I use these and they work well.
XBee Explorer Dongle $25.95
XBee S2C with the pcb antenna $23.10
I got 2 of each and put one on the first floor and the other on the second floor. I may do one more for the basement.
I set them up with XCTU
You can find everything you could possibly need to know at
Everything Xbee
I Spent a week tinkering with it.
These are my settings... for whatever its worth.
XBeeS2C
Networking
ID,your pan id
SC,7FFF
SD,3
ZS,2
NJ,FF
NW,0
JV,1
JN,0
OP,your pan id
OI,7728
CH,14
NC,14
CE,0
DO,8
DC,0
Addressing
SH,13A200
SL,41A2A976
MY,114D
MP,FFFE
DH,0
DL,FFFF
NI,Xbee2
NH,FF
BH,0
AR,6
DD,3000C
NT,3C
NO,3
NP,FF
CR,0
Zigbee Addressing
SE,E8
DE,E8
CI,11
TO,6
RF Interfacing
PL,4
PM,1
PP,9
Security
EE,1
EO,1
KY,5a6967426565416c6c69616e63653039
NK,0
Serial Interfacing
BD,9600
NB,0
SB,0
RO,3
D6,0
D7,1
AP,1
AO,1
AT Command Options
CT,64
GT,3E8
CC,2B
Sleep Modes
SP,AF0
SN,130
SM,0
ST,1388
SD,0
WH,0
PO,0
I/O Settings
DO,1
D1,0
D2,0
D3,0
D4,0
D5,1
D8,0
D9,1
PO,1
P1,0
P2,0
P3,1
P4,1
PR,1FBF
PD,1FFF
LT,0
RP,28
I/O Sampling
IR,0
IC,0
V+,0
Diagnostic Commands
VR,4061
HV,2E4B
AI,0
DB,4C
%V,CF3
It's not exactly cheap but I did 2 of these and it made my Zigbee mesh pretty solid in a fairly large 3 floor home.
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