Top 10 best wifi extenders 2022 passed our test

We use these to provide SOLID coverage over the ENTIRETY of our Mountain Top Ranch (about 10 Acres on Top of the “Plateau” where our Home, Recreational Areas, and Upper Pastures are located. We also use them “Daisy-Chained Together” to cover our DEEP Valleys surrounding our Mountain.Each Extender is named “(Our SSID Name)_(Area Of Coverage)”.. Example: “Our-Router_West” is the extender that covers the Western Top Part Of Our Ranch. When we “Link” or “Daisy Chain” several of these together to provide WiFi coverage down in the Valleys surrounding our Mountain, We use a format like “Our-Router_West1” (“The FIRST ‘Daisy Chained’ Western Netgear Extender, Connected to the MAIN Netgear Extender that covers the Western Part of the TOP of our Ranch, Which is Connected Directly to our Home’s Router”), “Our-Router_West2” (“The SECOND Netgear Western Extender, which is Daisy-Chain-Connected to the FIRST Western Extender, Which is connected to the Main Western Netgear Extender, Which is connected to our Home’s Router” – That’s a total of THREE Netgear Extenders, Covering the Western Areas Of Our Property, Up top, and down in the Western Valley) etc. etc…You start losing ‘Throughput Speed’ FAST when Daisy Chaining these units together, but at least you still have “More than Decent” WiFi Coverage, even (ESPECIALLY) in areas where Cell Coverage can be spotty (Like down in our Steep Valley to our North, Where our Natural Springs run, which is a pretty sheer 600 Foot Drop in Elevation, with only a few hundred feet of Width before Climbing UPWARD again to more of our property.. Cell Coverage down there is ‘WISHFUL THINKING’ at best, even with a Cell Tower Company Renting some space we don’t use to place a Mini-Cell-Tower on our Property, so the Cell Companies can cut STRAIGHT ACROSS this HUGE Bowl of Mountains in the Area we live in, to provide Coverage to SEVERAL State Parks, WITHOUT having to run MULTIPLE towers on the Mountains that Surround us in the distance, 360 degrees.. Imagine a “Pound Cake Bowl”… The Edges of the Bowl would be the Mountains surrounding us in the distance, and the Plateau Sticking up in the center of the Bowl, is where WE live). Our iPhones will use “WiFi” to place calls, when they can’t get Cell Coverage, so it works out GREAT for us!Recently, One of our Family Members built a home on land I gave them up here, about 900 “Air Feet” away from our house (So they don’t have to see/hear us, and we don’t have to see/hear them).. When I bought this mountain, NO Utility Company would TOUCH IT as far as “Providing Lines this far from Their Main Lines”, So I had to buy all of the Power/Cable/Water/etc lines myself, and hire Contractors to run them all up here (Buried).. I sized ALL of the Utilities to be able to support 10 homes eventually, as our Children can afford to build up here once they are at a place in life where they can work from home if they wish, Or build a “Vacation Home” up here until they CAN live up here full time… I bought HUGE spools of BIG Fiber-Optic Cable Line from ‘Corning’, and had contractors run it a LONG way, to the Local Cable Company’s Main Lines, that Carry Cable TV/Internet between Counties (Same for Power Lines, etc). So we have a LOT more High Speed Bandwidth than I need, Even working from home…Until our Family Member who just built a home here can afford to connect to our Main Fiber Line to get Cable Internet of their own, I bought Two more of these Netgear units, and Daisy-Chained them together toward their new house, which is East of ours. I Fully expected to need THREE Extenders to run 900 “Air-Feet”, But TWO of them (One set in about the middle of one of our Upper Pastures, and the Second Unit Plugged into their Enclosed Screen-Room on their Back Porch) provides them with Decently fast WiFi Internet!!! We DO live WAY OUT in the middle of nowhere, without “Other signals everywhere to shorten the range of the signals WE produce” (for many different things), so YMMV if you live in a Suburb or something, but they work FLAWLESSLY up here for us.ALL of the FIRST “Main” Netgear Extenders are placed outside our home, in a Waterproof (But “Signal Transparent”) Enclosure. Those First Extenders are simply used to grab the WiFi Signal from our Main Router inside our house (Going through “THICK Stone Walls” is TOUGH for even THE BEST WiFi Router!) and then “Extend The WiFi Signal Out Across our Property”… We have Four of these, Set North/South/East/West around the outside of our home, each about 50 Feet away from our Home.I’ve found it’s easiest just to set up each unit by going to Netgear’s site when you find the extender on your device, creating a login, and then you can change ALL of your Units from a Netgear Book-Mark TO EACH UNIT (You REALLY need to have a separate Netgear Bookmark for EACH extender!). From those bookmarks, You can rename each unit, set it’s signal strength, see what’s connected to it, AND how good the Signal Strength is, TO AND FROM, each unit, etc.I also found that if you just connect your iPhone (or whatever you may be carrying around) to EACH unit ONCE, let your device store that information, Then choose the option on your device to “Connect Automatically To Known Networks (with better signal strength)”, Then we can walk, ride the Horses or ATVs, pretty much anywhere, and our iPhones switch from Extender Unit to Extender Unit without even hesitating! Our Devices connect to the Extenders with better Signal Strength as we travel around outside Seamlessly. We never even know when the device has swapped connections from one extender to another.Normally this is where I’d say, “For the Price These Can’t Be Beat’… But I’ve Paid MUCH MORE for WiFi Extenders that didn’t perform HALF as well as these do! “And For The Price”, you can scatter them everywhere over large areas.”Tech Tip”: Lightly MIST the INSIDE of a clear “Cake Platter” CD/DVD Bulk Storage Dome with WHITE paint (To reflect the Sun’s Heat AWAY from the Cake-Platter, and keep UV OFF the Extenders), Run an Outdoor-Rated Extension Cord through a hole in the bottom of the Cake Patter Storage Case (created when you cut the Center Spindle out of the base), Hot-Glue the Extension Cord in Place close to the bottom of the case, AND to close up the Gaps in the Bottom Hole to keep the bugs out, And you have a HIGHLY decent “Outdoor, Weather Resistant, Signal Transparent, WiFi Signal Extender Dome”I simply set up each new unit here in the house, log in to the Netgear Website, Choose which OTHER unit I want the NEW unit to connect to (either our Main Router, OR one of the Extenders out further from the house), and let the NetGear Site set it up for me (Bookmark the Netgear Site Associated with EACH INDIVIDUAL UNIT!).. Then I unplug the unit, take to where I need it, Plug it back in to Power, and it’s good to go! Once we allow ALL of our Devices (iPhones, Palm-Tops, etc) to connect to each extender and save it as a “known Network”, I turn OFF the “Broadcast SSID” Option, so no one else sees the (Now HUGE) WiFi Network “Publicly” (without Special Software, or a Signal Sniffer, etc).. But even if someone DID happen to somehow get onto our Property, past all of our Security Fences, and Security Systems, and find the WiFi Signal, well, that’s what STRONG PASSWORDS, Encryption, And FIREWALLS are for! It can be a pain, but our Main Router is Set-Up to ONLY allow use by “Devices We Specifically Allow”. “Guests” are allowed to connect to a “GUEST ACCOUNT”, which puts them on a Secondary Network, so if their devices are Compromised, or have a Virus/Worm/etc, it can’t propagate through to other devices on our Main Network. And if their devices contain a Keystroke logger, then whoever is reading the Logger’s Output only has a Guest Password, WHICH CHANGES EVERY 10 DAYS, and Each Guest has a PERSONAL password that identifies THEM.. We do it that way so that if a Month from now, someone we don’t know starts trying to hack into our network using an old Guest Password [Like: “glenn-1s-C00l-0CT”] that was used by a friend that visited recently, we know to contact THAT friend and tell them they’ve been compromised (“glenn-1s-C00l-0CT”, LOOKS like, “Glenn-Is-Cool-Oct”, But what it ACTUALLY tells US is “It was “Glenn”, “First Part” [1s] “Of October”)… But even then Our Router wouldn’t even respond to a MAC Address that’s not CURRENTLY on the “Guest List” marked as “Allowed”, so even someone Spoofing his MAC Address wouldn’t work, since his Guest Access was COMPLETELY deleted the day he left.Probably 10 Times More than you Wanted to know, But nowadays Security Risks are VERY REAL, VERY possible, and that’s even MORE of a Concern When you have WiFi COMPLETELY Covering Tens Of Acres. These are VERY useful Items!

