Wifi wired extender: The 2 Best Wi-Fi Extenders and Signal Boosters of 2023

The 2 Best Wi-Fi Extenders and Signal Boosters of 2023

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Photo: Michael Murtaugh

FYI

After a new round of testing, we’ve named the Asus RP-AX56 as our new upgrade pick, replacing the TP-Link RE605X. We remain confident in our top pick, the TP-Link RE315.

August 2022

Sometimes, there’s one spot in your home where Wi-Fi just doesn’t quite work right. If your standalone Wi-Fi router isn’t keeping your laptop or phone reliably connected everywhere in your house, a good Wi-Fi extender is the quickest, cheapest fix, though it’s most effective in an environment with just a single dead zone. After putting in more than 20 additional hours on a new round of research and testing, we’ve found that the moderately priced TP-Link RE315 can make a network noticeably more reliable in a small area.

• Moving your router

  Make sure your router is centrally located before trying an extender or booster.

• Replacing your router

  If your router is more than a few years old, replacing it may be a more reliable and effective option than getting an extender.

• Installing mesh Wi-Fi instead

  Mesh-networking kits take the weight off a single router, spreading multiple access points around your house to improve Wi-Fi range and performance.

• Using wired Ethernet

  The fastest internet always comes from a hard line into your devices. Connect directly and avoid Wi-Fi if you can.

Read more

No Wi-Fi extender can improve the speeds of an outdated or failing router or cover multiple dead spots in your home. If your router is more than a few years old, you may be better off replacing it with a mesh Wi-Fi kit instead.

Our pick

TP-Link RE315

TP-Link’s RE315 is a good extender for anyone who wants to boost a network, add an Ethernet jack to another room wirelessly, or install an access point in a prewired home.

The TP-Link RE315 reliably improved Wi-Fi connections and speed in our testing. It’s compact and easy to plug in and set up, and it has an Ethernet port for connecting wired devices. Typically priced under $40, it’s a good, relatively inexpensive fix for spotty Wi-Fi in a particular room of your home. If you have a compatible TP-Link router such as the Archer A7 or Archer A8, you can use the RE315’s OneMesh feature, which hands off the connection between the extender and the router. Otherwise, extenders create a second network name that you connect to when necessary.

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Upgrade pick

Asus RP-AX56

The Asus RP-AX56 provides a stable and speedy connection to trouble-prone areas of a home. It works with any router but is also a mesh-compatible extender for homes with Asus AiMesh routers.

The Asus RP-AX56 topped our performance tests while serving a reliable network signal to a troublesome corner of our test home. It was almost as good as the dedicated mesh network we tested in the same location. This is the model we recommend to extend a Wi-Fi 6 network, especially if you installed your router in the past year or two.

Another way to bring Wi-Fi to harder-to-reach parts of your home is to use a powerline or MoCA (which uses the cable TV wiring in your home) networking kit. These kits use your home’s existing wiring to transmit data from one extender to the other. Such kits can be more reliable than Wi-Fi–only extenders, but they’re also heavily dependent on the age, quality, and complexity of your home’s electrical wires or coaxial (TV) cables. You can read more in our full guide to powerline networking kits.

Expand your Wi-Fi using wires already in your home

Everything we recommend

Our pick

TP-Link RE315

TP-Link’s RE315 is a good extender for anyone who wants to boost a network, add an Ethernet jack to another room wirelessly, or install an access point in a prewired home.

Upgrade pick

Asus RP-AX56

The Asus RP-AX56 provides a stable and speedy connection to trouble-prone areas of a home. It works with any router but is also a mesh-compatible extender for homes with Asus AiMesh routers.

The research

• How do Wi-Fi extenders work?
• When to consider something other than an extender
• How we picked the best Wi-Fi booster
• How we tested Wi-Fi signal extenders
• Our Wi-Fi range extender pick: TP-Link RE315
• Upgrade pick: Asus RP-AX56
• An overview of the test results
• What to look forward to
• The competition

How do Wi-Fi extenders work?

If parts of your home or apartment don’t get a good Wi-Fi signal, a wireless extender connects to your existing Wi-Fi at a location with a strong connection and then rebroadcasts its own signals, improving the quality of Wi-Fi connections within its range. If you already own a decent router and simply want to improve your Wi-Fi and boost its signal in one or two extra rooms, an extender might be just the fix you’re looking for.

The catch with Wi-Fi extenders is the placement. The quality of the extender’s network can’t be any better than the quality of its backhaul connection to the router—which means you need to position the extender much closer to the router than you might think. Illustration: Wirecutter

Despite the name, a Wi-Fi extender can’t grow your network much farther than its current maximum range. A good extender improves the radio coverage of your network within its current boundaries, thus improving your web-browsing experience—and it’s great for bouncing the signal around obstructions like elevator shafts, reinforced walls, or foundations.

