JP1 Remotes

As a first time user I can truly say that the 3 JP1 guides in the beginners forum are very helpful. The only thing that's missing is some background info on extenders: the extender forum doesn't really have a shallow end...
Has anybody written a fools guide to extenders ?
I know what I want to do with my IR, and I know that I'll have to use an extender, I just don't really know much about them (the other stuff is pretty clear after reading the user guides)

The readme.txt in the various extender .zip files is usually the best place to start.

You can either "install" the extender, which merges the required extender code with your existing IR file, or you can just start from scratch with the extender's IR file, and add your upgrades from the beginning. (This is what I usually do since I start using an extender as soon as I start JP1-ing a remote.)