After logging into NetGears Setup Page and making a password and 2 security questions I found it fairly simple and quick to get the AC1200 WiFi Range Extender to lock into my router. I live in a mobile home and the WiFi connection in the living room where the router is located is fine but when you take your laptop or Ipad down to the other end of the trailer, in the bedrooms you lose quite a bit. On a lot of sites you would get a lot of buffering. Once I put AC1200 in the back bedroom it was like having the router in the room. Plus there are no cord connections, just plug it in the wall socket. If I want to use an Ethernet Cable with my laptop in the bedroom there is an Ethernet Port on the side of the AC1200 Extender to plug into. Some Extenders I reviewed before buying this one don’t have that feature. You can’t go wrong with this model. Works great. And if your a member of Amazon Prime you’ll get it in 2 days. I did.After logging into NetGears Setup Page and making a password and 2 security questions I found it fairly simple and quick to get the AC1200 WiFi Range Extender to lock into my router. I live in a mobile home and the WiFi connection in the living room where the router is located is fine but when you take your laptop or Ipad down to the other end of the trailer, in the bedrooms you lose quite a bit. On a lot of sites you would get a lot of buffering. Once I put AC1200 in the back bedroom it was like having the router in the room. Plus there are no cord connections, just plug it in the wall socket. If I want to use an Ethernet Cable with my laptop in the bedroom there is an Ethernet Port on the side of the AC1200 Extender to plug into. Some Extenders I reviewed before buying this one don’t have that feature. You can’t go wrong with this model. Works great. And if your a member of Amazon Prime you’ll get it in 2 days. I did.After logging into NetGears Setup Page and making a password and 2 security questions I found it fairly simple and quick to get the AC1200 WiFi Range Extender to lock into my router. I live in a mobile home and the WiFi connection in the living room where the router is located is fine but when you take your laptop or Ipad down to the other end of the trailer, in the bedrooms you lose quite a bit. On a lot of sites you would get a lot of buffering. Once I put AC1200 in the back bedroom it was like having the router in the room. Plus there are no cord connections, just plug it in the wall socket. If I want to use an Ethernet Cable with my laptop in the bedroom there is an Ethernet Port on the side of the AC1200 Extender to plug into. Some Extenders I reviewed before buying this one don’t have that feature. You can’t go wrong with this model. Works great. And if your a member of Amazon Prime you’ll get it in 2 days. I did.After logging into NetGears Setup Page and making a password and 2 security questions I found it fairly simple and quick to get the AC1200 WiFi Range Extender to lock into my router. I live in a mobile home and the WiFi connection in the living room where the router is located is fine but when you take your laptop or Ipad down to the other end of the trailer, in the bedrooms you lose quite a bit. On a lot of sites you would get a lot of buffering. Once I put AC1200 in the back bedroom it was like having the router in the room. Plus there are no cord connections, just plug it in the wall socket. If I want to use an Ethernet Cable with my laptop in the bedroom there is an Ethernet Port on the side of the AC1200 Extender to plug into. Some Extenders I reviewed before buying this one don’t have that feature. You can’t go wrong with this model. Works great. And if your a member of Amazon Prime you’ll get it in 2 days. I did.After logging into NetGears Setup Page and making a password and 2 security questions I found it fairly simple and quick to get the AC1200 WiFi Range Extender to lock into my router. I live in a mobile home and the WiFi connection in the living room where the router is located is fine but when you take your laptop or Ipad down to the other end of the trailer, in the bedrooms you lose quite a bit. On a lot of sites you would get a lot of buffering. Once I put AC1200 in the back bedroom it was like having the router in the room. Plus there are no cord connections, just plug it in the wall socket. If I want to use an Ethernet Cable with my laptop in the bedroom there is an Ethernet Port on the side of the AC1200 Extender to plug into. Some Extenders I reviewed before buying this one don’t have that feature. You can’t go wrong with this model. Works great. And if your a member of Amazon Prime you’ll get it in 2 days. I did.After logging into NetGears Setup Page and making a password and 2 security questions I found it fairly simple and quick to get the AC1200 WiFi Range Extender to lock into my router. I live in a mobile home and the WiFi connection in the living room where the router is located is fine but when you take your laptop or Ipad down to the other end of the trailer, in the bedrooms you lose quite a bit. On a lot of sites you would get a lot of buffering. Once I put AC1200 in the back bedroom it was like having the router in the room. Plus there are no cord connections, just plug it in the wall socket. If I want to use an Ethernet Cable with my laptop in the bedroom there is an Ethernet Port on the side of the AC1200 Extender to plug into. Some Extenders I reviewed before buying this one don’t have that feature. You can’t go wrong with this model. Works great. And if your a member of Amazon Prime you’ll get it in 2 days. I did.After logging into NetGears Setup Page and making a password and 2 security questions I found it fairly simple and quick to get the AC1200 WiFi Range Extender to lock into my router. I live in a mobile home and the WiFi connection in the living room where the router is located is fine but when you take your laptop or Ipad down to the other end of the trailer, in the bedrooms you lose quite a bit. On a lot of sites you would get a lot of buffering. Once I put AC1200 