When to consider something other than an extender

Extenders are a cheap(ish), easy solution to a common problem, but they’re rarely the most optimal one. Before you buy a Wi-Fi extender, consider replacing a router more than a few years old with a newer, faster model—or going with mesh networking. If you already have a good Wi-Fi 5 or Wi-Fi 6 router, make sure you’ve positioned it as high up and as close to the center of your home as you can. Plug computers, streaming devices, game consoles, and anything else you can into the router—or a network switch, if you need more ports—via Ethernet to reduce the number of devices competing for a wireless connection.

If you’ve done all that and still have trouble spots, a wireless extender could help. Cost is key, though: Good mesh Wi-Fi networks start out just above $120 and offer more features, greater range, better roaming between access points, and generally higher performance. Replacing an older router while also adding a Wi-Fi extender costs enough that one of our mesh picks would be a much better choice at that point.

Recently, Wi-Fi manufacturers have been taking features from their mesh systems and applying them to Wi-Fi extenders. Usually, when you set up a Wi-Fi extender, it has to use a different network name, or SSID (like “routername_ext”), and you need to manually connect your devices to the extender instead of to the primary router. Typically, you also have to choose which of the two networks to connect to when you’re walking around in your home. A mesh-compatible extender, in contrast, uses the same name for your network, and as a result you can move around your home without manually disconnecting from one network and joining the next. Some mesh-compatible extenders work only with routers from the same manufacturer, while others work with any Wi-Fi router (even the one from your internet service provider).

One final warning: Avoid extenders that don’t use 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5) or 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 6E). Old, 802.11n (Wi-Fi 4) extenders are cheaper, but when such extenders are running, they significantly decrease the speed of all devices on your Wi-Fi; in addition, for devices connected by Wi-Fi to the extender, such models provide less than half of the base router’s speed. None of our picks are 802.11n extenders.

How we picked the best Wi-Fi booster

Photo: Michael Murtaugh

In considering models for this guide, we wanted each device to have the following:

• 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5) or 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6 or 6E) support: Older, slower 802.11n extenders won’t cut it, even if they’re dual-band.
• Good performance: The extender must improve coverage and connectivity compared with the router alone—otherwise you’re just adding another device that sits on your network (and you’re wasting money). Our testing takes into account the change in network performance when you’re adding an extender to a busy network, measuring both throughput (speed) and latency (the wait before a page loads).
• Ethernet ports: These ports are convenient for wired connections to entertainment devices. In the past, we’ve accepted extenders without Ethernet support, but this time we’ve made the feature mandatory. They’re just that handy.
• Mesh compatibility: Whether the mesh-networking features are compatible only with routers from the same manufacturer (TP-Link, Asus) or with all routers (Netgear), they can simplify setup and ensure that your devices are connected to the router or extender with the stronger signal, improving the stability of your network.
• Moderate price: We didn’t consider many options over $150, and we paid special attention to extenders that cost $50 or less. We didn’t test any of the more-expensive extenders (up to $300). The cost of an extender plus a good router should be less than that of a mesh system—otherwise, you should probably get a mesh system instead.

Once we produced a preliminary list of all the pure Wi-Fi and mesh-capable extenders from major vendors, we narrowed them down by looking at Amazon customer reviews and previous professional reviews from sites such as CNET and SmallNetBuilder. This process left us with a handful of devices from Asus, D-Link, Linksys, Netgear, and TP-Link.

How we tested Wi-Fi signal extenders

Our Wi-Fi range extender pick: TP-Link RE315

Upgrade pick: Asus RP-AX56

Photo: Michael Murtaugh

Upgrade pick

Asus RP-AX56

The Asus RP-AX56 provides a stable and speedy connection to trouble-prone areas of a home. It works with any router but is also a mesh-compatible extender for homes with Asus AiMesh routers.

The price of the Asus RP-AX56 is about double that of our top pick, the TP-Link RE315, but in our tests it was as quick as a dedicated budget mesh-networking system when paired with our top-pick standalone router, the TP-Link Archer AX50. The RP-AX56 also tops the RE315 with forward-looking technology, including Wi-Fi 6 support and a Gigabit Ethernet port. If you don’t have many recent or higher-end devices that take advantage of Wi-Fi 6, and if you don’t have a gigabit internet connection, this Asus extender is probably overkill—the RE315, with its Wi-Fi 5 support and 100-megabit Ethernet port, is likely to work just as well for you.

The RP-AX56 is visually less intrusive than the RE315, thanks to its internal antennas. Whereas the RE315 looks like a piece of radio equipment, the RP-AX56 looks like a modest, if large, AC adapter.

