extending a HostAP networks range

[John Roark]

Besides the obvious solution of increasing the wattage and using a 
larger antenae... how would I extend the range of my wireless network. 
Is there a way to link HostAps so that where one ap's range ends another 
starts and extends the range by 50%? Some kind of dumb forwarder that 
simply repeats whatever it picks up (without NAT)? I want it to look 
like the client is talking directly to the main hostap, when in fact it 
is talking to another box that is merely extending the range of the 
hostap... is this possible?

eth0 : AP-A : wlan0 -- <wireless network> -- wlan0 : "Extender"
                                                |
                                   <extended wireless network>
                                                |
                                              wlan0 : Client

Is this a repeater? a bridge? does RDS do this (what is RDS?)? I want it 
all to be on the same network (192.168.1.0/24)... and I need it to 
preserve MACs and IPs.

Thanks,
John

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