in the back bedroom it was like having the router in the room. Plus there are no cord connections, just plug it in the wall socket. If I want to use an Ethernet Cable with my laptop in the bedroom there is an Ethernet Port on the side of the AC1200 Extender to plug into. Some Extenders I reviewed before buying this one don’t have that feature. You can’t go wrong with this model. Works great. And if your a member of Amazon Prime you’ll get it in 2 days. I did.After logging into NetGears Setup Page and making a password and 2 security questions I found it fairly simple and quick to get the AC1200 WiFi Range Extender to lock into my router. I live in a mobile home and the WiFi connection in the living room where the router is located is fine but when you take your laptop or Ipad down to the other end of the trailer, in the bedrooms you lose quite a bit. On a lot of sites you would get a lot of buffering. Once I put AC1200 in the back bedroom it was like having the router in the room. Plus there are no cord connections, just plug it in the wall socket. If I want to use an Ethernet Cable with my laptop in the bedroom there is an Ethernet Port on the side of the AC1200 Extender to plug into. Some Extenders I reviewed before buying this one don’t have that feature. You can’t go wrong with this model. Works great. And if your a member of Amazon Prime you’ll get it in 2 days. I did.After logging into NetGears Setup Page and making a password and 2 security questions I found it fairly simple and quick to get the AC1200 WiFi Range Extender to lock into my router. I live in a mobile home and the WiFi connection in the living room where the router is located is fine but when you take your laptop or Ipad down to the other end of the trailer, in the bedrooms you lose quite a bit. On a lot of sites you would get a lot of buffering. Once I put AC1200 in the back bedroom it was like having the router in the room. Plus there are no cord connections, just plug it in the wall socket. If I want to use an Ethernet Cable with my laptop in the bedroom there is an Ethernet Port on the side of the AC1200 Extender to plug into. Some Extenders I reviewed before buying this one don’t have that feature. You can’t go wrong with this model. Works great. And if your a member of Amazon Prime you’ll get it in 2 days. I did.After logging into NetGears Setup Page and making a password and 2 security questions I found it fairly simple and quick to get the AC1200 WiFi Range Extender to lock into my router. I live in a mobile home and the WiFi connection in the living room where the router is located is fine but when you take your laptop or Ipad down to the other end of the trailer, in the bedrooms you lose quite a bit. On a lot of sites you would get a lot of buffering. Once I put AC1200 in the back bedroom it was like having the router in the room. Plus there are no cord connections, just plug it in the wall socket. If I want to use an Ethernet Cable with my laptop in the bedroom there is an Ethernet Port on the side of the AC1200 Extender to plug into. Some Extenders I reviewed before buying this one don’t have that feature. You can’t go wrong with this model. Works great. And if your a member of Amazon Prime you’ll get it in 2 days. I did.After logging into NetGears Setup Page and making a password and 2 security questions I found it fairly simple and quick to get the AC1200 WiFi Range Extender to lock into my router. I live in a mobile home and the WiFi connection in the living room where the router is located is fine but when you take your laptop or Ipad down to the other end of the trailer, in the bedrooms you lose quite a bit. On a lot of sites you would get a lot of buffering. Once I put AC1200 in the back bedroom it was like having the router in the room. Plus there are no cord connections, just plug it in the wall socket. If I want to use an Ethernet Cable with my laptop in the bedroom there is an Ethernet Port on the side of the AC1200 Extender to plug into. Some Extenders I reviewed before buying this one don’t have that feature. You can’t go wrong with this model. Works great. And if your a member of Amazon Prime you’ll get it in 2 days. I did.After logging into NetGears Setup Page and making a password and 2 security questions I found it fairly simple and quick to get the AC1200 WiFi Range Extender to lock into my router. I live in a mobile home and the WiFi connection in the living room where the router is located is fine but when you take your laptop or Ipad down to the other end of the trailer, in the bedrooms you lose quite a bit. On a lot of sites you would get a lot of buffering. Once I put AC1200 in the back bedroom it was like having the router in the room. Plus there are no cord connections, just plug it in the wall socket. If I want to use an Ethernet Cable with my laptop in the bedroom there is an Ethernet Port on the side of the AC1200 Extender to plug into. Some Extenders I reviewed before buying this one don’t have that feature. You can’t go wrong with this model. Works great. And if your a member of Amazon Prime you’ll get it in 2 days. I did.After logging into NetGears Setup Page and making a password and 2 security questions I found it fairly simple and quick to get the AC1200 WiFi Range Extender to lock into my router. I live in a mobile home and the WiFi connection in the living room where the router is located is fine but when you take your laptop or Ipad down to the other end of the trailer, in the bedrooms you lose quite a bit. On a lot of sites you would get a lot of buffering. Once I put AC1200 in the back bedroom it was like having the router in the room. Plus there are no cord connections, just plug it in the wall socket. If I want to use an Ethernet Cable with my laptop in the bedroom there is an Ethernet Port on the side of the AC1200 Extender to plug into. Some Extenders I reviewed before buying this one don’t have that feature. You can’t go wrong with this model. Works great. And if your a member of Amazon Prime you’ll get it in 2 days. I did.