The RP-AX56 is mesh-compatible with AiMesh (Asus’s mesh-networking standard), so it could connect seamlessly with our Wi-Fi router and mesh-networking upgrade picks. We tested it with a TP-Link router, and we can verify that it also works well as a standard Wi-Fi extender. As shown in our test results chart below, the RP-AX56 allowed our laptops to respond more quickly than when they were connected to a router alone, a result indicating that the extender helped overall network responsiveness and speed on a busy network in our test home.

The RP-AX56 has a Gigabit Ethernet port, offering a faster wired connection than the TP-Link RE315’s 100-megabit port. Photo: Michael Hession

The Asus RP-AX56 (left) is a little smaller—and easier to hide—than the TP-Link RE315 (right), thanks to its internal antennas. Photo: Michael Murtaugh

The RP-AX56 has a Gigabit Ethernet port, offering a faster wired connection than the TP-Link RE315’s 100-megabit port. Photo: Michael Hession

If your internet service plan is under 100 Mbps or if your base router uses Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), we recommend the cheaper TP-Link RE315. However, if you’re already using a Wi-Fi 6 router such as the Asus RT-AX88U, the TP-Link AX50, or the TP-Link AX20, adding a Wi-Fi 6 extender like the RP-AX56 makes sense: In doing so, you extend Wi-Fi 6 signals to your troublesome room, with faster potential throughput on the built-in Ethernet port.

The RP-AX56 can also act like a Wi-Fi 6 access point once you connect it to your router with a long Ethernet cable (or an Ethernet cable bridged with a pair of powerline or MoCA adapters). The cable takes care of the connection between the router and the extender, and once you’ve configured it, you can connect to your Wi-Fi network locally, even if you can’t get a signal to the router from that room at all.

The extender’s LED lights let you know when the Wi-Fi is ready for use. Photo: Michael Hession

An overview of the test results

In addition to evaluating the extenders’ ability to tame drop-offs, we tested to see how they improved the browsing experience, measured in latency. As mentioned above, latency refers to the time you spend between clicking a link and waiting for the next web page, streaming video, or file download to come through.

During our multi-client testing, we measured the typical amount of latency present when connecting in a web browser through each extender, highlighting how poorly each model did in its worst moments (the 75th-, 90th-, 95th-, and 99th-percentile results). This procedure allowed us to determine how frequently and how much the experience may frustrate you.

Charts: Wirecutter

We manually connected three of the six laptops to each extender using a separate network name (SSID), which ensured that the laptops would get their wireless signals from the extender rather than directly from the router. As a result the Wi-Fi signal would be routed around obstructions like multiple walls or appliances.

The top performers, including the TP-Link RE315, the Asus RP-AX56, and the Linksys RE7350, acted very much like the TP-Link Deco S4, our current budget mesh-networking pick. Though these three extenders were almost as good as a mesh network in our test home, we must point out that the mesh network automatically achieved the optimal results, whereas we had to configure the extenders manually.

The Netgear EAX15 performed passably when the network was active; in contrast, the D-Link mesh network we made from the company’s E15 extender and R15 router was just a touch worse than the TP-Link Archer A7 router alone. The TP-Link RE605X performed worst in this test group: Although the RE605X was able to complete the tests, our former upgrade pick was much slower than the competition when the network got busy.

This stacked median latency chart shows how we would expect each extender to perform most of the time. Longer browsing bars mean more time waiting for pages to load. Chart: Wirecutter

Our stacked median latency chart above shows the typical latency for every computer on our test network at once, giving some idea of the whole network’s general performance when multiple devices are making requests at the same time. Each color bar represents someone waiting for something to happen after clicking a link, and longer bars mean more time staring at a spinning circle or pinwheel. The Asus RP-AX56 was almost as quick to respond as our budget mesh system on these tests, prompting us to name it our upgrade pick. The TP-Link Deco S4 mesh network improved latency across the board and performed a bit better than the RP-AX56. The Deco S4 takes fewer steps to set up than the RP-AX56 and is more expandable, so replacing your router with a mesh setup is an easier option if you need improvement everywhere. Our top pick, the TP-Link RE315, finished in the middle of the pack this time around but surpassed similarly priced extenders in our tests for a previous iteration of this guide. The RE315 also handily beat the RE605X, our former upgrade pick, in this round of testing.

Placing the extender in between the router and the laptop in the attic improved the connection, for the most part. Chart: Wirecutter

We wanted to see how the extenders could improve speed to a single room, as you would hope if a laptop in the attic of your home, for example, had trouble keeping a connection to the router. We conducted this single-throughput test without the other clients active to make sure we were testing only for the best speed. Again, the mesh network provided the most improvement, but many of the tested extenders helped speed up downloads to the test PC. As you move away from a router, the radio signals degrade and can result in lower speed or throughput. A simple “bounce” through the extender helped our laptop maintain a better signal than in the initial situation, and the stronger signal from three of the four extenders (and the mesh network) boosted the throughput to the client laptop.

