If you have a moon with a phalanx in system 499, does your phalanx range then go all the way to the left or do you only gain one system at a time?

Every lanx upgrade increases the range on both direction. The range upgrade is the same in all systems be it 1 30 255 or 499.
But in systems 1 or 499, there are no systems on the other side. So you will only be getting half of the benefit of the upgrade.

Now I regret placing my colonies here...At least they still have the Jumpgate, and less turf to defend. Thanks for your help

AmeOkami wrote: Now I regret placing my colonies here...At least they still have the Jumpgate, and less turf to defend. Thanks for your help

Unfortunately, planets located in both the lowest and highest positions of a Galaxy are the most probed. They are used for fleet saves and also get way too much attention to be anywhere near secure from people browsing for raids.

Thanks for that... Better to know it now then later. Well...Yeah, there isn't a bright side to this right now except that if someone is fleet saving, they want attack a defended planet.