Pros-Range is excellent and exceeded my expectations-Speed is also excellent-No issues roaming from one node to another node, it seems to be a seamless transition. my second node is also hardwired, and goes through a switch.Cons-bluetooth setup didn’t work for me. I performed the setup about 3 weeks ago, so I forget exactly what happened. Basically, the first part of the setup failed, and I had to manually connect to the velops wifi to continue with the setup process. It wasn’t a big deal, but the setup took a little longer than I expected because of that.-Main wired velop node has a difficult time getting restarted if the cable modem loses power.Periodically I will power cycle my cable modem, and I’ve done the same with wireless routers in the past. I do that for the same reason that I reboot my pc, and my cell phone, in hopes that it will let me get the maximum performance from my devices. I don’t reboot my cable modem often, maybe once a month, or more often if I notice a problem.For example, a site I visit frequently has been going slower than usual. So I suspected it was the site, but I decided I’d reboot my cable modem to try and rule out one variable. I unplugged my cable modem with the main velop node still powered on, plugged the cable modem back in after 30 seconds, and everything should be good, right? Nope.. main wired node didn’t come back online after that.I went to school for IT, but I don’t work in IT. Troubleshooting cable modems, wireless routers, and computers in general is nothing new to me. So the next step I took was to disconnect the power from both devices. Plug the power back into the cable modem, wait until it was 100% online, then reconnect the power back into the main velop node. Again, the node refused to come back online.Of course during this process, I’ll pull up the velop app on my phone. It’ll say the system is offline or something, do you see a red LED. Yes I do, I click the button to try and get the system back online, it doesn’t work, it says it must be an ISP issue, when it’s not.So eventually the problem does get fixed after about 20 minutes of unplugging each device multiple times, and plugging it back in, but it’s a much bigger hassle than it needs to be, and has been with any other cable modem and wireless router I’ve used in the past.So I love the speed and range of the velop system, I’d still recommend it to anyone. I just wish that the primary, wired node came back online easier after the internet has been disconnected from it.My setup:cable modem —-> main velop node —-> 16 port switch ——> 2nd velop node—> = ethernet cableUpdate 8/20/18I’m growing increasingly frustrated with the velop system. Today as I was walking by the main node, I noticed the LED on top was red, and not blue. I look over at my cable modem, and I notice it’s trying to get online again.I gave it some time, but even after the cable modem came back online, the main velop node did not get internet access again, and the LED on top stayed red.So I pull up the velop app on my phone, and it doesn’t work. Yeah, I might look stupid because I’m on the velop’s wifi, but it has no internet access. I thought that I’d still be able to connect to the velop node, and tell it to reboot. So I turn off my phone’s wifi, pull up the app again, and it prompts me to login. I login, and I forget what the exact message says, but it can tell that something is broken. It says, do you see a red LED on top of your main node? Yes, yes I do. I click yes.The app then tells me to unplug the power from my cable modem, plug it back in, and click next. Since the cable modem is 100% online again, I lie, and click next without doing anything. The velop app tries to get things back up and running, but says nope, there must be a problem with your ISP.Ok ok, so I go back one screen, I unplug the power from my cable modem, and plug it back in, and click next, exactly what the app tells me to do. Again, no luck, it says there must be a problem with my ISP. It’s worth noting that I didn’t think that would work. My arris cable modem with spectrum typically takes about 2-3 minutes to come back online, and after you click next, the app says it could take up to 90 seconds for that step to be successful (or something along those lines). Between @home (yup, remember them?), comcast/xfinity, time warner cable, and now spectrum, and after using a variety of cable modems in the last 18 years, every modem I’ve ever owned takes at least 60 seconds to come back online after you’ve disconnected the power.So third time’s the charm, right? I go back again on the app. I unplug the power from my cable modem. I wait 30 seconds, and I plug the power back in. I wait until the cable modem is connected to spectrums network again, and I click next. Again… the app says there’s a problem, contact spectrum. At this point, I had to go out to do a couple quick errands, so I leave with the internet still not working, and a red LED on the main node.I come back 30 minutes later hoping things would be working again, they’re not. So my next troubleshooting step was the unplug the power from the main velop node, wait 30 seconds – 1 minute, and plug it back in. That fixed the problem. It may sound like a simple solution, but I can assure you that doesn’t always work. As I mentioned in my original review, I really, really wish the system had an easier time coming back online after the internet is disconnected, for whatever reason, power outage, voluntary power cycle, etc.8/21/18I’m changing my review from four stars to three stars.I woke up today and noticed that the led on the main velop node was red, and my cable modem was 100% online. I assume that at some point while I was sleeping, the internet went out, and the velop just didn’t come back online. So after what I posted yesterday, my first troubleshooting step today was to simply unplug the power from the main velop node for 30-60 seconds, and plug it back in. That worked, and the main velop node came back online.The thing is, I don’t feel like any user intervention should be required in that situation when you have a $200+ mesh wifi system.The last few wifi routers I used were all basic devices that cost around $30, and they never needed to be rebooted after the internet went out.8/23/18Again, woke up without internet access, red led on the main velop node, cable modem 100% online. As I mentioned before, I suspect this is 100% a velop issue, not an ISP issue. During the summer time, I sometimes have a problem with spectrum kicking my modem offline for a minute, then the modem coming back online. This can happen once a week, or once a day, it varies a lot. The same thing used to happen with comcast/xfinity from time to time at my old house. The problem is that for some reason, at random times, my cable modem’s upstream power will go to around 51-52 dBmV, and I think if it goes up to 52, that’s when my modem gets kicked offline with spectrum. Normally this is no big deal, the cable modem reconnects to spectrums network again, other routers I’ve had in the past see that the modem is back online, and everything is good. The velop system does not do that though, the main node just stays offline after.