What to look forward to

Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E, also known as the 802.11ax protocol, are available in higher-end computers, networking devices, and phones and tablets. They will eventually supersede Wi-Fi 5 (also known as 802.11ac) across the board, just as Wi-Fi 5 superseded Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n). Wi-Fi 6 and 6E bundle in new features that should greatly improve networks with lots of active devices. However, just like the different standards within Wi-Fi 5, such as Wave 1 and Wave 2 MU-MIMO or WPA2 versus WPA3 encryption, most of these technologies will work only when all or most of the clients on the network (as well as the router) support them.

In practical terms, this means you would need both a new router and new extenders to take advantage of those technologies once they become available, and that’s rarely cost-effective. It’s already difficult to recommend investing in an extender when purpose-built mesh kits typically give you faster, farther-ranging connections and easier setup. We expect that this trend will continue as mesh becomes more mainstream and less expensive.

We concentrated on plug-in extenders for this update. For our next testing session, we will be looking at router-sized extenders such as the Asus RP-AC1900 with Wi-Fi 5 support and the Netgear EAX80 with Wi-Fi 6 support.

The competition

The TP-Link RE220 was our top pick in a previous version of this guide. Although it is still available, in testing for this update we found that the RE315 was more efficient at grabbing a signal from client devices and holding them steady. Our move to a larger home for testing in 2021 may have been too much for the RE220: It failed to connect to our test laptops as we expected and as it had in the past.

Although the TP-Link RE300 was a runner-up in the last iteration of this guide, since then we’ve made an Ethernet port a necessity (see How we picked above). Some folks might still find the RE300 useful, but we prefer the flexibility of an extender that also includes an Ethernet connection.

The Netgear EX7700 was an upgrade pick in a previous version of this guide, but its usual price is significantly higher than the $100 ceiling we’ve placed on our current roundup. At this level, it’s more prudent to replace your router with a budget mesh kit like the TP-Link Deco S4 for about $130.

The TP-Link RE605X, another upgrade pick in 2021, didn’t perform quite as well in a new round of testing, especially when compared with our new upgrade pick, the Asus RP-AX56. The RE605X could still be a valid purchase if you’re interested in extending a TP-Link network with OneMesh, but it’s no longer our first choice for Wi-Fi 6 networking.

While the Netgear EAX15 tested just behind the Asus RP-AX56, that Asus model bested it on all counts: latency, throughput, simultaneous streaming, and warranty. Like the other Netgear extenders listed below, the EAX15 can function in a mesh network with any router.

The Linksys RE7350 is another model that proved to be competitive with the RP-AX56 but ultimately finished a little behind our upgrade pick. The RE7350 is compatible with Linksys Mesh routers and Velop systems, but if you already have a compatible Linksys router, we’d recommend adding a Velop node to extend that Linksys network instead.

The D-Link E15 extender works with the D-Link R15 router as a D-Link Eagle Pro AI mesh network, so that’s how we tested it. Although this pairing offers a quick and somewhat inexpensive way to build a mesh network, it finished last in most of our tests, far behind the TP-Link Deco S4, a three-piece mesh-networking system that at the time of our testing cost only about $15 more than purchasing one E15 extender and one R15 router.

The TP-Link RE230 is a follow-up to the RE220 and RE300—it resembles an RE300 with the addition of an Ethernet port. The RE230 posted average results in our tests, with some highs and some lows. It also had trouble delivering a reliable connection to our second 4K streaming device with OneMesh networking on and off. We recommend spending the extra $15 or so for the RE315, our current top pick, as that model consistently performed better in our tests.

The Netgear EAX20, a router-shaped extender with three Gigabit Ethernet ports, just makes it under our current $100 price requirement. Although it includes Wi-Fi 6 support, it placed lower in our performance tests than extenders that were half as expensive. If you’re prepared to spend this amount of money, we’d recommend swapping your existing router out for a full-fledged mesh-networking kit instead.

The TP-Link RE200 was a pick in a previous version of this guide. Version 3 of the RE200 can accept updates (via firmware) to work with OneMesh; check the label on the back of the extender to verify which version of the hardware you have.

The Asus RP-AC55, which supports Asus’s AiMesh, lagged in testing for the previous version of this guide and was priced above our picks at the time. We briefly looked at the entry-level Asus RP-AC51, too, but we tested the AC55 because that model was only $10 more expensive.

As one of the least expensive (about $90 at the time of our research) mesh extenders capable of working with all routers, the Netgear EX6250 showed promise. In our performance testing, however, it landed in the middle of the pack—and because it’s pricey in comparison with our pick, we dismissed it.

Priced around $120 at the time of our tests, the Netgear Nighthawk X4 EX7300 is a mesh extender positioned between the EX6250 and the router-like EX7700. It did poorly on our performance tests.

