Once you have it setup it works flawlessy. Problem is setting it up for the first time. Documentation is not user friendly to the non-tech savvy. I'm using it as a wireless bridge / access point with my Sony blue-ray player. I already have a Linksys wireless router using WEP encryption (forced to use this because my XBOX 360 doesn't support WPA). To make it easy for others doing the same thing use the following steps:
1. Change your pc or laptop's ethernet adapter's IP address to 192.168.1.3 To do this on Vista or Windows 7 you open you network sharing center then you open your ethernet LAN adapter settings (or manage network connections in Vista). Select the Internet protocol v4 (IPv4) and go into properties. Manually put in the IP address with subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 and don't worry about the gateway address.
2. Connect your WAP3205 to your pc/laptop with the ethernet cable that is provided. Of course make sure you plugged in the power to it or your going nowhere. Open up your preferred browser (IE, firefox, netscape, etc.) and then type in the address bar 192.168.1.2 and now you will be connected to the WAP3205. Type in the default password of 1234, you are now prompted to change your password to whatever you want it to be.
3. Now that your in the WAP3205 click on Expert Mode. When in this mode on the far left you will see Status and below it Monitor, Configuration and Maintenance. Click on Maintenance and then hit the plus sign in front of Maintenance once you are in. Go to the last option of Sys OP Mode then select Client Mode and hit apply.
4. Go back to the far left and hit configuration then go to Wireless LAN. You will see tabs for Profile, Site Survey and WPS. Hit the Profile tab and then hit the Add button. Type in your network name / SSID and then select your security drop down box. Select WEP if you have a setup like me with the XBOX 360 or if you don't care about security select the no security option. Type in your passphrase that you use for your router's security or the actual 128 bit security code (or 64 bit if that is what you use) and hit apply. Then select your newly created profile and hit the activate button. If it's configured correctly you will get a green check. Now your done on this end.
5. Disconnect your WAP3205 from your pc/laptop and change your pc or laptop's ethernet adapter settings back to whatever it was before.
6. Go to your blue-ray player and disconnect the power cord for about a minute or more. Connect the WAP3205 to the blue-ray player with the ethernet connection and power your blue-ray player back on. The blue-ray player will automatically pick up the network settings from the WAP3205 and you will be done.
Hope this is helpful and if you don't have an XBOX 360 or if you use WPA for security the setup should be easier.
So far so good with the Zyxel WAP3205...I had used the Linksys WET610N (2 separate units) and they both failed. The first one worked a couple of days before the wireless stopped working and the second one's wireless failed right out of the box. The WET610N's are way easier to configure but they are too expensive and for me totally unrealiable. The WAP3205 is a steal and worth the effort when you consider the rock solid connection I have now, besides it was less than half the price of the Linksys. It's not as nice looking as the Linksys that's for sure but the main thing is it works as described. ZyXEL WAP3205 300 Mbps Wireless N Access Point, Ethernet client, Universal Repeater and Range Extender
This is an impressive piece of networking gear, particularly for the price. It has a great deal of functionality, some of it unusual. However, I have to warn you: the documentation is terrible. When the other reviewers said the documentation is poor, boy, they weren't kidding.
The Zyxel can be configured to act as an access point, wireless client, or universal repeater. Let me explain these modes:
=> If you already have (wired) Internet access (e.g., DSL or a cable modem), you can connect the Zyxel in access point mode, and then you'll be able to connect to the Internet via the wireless network from throughout your home. This is probably the most common use of this kind of gear, and for this purpose, the Zyxel will probably do the trick just fine.
=> If you already have a wireless network set up in your home, and you want to connect another device (e.g., a gaming console) to the wireless network, but the other device doesn't itself have wireless capability, you can use the Zyxel as a wireless client. For instance, imagine you have DSL/cable modem Internet access, connected to a wireless access point, in one room of your house. On the other side of your house, you have a gaming console, and you want to connect it to the Internet, but the gaming console doesn't have 802.11 wireless capability. What to do? You can plug the Zyxel into the gaming console via Ethernet. The Zyxel will connect wireless to your existing access point, and provide Internet access to your gaming console. See other reviews here for information about how to configure the Zyxel in wireless client mode.