So far the TP-Link AC750 RE220 Dual-Band WiFi Extender (2019 release) has worked great and suits my needs perfectly.It’s small and visually appealing so you don’t need to worry about hiding a bulky or ugly device. It actually resembles an plugin oil diffuser like a lot of us might have. It is very light weight so it shouldn’t sag from the outlet when plugged in. You will lose an outlet plug and if that’s a problem you can always use an extension cord and put it where ever you want. The front of the RE220 boasts 5 easy to understand LEDs informing you of its status (power, ethernet, WiFi, 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands) and a WPS button. The bottom of the device has a high speed RJ45 ethernet port (this is absolutely golden for wired devices) and a reset button which is recessed so you don’t have to worry about accidentally pushing it and ensuring that you have to mean it when you do use that feature. It is supposed to work with any WiFi router. The mobile app and web user interface also give you management options like enabling the High Speed Mode, restricting particular devices for a specified amount of time and it even lets you turn off the LEDs if they might disturb your sleep or distract you. I personally have not used the extra features as of yet but they sound like they might be pretty useful, especially being able to turn off the LEDs. I think everyone has noticed blinking lights from various devices and they can be super annoying if they’re in your bedroom or visible when you’re trying to focus.The RE220 was very simple to set up with easy to follow step-by-step directions in the box, which guide you through the process and inform you about your options for setup (WPS, mobile app, web UI), where to find the app, a QR code for the app (this is also printed on the box) and the web UI address for setup if you opt to use a computer instead of the app or WPS feature. I chose to use the app which is also very simple which made the process all the more enjoyable. All you have to do is follow the on-screen prompts and it goes smoothly. It has you setup your 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz WiFi bands separately as they each have a password although it’s usually the same and it’s also true that not all networks are dual-band. I didn’t have a single problem during setup. It was quick and painless.The only setup issue I did have was mine. In my haste to get the RE220 going, I didn’t rename the extender’s WiFi signal to match my home network so it caused conflicts with my IoT devices that were trying to talk to each other because the network is password protected and I had actually created a second password protected network. This caused some communication issues. The instructions even tell you that you may want/need to do this but I was in a hurry so I could get other things done and overlooked that. Once the signal was renamed and the password set to match the original network it worked great and without issue. This was very easy to do within the mobile app but could also be easily done using a laptop or desktop computer.I bought this to solve an issue with a device I got a great deal on. I stumbled upon a used Sony Media Streaming Bluray player for $15. I couldn’t believe it and couldn’t pass it up. I didn’t really need it but I was tired of using my phone or laptop to stream movies and video to my bedroom TV. It was always a hassle and the only alternative was a wired connection directly to the TV and that in itself was a pain and more so if I wanted to play any of the discs that I have since my laptop doesn’t have a built-in disc player and I have to connect the USB BR/DVD/CD player. The problem was that the player required a wired network connection and not wireless. I can’t complain since it was practically free. I don’t know about you but my house does not have wired ethernet. I could do that myself but it’s time consuming and the money needed cancels any value in my purchase, in fact, it probably would have exceeded the cost of a brand new media player and I didn’t want to make that kind of investment just to get a media player on the network. My TV is a few years old and it doesn’t have WiFi or smart apps itself and I’m not ready to spend a few hundred just to get that kind of experience there either. Not when I can work around it for much less. This network extender allowed me to connect the Bluray player to the network using a spare network cable that was laying around from an old printer or maybe it was an outdated gateway from an internet old service provider. Regardless, the cable was brand new in the package and all I had to do was plug it into the TP-Link RE220 extender and my Bluray player and BAM the player was on the network and asking me to install updates. To top it all off, the WiFi signal in my bedroom is much stronger and everything using the RE220 signals have a much more reliable signal. That’s not to say my Arris Gateway didn’t give me a good signal to begin with, it’s just a stronger signal.The speed of the TP-Link RE220 AC750 WiFi Extender works great for watching Prime videos in HD. I get full 1080p just fine. There is always a loading delay but I think that’s the player which is a few years old so the memory and processor speed is not top of the line but it was $15 so again I’m not complaining. If you plan on watching 4k Ultra video, you may want to do some research to see if the TP-Link RE220 AC750 WiFi Extender meets your needs speed-wise, but it claims 433 MBps for 5 GHz and 300 MBps for the 2.4 GHz bands which should be fast enough but it’s not GigaBit speed for sure. I don’t have a GigaBit speed router so it wasn’t a concern. My TV isn’t 4k Ultra capable so I didn’t worry one bit about it. I did notice that when I watched a movie using the Amazon Prime app on the player, it checked the connection speed and displayed the result and it’s exactly what I see on my Samsung Galaxy S9+ on the home WiFi so the RE220 does not seem to be slower than the Arris Gateway my network is running on to begin with and the only speed issues I ever see are when too many devices are simultaneously using too much bandwidth (multiple HD TVs, cell phones, laptops, remote set top boxes, etc). First world problems…am I right? The only solution there is a faster internet connection and router which hasn’t been necessary and saves money and even if I did upgrade I think this WiFi extender would still suit my needs.