We’ve also researched and considered more than two dozen extenders from Amped Wireless, AmpliFi, Asus, D-Link, Edimax, Linksys, Netgear, Tenda, and Zyxel. These models either failed to meet our requirements, were discontinued by the manufacturer, or dropped out of contention in a previous version of this guide.

This article was edited by Signe Brewster and Jason Chen.

Meet your guide

Joel Santo Domingo

Joel Santo Domingo is a senior staff writer covering networking and storage at Wirecutter. Previously he tested and reviewed more than a thousand PCs and tech devices for PCMag and other sites over 17 years. Joel became attracted to service journalism after answering many “What’s good?” questions while working as an IT manager and technician.

Further reading

• The Best Wi-Fi Mesh-Networking Kits

  by Joel Santo Domingo

  If a normal router can’t provide reliable wireless access to every corner of your home, mesh systems should help you stream and watch TikTok without a hitch.

• The Gear to Get Reliable Wi-Fi in Any Home

  by Haley Perry

  We’ve spent hundreds of hours testing dozens of routers, mesh kits, and extenders to find the best gear to get strong Wi-Fi throughout your home.

• The Best Powerline Networking Adapter

  by Joel Santo Domingo

  When Wi-Fi just isn’t practical for your midsize home, powerline networking may be your best solution. These are the options we recommend.

Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times. Our journalists combine independent research with (occasionally) over-the-top testing so you can make quick and confident buying decisions. Whether it’s finding great products or discovering helpful advice, we’ll help you get it right (the first time).

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Does an Ethernet port on the WiFi Extender actually matter? – MBReviews

I have had the chance to test several dedicated WiFi extenders and have configured a few access points to work as WiFi extenders as well and yes, all had at least one Ethernet port. But why do you actually need it? Let me give you an example about a networking device that has gradually removed its Ethernet ports, leaving a single one for PoE purposes and I am talking about the ceiling-mountable wireless access point.

And I guess it’s a sensible decision considering that the users won’t like having cables hanging down from the ceiling towards a client device. But can this logic be applied to the WiFi extenders as well? From an aesthetic point of view, I guess so. But, when you use a WiFi extender, it is because you either hate to have Ethernet cables in your house or it’s just too costly to install new ones (retrofitting an old house). For this reason, a lot of us need to rely on WiFi extenders to receive the signal from the router, which is then pushed forward towards the client devices that were either connected at a low data transfer rate or were so far off, that they had no signal whatsoever.

Rock Space AX1800 WiFi extender.

So, if you intend to use a cable, then having an Ethernet port to connect the WiFi extender to the router makes zero sense because at that point, it’s better to use a proper access point. But there are a few other applications where it does make sense, such as connecting a client device via cable or even an Ethernet switch for multiple client devices. That is, if the WiFi extenders can actually handle such a setup.

And most don’t due to overheating, not necessarily because its components are too under powered. There’s also another possibility that involves interlinking WiFi with (non-WiFi) powerline adapters. So, I think it would be interesting to explore some of these applications and if it actually make sense to add an Ethernet port to a WiFi Extender.

Table of Contents

Is the port Gigabit?

Before anything else, let’s talk about the Ethernet port on the WiFi Extender. Is it Gigabit? Of course it is, you may boldly affirm, but you’d be surprised by how many things the manufacturers skimp on when they build their WiFi extenders.

Rock Space AC1200 WiFi extender.

Let me give you an example, the Rock Space AC1200 that I personally tested about three years ago which is pretty much the same device as the Tenda A18 and it has a Fast Ethernet port (max 100Mbps). And this is weirdly common for the more budget-friendly WiFi extenders which covers a surprisingly large number of such devices from the market (WiFi 5 mostly). The good news is that the WiFi 6 extenders seem to be better equipped and the Rock Space AX1800 does indeed come equipped with a proper Gigabit port.

So, do be careful with WiFi 5 extenders and make sure that your thoroughly research the device, because it’s very common for these extenders to have Fast Ethernet ports only. The reason for that, I think, is because the manufacturer knew that a lot of WiFi extender barely manage to offer 100Mbps, so why bother adding a port that could support a higher throughput than that?

Use the Ethernet port on a WiFi Extender for non-demanding devices

This ties in with the previous section because the WiFi extender is usually very bad at providing reliable Internet access to devices that run demanding applications. To understand why, it’s important to know what the WiFi extenders actually do. To keep it short, they cut your bandwidth by at least a half because while extending a certain radio band, the communication needs to be made from the router to the extender and the other way around, as well as from the WiFi extender to the client devices and back.

Draytek Vigor 920RP rugged access point set as WiFi extender.

