help please - wireless range extender not working <clueless emoticon>

[silverfrog]

we recentyl moved to a big house.

we needed to boost our wifi signal to reach the top floor. router situated on ground floor, reaches part of first floor ok, signal is detectable on top floor, but not usable.

for various reasons, we cannot re-site the router to a better position for signal distribution, and I suspect (possibly wrongly) that a booster antenna would make little difference.

so we bought a wireless repeater - it's an Edimax 7416APn, if that is any use.

set it up yesterday, and despite having to battle with gibberish instructions, it seemed to go ok. tested it, and sure enough, second network was there, connectable via my phone and via laptop.

all fine until today.

now, the network is there - can connect ok, with great signal strength.

but cannot connect to the internet at all.

so, what is wrong (words of one syllable please. I am reasonably competent at followign instructions, but have no idea about geeky stuff, so no technical jargon please )

and what can I do to fix it?

The fault could be between your router and the internet or between your extender and the router.

What happens if you connect directly to the router? Ideally connect to it with a cable, if you've not got one then turn off the extender and make sure you're connecting directly to the routers wireless network.

if I connect the extender to the router directly, you mean?

well, I did that in set-up, and it was all ok.

hang on, will try again......

right.

have connected (via cable) to the router, and all the flashing lights on the extender sya all is ok.

phone connects up well, but again, if I try to use the internet, nothing happens.

Sorry, turn the laptops WIFI off, connect the laptop via a cable to the router and turn the extender off. Can the laptop get onto the internet?

If you can see the internet then keep the laptops WIFI off, turn on the extender and connect to the extender using a cable. Can the laptop now see the internet?

thanks - not sure what the problem was in the end.

all seems to be mysteriously working again

extender happy, laptop happy.

no idea why it stopped working, but will probably do so again, so may be back.

thanks for your help