My primary reason for choosing the Linksys Velop mesh system over competing wireless systems was the dedicated tri-band performance for client device connections. Most “Tri-Band” mesh systems reserve one of the bands as dedicated wireless backhaul, even when a wired backhaul is in use, but this system was the only one I found that made the third band available to clients when a wired backhaul was detected. I wanted to come as close as possible to the AC2300 performance of my previous TP-Link router, and the AC2200 on Velop system seemed to fit the bill, considering all of the other issues I’ve had I’m not sure it was worth the trade-off.First the good stuff. Setup was simple and straightforward, and I was up and running in minutes using the mobile app. The design is sleek, and lack of exterior antennas is a definite plus on the unit that is within reach of my toddlers, as they really mangled my previous router. When the system is up and running properly and I’m not messing with it, performance is solid with generally acceptable speeds, and very reliable device availability for my horde of smart home equipment and streaming devices. Both the mobile app and the web interface are simple, sleek and easy to use if a little bare-bones in terms of features and configuration options.The problems start when you start trying to configure anything non-standard:– Every change to network setting requires a reboot.Any change, even something as simple as a DHCP reservation, will temporarily kick all of my devices off the network and reconnect all of them, if not require a complete system reboot. This is a problem for households with online gamers (like mine), but otherwise wouldn’t be a big deal for most people if not for the…–Slow bootup and bulk device connectionsI was worried when I saw that I was going from a 1.8GHz processor in my TP-Link router, to a 700MHz processor in the Velop system, and those concerns were wholly justified. System reboots, which as I mentioned above are fairly common, can take several minutes. Once the system is running, it can take up to half an hour for the network to stabilize and connect all ~35 of my devices. Tasks that don’t require a full reboot, but still disconnect all of my devices, tend to bring the system to it’s knees and crash the DHCP server as everything tries to reconnect at once, necessitating a system reboot anyways. I wound up switching my DHCP server to another device (a PC running Pi-Hole) and that has largely resolved this issue and significantly improved the speed with which devices connect to the network, but that is not a terribly user-friendly solution.–Poor load-balancing for stationary devicesWhile mobile devices like smart phones and laptops seem to transition seamlessly from node to node, stationary devices like streaming dongles and WiFi light switches seem to connect to the first node available and just stay there. This means that when I reboot the Velop system (again, happens ALL THE TIME) my devices will connect to the first node to come back online, even if that node is on the opposite side of the house and the device is mere inches away from a better node. The only way I’ve found to move these devices to the proper node is to restart or otherwise reconnect each client device individually.–Throttled WiFi connectionsWhile the Velop system on paper supports 867 + 867 + 400 Mbps connectivity over WiFi, and most devices detect speeds in the range of 500-600 MHz over the 5GHz band, in practice I have never seen a single WiFi device on my network get better than ~135 Mbps up or down. This is fine for connections over the internet, since I only have 150 Mbps download from my ISP, but since I also run an in-home Media/Backup server on my local network I as a bit disappointed that my WiFi devices could only transfer at a fraction of speeds I’m seeing from my wired devices, especially when my previous, much less expensive TP-Link router could easily achieve its advertised speeds over WiFi.–5GHz DropoutsI’ve also had issues with nodes randomly dropping one or both 5GHz bands. This usually manifests as one or two of my devices failing to connect to the network because the band they are trying to connect to is unavailable. I have a 2-unit system, so pulling up a WiFi utility like WIFIMAN usually detects 6 available APs for my network, 1 x 2.4GHz and 2x 5GHz per node times 2 nodes. the 2.4GHz bands are stable, but I routinely find only 2-3 of the 5GHz bands are available and have to do a system reboot to get all of the connections back online. The dropouts seem to happen more often with my secondary node, but I have seen regular dropouts from both nodes.While none of these issues are big enough deal-breakers to make me return the system, since my wife might murder me if I do, I am more than a little disappointed in my experience so far and will likely be going back to TP-Link products again when it comes time to replace these units in a few years.