Which is why they’re actually annoyingly ineffective in a lot of cases, especially with online gaming (and pretty much anything related to streaming). So, when the manufacturers have added an Ethernet port from the goodness of their hearts to the WiFi extenders, they really hoped that you’ll not connect a gaming/streaming PC, expecting to see something close to full Gigabit. I mean, you’re only going to see such as performance (in a stable manner) with a cabled connection directly to the router, but I digress.

If you have an old printer that doesn’t have a WiFi adapter built-in or a PC that doesn’t require a lot of bandwidth, then this is what that Ethernet port is for. But even so, be careful about the heat management.

The dreaded heat management

If you decide to use a modern access point as a WiFi extender, you shouldn’t really worry about the heat management, because the APs are actually great at keeping the temperature in check (I should know since I tested a lot of them). But let’s be honest, you’re either going to transform an older router into a WiFi repeater or you’re going to get a dedicated device.

Rock Space AX1800 Teardown.

And both will struggle at keeping the temperature down, especially the latter. The dedicated WiFi extenders are relatively small and have the plug built into the case, so you connect the device directly to the wall socket. It’s a very convenient approach, but the internal PSU crammed next to the other components ensure that the device will run hot all the time. This also means that the device doesn’t last long and it can also spell doom for your WiFi performance.

That’s because these devices will have to throttle the performance, so the device doesn’t overheat or, in a worse case scenario, catch fire.
Which is why it’s wise to limit the number of wireless client devices that are connected to the WiFi adapter, while making sure that the demanding devices are connected via Ethernet cable.

Thermal management of a WiFi extender (with an Ethernet port).

But I want to connect demanding client devices!

I am not going to say that you can’t, but you do need to buy more expensive devices. That’s because that Fast Ethernet AC1200 WiFi extender is not going to cut it. Let’s say you do use a more powerful WiFi extender, such as the Rock Space AX1800 or a converted modern AP (or OpenWRT router), and you want to connect a gaming PC via Ethernet cable. Since I tested this WiFi extender, I know that it can reach the necessary speed without much trouble, but I would still be aware of other particularities that make a WiFi connection less viable (such as interference).

Source: Photo by cottonbro

The idea is that you can use a more demanding device with a powerful WiFi extender, but not so much with the older or cheaper ones. But what about an Ethernet switch for additional client devices? It can work, but again, be aware that the connection between the router and the WiFi extender is not as reliable as a cabled one. Also, more devices means more power from the chip and, when paired to the crammed components design, it could result in an unfortunate amount of throttling.

What about powerline adapters?

This is an interesting approach that I am sure a lot of people want to try for themselves. You connect a powerline adapter next to the router, another next to the WiFi adapter so, instead of relying on the WiFi connection, you use powerline to extend the coverage.

Powerline adapter system.

It’s actually pretty clever, but there are some drawbacks. First, it’s the very nature of the powerline technology because it relies on the existing circuits to move data and, if the house is old, the adapters will have to jump through multiple circuits, so you may get a very unstable speed performance. Also, be aware that a lot of powerline adapters have WiFi built into one of the units, so you don’t really need to rely on a separate device for that – some even have multiple Ethernet ports.

Connecting the WiFi extender to a router using an Ethernet cable

This is a very good approach since it removes all the disadvantages that you get when the connection is made via WiFi. No more interference and the bandwidth is no longer halved. Also, congratulations, you now have an access point. As a side note, make sure to check that the WiFi extender actually supports Ethernet backhaul because some do not.

Mark B

Mark is a graduate in Computer Science, having gathered valuable experience over the years working in IT as a programmer. Mark is also the main tech writer for MBReviews.com, covering not only his passion, the networking devices, but also other cool electronic gadgets that you may find useful for your every day life.

Wi-Fi Router Antenna Cable, coaxial, to socket

Wi-Fi Extender is a special device that works on the principle of a standard antenna, which helps to bypass signal obstacles. A Wi-Fi extender can be used to amplify the signal in combination with a laptop and a router. Such devices will allow you to well extend the distance of the Internet signal, increase speed and work anywhere in the room. An extension cable for a Wi-Fi router is inexpensive, you can simply plug it in and get high-quality amplification. In addition, if desired, they do it independently. The control of the equipment is quite simple, there should not be any problems with the work.

Contents

• Causes of poor signal
• Amplifiers
• Wi-Fi extender
• Choice for home
• Advantages and disadvantages

Causes of poor

Incorrect installation of the router at home or in the office greatly affects the quality of the signal, which accepts a laptop, smartphone or tablet. Regardless of the number of antennas and their power on the router, a large number of obstacles can greatly degrade the network connection speed with equipment.

The following factors affect the quality of wireless communication in the home network:

• Incorrect installation of the router in the room.
• The presence of household appliances with strong signals in different ranges. The location of the microwave oven, which gives maximum interference, has a very big influence.
• A large number of walls and partitions made of concrete or brick.

Please note! Doors, cabinets and other interior items have a small effect on signal quality.

