Repeater vs Access Point?

[damesJ]

I have two netgear wndr3700s routers - one of them is the main and the other is simply setup as an access point with dhcp disabled. I was going through some of the settings and noticed that there are settings for a wireless repeater. Whats the difference between a router being setup as an access point or as a wireless repeater? Would there be any benefit in changing my setup to this?

 

[k3y3n1n]

Access Point is the main device for clients to get connected to.

Repeater is a device to extended the signal for your AP basically make your wireless range larger.

There are a Repeaters that can act as an AP or vice versa - An access point that can also act as a Repeater.

Which one is better?
Dedicated Access point is better than a repeater that acting as an access point.

but if your in a small environment i would just make a repeater for your dedicated AP to cover your entire area

 

[KingArcher]

I have two netgear wndr3700s routers - one of them is the main and the other is simply setup as an access point with dhcp disabled. I was going through some of the settings and noticed that there are settings for a wireless repeater. Whats the difference between a router being setup as an access point or as a wireless repeater? Would there be any benefit in changing my setup to this?

If you setup the 2nd router as an access point, you'll have to place it at the distant location where the signal coming from the main router is poor.
And you'll have to connect the access point to the main router with a LAN cable.

If you setup the 2nd router as wireless repeater, then you wont need to connect it with a LAN cable.

There is however one disadvantage to having a wireless repeater, i.e. it halves your wireless bandwidth.
Disadvantage with 2nd one being just an access point is the long lan cable that connects it to the main router.

If you've already got a LAN cable to that location where the signal is poor, I'd recommend that you connect the access point with that. [to LAN port on 2nd router]

Thats just my 2 cents.

Would any network experts care to chime in?

 

[damesJ]

Yep, thats exactly what my setup is. We have radiant heating so our floors are well insulated, which blocks most of the signal between floors. So I just ran a lan cable between floors and setup the router as an access point.