I needed to install a couple wireless access points in my retail storefront. The purpose was pretty simple… the AT&T combo router/WAP was sitting at front door, but it didn’t have the reach to get to the back stockroom. The plan was to move the router to the back, where it would be local to the fiber-to-copper media converter, and re-use the CAT5 drop to the front for one of the NETGEAR WAX214 Wireless Access Points. Then, I’d put another near the stockroom, and then disable the wifi capability on the router. Easy, right?Normally, I’d go with Ubiquiti WAPs, since that’s what I’ve used in my last couple homes, but I don’t have a PC that I’d install the management utility on at the shop. So between that, and saving a few bucks, I opted for two WAX214s. You get a basic box, containing the WAX214, a mounting plate, and a small bag of hardware. Unfortunately the mounting plate wasn’t suitable for drop ceiling tiles (another item in favor of Ubiquiti), so I put both of mine on the wall, just below the ceiling level. I used a couple keyhole slots (set in metal) in the back of the WAP for wall mounting. The unit is not bad looking.I used a cheap Cisco PoE switch, though you can pretty much use any active PoE switch or injector with these units. Initial negotiation takes about 3 or 4 seconds – full boot takes about 20 seconds. Throughput, connection stability, and device reliability seem ok, though it’s not like I ran Chariot tests on the devices. It should also be noted that my devices came with the 1.0.1.0 firmware. I hear that’s garbage, and upgraded mine to 2.0.1.3 (so that’s what my observations are based on).As you’d expect with devices that allow for non-centralized configuration, the WAX214 is pretty much like any consumer WAP. You can connect to a configuration SSID, or you can just put it on your network, see what DHCP lease it got, and then connect to that IP from any machine on the LAN. Either way, you’re prompted to set an admin password (there are strength rules you can’t disable) and a wifi passphrase. That’s all the configuration it MAKES you do. I updated the firmware. That process is terrible, as the device can’t interrogate if newer firmware is available – and it certainly doesn’t download it and apply it. Instead, you download it to your phone/computer/whatever, and then upload it to the WAP. I expected that with my old WRT54G… I don’t understand why the process isn’t better over a decade later. After that, I edited my WLANs, creating one for business use, and one for customer use. I marked the customer WLAN as a “Guest Network”, with enables a DHCP server, NAT, and keeps the routes out of your “regular” LAN. Nothing real special here, but it IS easy to set up. The other thing I did was to set the customer WLAN to have a schedule of availability. That’s a good feature that not all vendors have.Oh, and any time you change virtually ANY setting? Reboot. Ugh. At least it reboots pretty quickly.As for the rest of the capabilities, the device is pretty basic. It’s mostly just a plug-and-play affair, without the detailed settings and flexibility of more serious solutions. And that’s really what the Netgear WAX214 is… a cheap business WAP. If you need to set up more than a couple WAPs, I’d definitely suggest Ubiquiti instead, if even just for the ease of management. However, if you just need one or two access points, the WAX214 is not bad, and the price seems fair for what you get – just make sure you update the firmware. Conditionally Recommended

