the password later on for obvious security reasons. This was actually much easier than I expected when it was all said and done.
This left us with the only other option where we had to plug our laptop in via Ethernet and configure everything. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get WPS to work at all with our Netgear router. But it also has the side effect of working better with your router by sharing the same access point name even. WPS is by far the better of the two options for various reasons including being much easier. You can setup your wireless by connecting to it using the provided Ethernet cable or you can use WPS. You have two options when setting up the N300 with your wireless.