As you can see and understand from the description of the influencing factors, interference in the room has the maximum effect on the signal. It is especially difficult for him to break through concrete blocks and walls. However, the cases presented are only for the home intranet.

There are a few subtleties in the case of public hotspots and networks. The main thing is the need to register the network legally. It is necessary to obtain a license to install equipment and constantly monitor the level of the electromagnetic field in structures.

Both at home and in public places, the best way to improve signal quality is to use antennas and amplifiers. For the best installation, it is recommended to use an extension cable for a Wi-Fi router.

Amplifiers

There are two ways to help amplify the Wi-Fi signal of a router or modem – software and hardware.

How to make a 4G signal amplifier for your smartphone with your own hands

You can start with hardware, since they are considered the most effective ways. These include the following equipment, which has the ability to extend and improve the signal with better capture without interfering with system and software settings:

• Repeaters;
• Antennas;
• Reflectors;
• Routers.

Important! The principle of operation of the listed equipment is to influence electromagnetic waves, which actually improves and amplifies the received signal.

There are special amplifiers that plug directly into a power outlet or via a USB cable to a router. Which one to choose is up to the user to decide.

The positive side of hardware equipment to improve the signal is the ability to increase the speed of the Internet for all devices that are connected to the home network.

As for the first method, software, today there is no program that could really improve the quality of the received signal on the phone. There are special applications that allow you to control the quality of communication, that is, they directly transmit data to the user about the level of the received signal. That is, with their help, you can choose a place with the best level of communication. Some programs may automatically switch to the station with the best information rate. On this, the possibilities of such software methods are exhausted.

To choose the best Internet signal booster for your phone, tablet or any other device at home, you need to know the main differences and types of equipment presented. Such devices can be external and internal, active and passive, have repeaters or just an antenna connected directly to the router.

All amplifiers are divided into the following two types according to their parameters and characteristics:

• Active. Such devices work using a signal amplification method that uses amplifying equipment (repeaters, amplifiers, repeaters, etc.).
• Passive. This type is a way to amplify the communication signal, in which there is no active amplifying device (based on the use of various types of antennas and a passive repeater).

Wi-Fi extender

Important! Wi-Fi cable can be damaged very easily. It is recommended to handle it carefully.

Varieties and specifications of 3G antennas

As for extension cords, unlike the above amplifiers, they work in a slightly different way. To make it easier to recognize and understand the nature of their operation, you should know that their operation does not require a special Wi-Fi cable as such. It is more often used in amplifiers.

The extension cable is able to function much more elegantly and simply. In a specific case, the device transmits a good signal from one part of the room to another, but it should not be located directly in the region of the maximum effective distance of the router. The principle is fundamentally different from the antenna method.

Extension cords only use electrical wiring that is used in a building or structure. These wires transmit a signal from the distributing Wi-Fi equipment. In this case, you need to manually connect one part of the extension cord to an electrical outlet near the router, and the other in the place where you want to improve the connection quality. That is, in a place where the user plans to do work or entertainment on the Internet. In addition, you can connect any device directly using the Ethernet port.

As can be seen from the diagram, one part of the extension cable needs to be connected in the children’s room near the router, and the second part – in the kitchen electrical outlet, where the user spends a lot of time on the global network.

Please note! However, like any other device, the extension cord has negative qualities. The most noticeable among them is the low level of signal reliability and stability.

You can have a video chat conversation at high speed, and after a few seconds, the connection may be disconnected, which is disappointing.

Choice for the home

Do-it-yourself 3G modem signal amplification – how to make an antenna

Any type of equipment that improves the signal quality is suitable for the home. The main thing is to build on ease of use. For example, all kinds of antennas and amplifiers need to be properly installed to work effectively. In addition, a lot of wires should go from them to the laptop for connection. This brings its own inconvenience and discomfort.

The use of extensions is quite another matter. They work on the principle of relaying a signal over an electrical network. That is, one part of the device is plugged into an outlet in one room, and the other in the second room. This is how the system works. This connection eliminates unnecessary cables around the house. However, you will have to sacrifice the stability of the connection, as the transfer fails quite badly.

The criteria for selecting devices can be distinguished as follows:

• The first and most basic in the selection is the price of the device. Both the first category for strengthening the connection and the second, working by the extension method, have approximately the same equipment cost. Good and high-quality models start at $30.
• In addition, you should consider all of the above factors and decide which equipment is most suitable for use in each specific case. For example, the amplifier category works by increasing the Wi-Fi transmission distance. The category of extension cords has a different method of operation, that is, they transfer the signal to a completely different part of the room or structure.

Advantages and disadvantages

Extenders have the following advantages:

• The ability to transfer the signal to another part of the building without the use of extra wires, antennas and directional devices.
• High connection speed, visually almost indistinguishable from a direct Wi-Fi connection.
• Relatively affordable kit price.
• There is no excessive clogging of the air and the room with unnecessary frequency bands.

