Thank you so much for your reply! Im going to try everything you stated. Luck may have it, my friend just gave me a bricked netgear wireless g router.

Is there a way to install Tomato on a bricked router? then set it up as a repeater ?

Kind Regards,

1) Rotate the antenna so that the post is parallel with the floor. The signal is strongest from the sides, and dissipates at the tip, so you need to force the signal upward.
2) If Its just a basement and you don’t care about cosmetics, put the router on the floor, or on a table, and lay a sheet of tin foil under the parallel antenna to deflect the signal upward.
3) Login to Tomato Admin and under the Advanced–>Wireless tab Up the transmit power to +-60 in gradual steps, as some routers do worse with increased noise.
4) Under Tools do a wireless survey of surrounding routers, to see what channel they are on. Your options are (standard) 1,6,11. Most routers default to 11. If you pick the least popular channel, that may help range as well. That can be changed under the Basic–>Network–>Wireless section

For optimal bandwidth and performance see my post on configuring Tomato QoS.
Scott

Im a novice when it comes to router configs. What is the optimal tomato settings for increased signal strength and bandwidth? I have a plain Jane setup with my laptop on the 3rd floor of my condo and the router on the basement. Tomato with the default settings works excellent, just want to know if there is anything else i can do?

Thanks,