=> If you already have a wireless network set up in your home, but it doesn't reach all of the rooms in your home, you can use the Zyxel as a universal repeater to extend the range of your existing wireless network. This is sometimes also known as a "range extender". For instance, say you have an existing access point in a room on the north side of your house, but its signal isn't powerful enough to reach the south side. Stick the Zyxel halfway in the middle and configure it to be a universal repeater. The Zyxel will receive the wireless signal from your existing access point and re-broadcast it, so that you can have wireless connectivity from the south side of your house. (You don't need to plug the Zyxel into your cable modem or DSL modem; it receives Internet connectivity via a wireless connection to your existing access point, and extends the range of your existing network.) This is pretty awesome.
That's the positive. The negative is that the Zyxel is hard to configure, and the documentation is lousy. The manual that comes with the Zyxel is extremely sparse and doesn't describe how to use most of the device's functionality. The manufacturer has been spamming the comments section of other reviews to say they've fixed this with a new version of the manual, but that's a bit misleading. The printed manual you receive with the Zyxel still sucks. If you know the special URL, you can download the online version of the manual, which is better, but you have to know where to get it (see the comments section of other reviews), and it is only available online. Why couldn't the manufacturer at least include a reference to it in the printed manual that comes with the Zyxel? Sheesh.
As a result, to use the advanced functionality (e.g., client mode and the universal repeater), you probably need to have some knowledge of networking and a bit of patience -- otherwise you may be in for a frustrating experience.
Even with the extended manual available online, configuring the thing is a bit tricky. Other reviews have described how to configure it in client mode; I'll explain how to configure it in universal repeater mode:
1. You'll need to know what channel your existing 802.11 access point is using. Find out, e.g., from its web configuration interface (you'll have to see the documentation of your existing access point; that'll depend up on the access point). Jot down the SSID and wireless channel. If you use WEP or WPA or WPA2, jot down the key and which of those you use.
2. Power up the Zyxel. Connect a laptop to the Zyxel via Ethernet cable. Manually set the IP address of your laptop to a static IP address 192.168.1.3. (See other reviews for details of how to do this, if you don't know.) Fire up your browser and go to [...]. Enter in the default password (1234).
3. In the Zyxel's web configuration interface, click on "expert mode". Click on the icon for Maintenance on the left, go to Sys OP Mode, change to universal repeater mode, and click "apply". Wait for it to reboot.
4. Connect to the Zyxel's web configuration interface again. Click on the icon for Configuration on the left, click on Wireless LAN, then go to the tab for Universal Repeater. Enter in the universal repeater parameters: tick the checkbox to enable universal repeater. Enter in the SSID of your existing access point (which you noted in step 1 above). Enter in the key and security mode, if it uses WEP/WPA/WPA2 (make sure to match what is listed in your existing access point). Don't bother filling in the MAC address; it's not needed. Click "apply".
5. Now go to the General tab. Fill in the SSID field with the SSID of your existing access point (the default is "Zyxel"; change that to match your existing access point). Untick the checkbox for automatic channel assignment, and manually pick a channel from the dropdown to the left of the checkbox -- use the same channel as your existing access point is using (which you jotted down in step 1). Click "apply".
6. If your existing access point uses WEP/WPA/WPA2 security, go to the Security tab and fill it in with the same parameters as your existing access point. (I verified that the Zyxel does work with WPA2-PSK AES.) Click "apply".
7. Now it should be working. Disconnect the Ethernet cable, clear the static IP address, and try connecting to the wireless network to see if it works. Hopefully it works on the first try!
(It's crazy that it takes this many steps to configure universal repeater mode -- you're stuck entering in all kinds of information that the Zyxel could have inferred -- but that's how it is. Ease of configuration is not one of the strengths of the Zyxel.)
After using the Zyxel for a while, I'm not entirely satisfied with it. I've been using it as a universal repeater, and it does extend the range of my existing wireless network significantly (once I got it set up and working). However, it makes my entire wireless network a bit flaky: once every few hours, it kicks my laptop off the wireless network (even when the laptop is completely within range of my original wireless access point, so that it would have had access even without the Zyxel). I've found this annoying enough that I've turned off the Zyxel and given up on the extra range. However I haven't tried to troubleshoot this to determine if it is specific to my wireless configuration (I use a WPA2 encrypted network) or my laptop (which is an old Windows XP SP2 machine), so I don't know whether it will affect others.
I can say this: if it does work for you without the reliability glitches, I think you'll be happy with it. If you feel comfortable with simple networking and want to extend the range of an existing wireless network, it might be worth a try to see if it works well for you. - Wireless Access Point - Wireless - Access Point - Bridge'
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