Not quite sure what the issue is but I have to unplug this device and replug it to reconnect it every couple of days. If it’s a short power failure in the middle of the night or something then I would expect the system to reconnect automatically. I could be wrong though, not really that tech savvy.

Good: Using Google’s speed test, the home office signal at my parents doubled to about 35 mbps down after installing this device (TP-Link AC1900 WiFi Extender) in the next room. The baseline was 17 mbps down direct from the router located about 30 feet away two rooms over.Note that this is far better than an earlier tp-link extender that looks like a tiny air freshener but barely boosted the signal from the exact same outlet. The new one (TP-Link AC1900 WiFi Extender) looks beefier and has three antennae.Bad: Setup for the TP-Link AC1900 WiFi Extender is terrible. My parents watched me do it and said there is now way they could have managed this on their own. You have to download yet another app you’ll never use again or use a web browser and an arcane process to connect and verify.

We use one to extend 5G Wi-Fi in the house including to a Panasonic 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Player in the bedroom which had difficulty staying on the 5G Wi-Fi in the entertainment area. It also allows us to update our Garmin car GPS and dashcams that could not reliably connect to the router. Of course it is not quite as fast as 5G off our internet router, but it is fine. We have been very happy with it. We bought the other in church buildings and hotels to extend Wi-Fi for others in our group who have difficulty connecting to the original Wi-Fi in their hotel rooms. It also allows us to provide internet access through ethernet cable to our travel PC.

Overall great product, works perfectly as intended. Easy enough for a second time extender with no problems. Just a learning curve and I have 27 credits towards my associates degree in computer science

Due to the larger size of the TP-Link Extender, it takes up all the space at the AC wall power outlet. If something that is this big, I would preferred the standing alone style with plug-in power supplier for cleaner look. You have to follow the instructions carefully to make it works. Once connected, it stays on and didn’t drop the connection. It is reliable, steady, and do what it is supposed to do. There are some other 5G wifi extender out there which I bought based on the reviews were just garbage. I had been up and running for 2 weeks now. Thumbs up.

I am happy with this product. My Router sits on the top level and signal was not that great in the basement. Once I have this, streaming is very fast.

I’m still learning how to use this WIFI Extender. It’s easy enough to setup, but the App that’s available for controlling the Extender is HORRIBLE! As of yet, I haven’t been able to find another App on Google Play or Amazon App Stores that are compatible with this device. Also, the actual Range you get is not great. But that could be an issue totally unique to my situation. I have a 132 year old house that has a 4ft crawl space between each floor. The dead-space really eats up the distance margins when placing the Extender where I need it. I’m sure it would work much better for other situations different than mine, though I can’t be 100% on that.

I use a mobile hotspot at home, but I have trouble with wifi coverage. My hotspot is like a cell phone that is just for internet access. I connect my ipad to it via wifi, and then the hotspot uses a cellphone type connection to the nearest cell tower. The hotspot runs on a battery, and I need to be close to it in order for the wifi connection to work. That means when I use it at home, I have to remember to carry the hotspot with me as I move around the house. This extender device provides a much stronger wifi connection for me.The hotspot does not have an ethernet port, so I used the instructions to connect via Web Browser. To do this, first plug the extender into electricity. I put it at the center of my house, and right next to my hotspot. The instructions talk about putting halfway from your router, but because the hotspot is very short range, it’s best to put them together. Once the extender is plugged into the wall, you go into settings and change from your current wifi to the extender, and then you open your browser. You aren’t hitting the internet this way. You’re just using your browser to talk to the extender. Type in the address shown in the instructions, and create the password you will use just for the extender, not your hotspot. It will walk you through the steps. There’s only 2 things that were a little bit confusing for me. At the end, it has you leave your browser (you don’t close the page, you just switch apps for a minute), and you connect to the new network you just created with your extender. You will be prompted for a password. Use your hotspot password, NOT the new password you just created for the extender. The other thing that confused me a little was after I clicked “Finish” it brought up a login screen again in the browser. At first I thought it wanted me to log into wifi again, but I think it had just cycled back to the beginning of the setup sequence. I didn’t log in. I just closed the tab, and the wifi worked fine.Please note that this device will not give you a better connection to cell phone towers. I still have the same 1 or 2 bars of coverage, and the slowness at peak hours that I had before. But it allows me to use my hotspot at home without carrying the hotspot everywhere with me, which makes things so much easier for me.

This range extender was very easy to set up on my WiFi system. It did extend my range slightly, but not significantly.