Negative qualities are:

• Low connection stability.
• Large influence of various interferences on the connection. Even an ordinary microwave oven can have a high effect on the signal.

Please note! Wi-Fi connection extension cable is used for high-quality communication transfer from one point of the building to another. For functioning, only the presence of sockets near the router and a laptop that receives the Internet is necessary.

The device allows high-quality signal transmission over long distances with almost no loss in speed.

Podgornov Ilya Vladimirovich All articles of our site are audited by a technical consultant. If you have any questions, you can always ask them on his page.

what it is and how to install it

At home, most people use the Internet using a Wi-Fi network. The wireless connection method has a number of disadvantages. The main disadvantage is that it is far from always possible to achieve a stable signal. To fix this problem, you can use a special Wi-Fi antenna extension cable. This device will help to amplify the transmitted signal and thereby expand Wi-Fi coverage. Before using such a device, you need to familiarize yourself with its main features, the nuances of choosing and using it at home.

Wi-Fi extender – used to extend the coverage of a wireless network

Causes of poor signal quality

Every person who uses a Wi-Fi network on a daily basis should know the main reasons for poor signal reception. Therefore, before you buy yourself a Wi-Fi cable, you need to figure out why the Internet began to work poorly. There are several common reasons why reception may deteriorate significantly.

Incorrect router location

Routers from TP-Link, D-Link or Xiaomi must be installed in the most suitable places for this. This advice is especially relevant if budget models were purchased.

The wireless network is an almost perfect circle with the source of the transmitted signal in the center. To cover the maximum amount of space, you need to install a router in the central part of the apartment. In this way, it will be possible to ensure that the signal penetrates into each room.

Important! Most often, people install routers in the corridor. In such cases, you do not have to buy a cable for a Wi-Fi antenna and signal amplification.

Installed near a microwave oven

Microwave ovens – impair Wi-Fi signal transmission

There are times when people have to place the router literally a few meters from the microwave oven. Actually, you shouldn’t do that. Microwaves have a negative effect on the operation of routers. The signal quality will deteriorate several times immediately after turning on the oven.

The fact is that in the process of operation it emits waves that interrupt the signal of the router. Even a Wi-Fi extender will not help to solve such a problem. The only way to remedy the situation is to install the router in another place, at a distance of at least ten meters from the microwave.

Lots of concrete or brick walls

Many people have problems with Wi-Fi signal strength precisely because of the obstacles created by brick and concrete walls. They interfere with the signal and create resistance, which leads to deterioration of the wireless network. The more such obstacles in the path of the radio signal, the worse the quality of communication.

Additional information! To remedy the situation, you can install a router opposite the doorway.

Weak router power

Some people buy budget devices and are surprised that they cannot provide a quality wireless network with their help. In fact, this is not surprising, since cheap routers have rather weak power and cannot transmit a signal over long distances.

Only a Wi-Fi extension cable will help to correct the situation, which is able to amplify the transmitted signal several times.

Wi-Fi extender

Before buying an extender, you need to figure out what it is and what exactly it is used for.

Wi-Fi Router Extender is a wire with an additional antenna that connects to the router in order to increase its range and improve data transfer speed. There are several types of extension cords that are most often used at home.

Active

Repeaters – Wireless devices for extending the Wi-Fi zone

The extension cable does not have to be wired. The fact is that there are special wireless devices that allow you to expand the coverage area and provide access to Wi-Fi even in the back rooms of an apartment or a private house. We are talking about repeaters and repeaters.

Repeaters are separate electronic devices that are powered by a wall outlet. The principle of operation of these devices is quite simple. They receive a signal from the router and broadcast it further. Due to this, it is possible to significantly improve the performance of the wireless network.

The repeater creates a circular coverage area around itself. Its radius can reach 20-25 meters. If there are not a lot of obstacles around, it will be possible to extend Wi-Fi by 30 meters.

Power strips may differ from each other:

• power;
• complete set;
• dimensions.

Additional information! Owners of large private houses may need several repeaters at once.

Passive

Omni-directional antenna – will help you maximize network coverage

Passive include special Wi-Fi antennas connected by cable. Such devices are also considered very effective, as they will help expand the coverage area and make sure that the Internet is in all corners of the apartment.

These extensions are divided into two subcategories:

• Omnidirectional. They function according to the standard principle, when the signal propagates in space in the form of a circle. This is very convenient if you need to provide coverage in several rooms at once.
• Directed. They only work in one direction and are therefore not suitable for extending a wireless network over a large area.

Passive models may also differ in how they are installed. Some devices are installed on the router, others are placed outside it. Choosing the best way to install a Wi-Fi extender largely depends on the location of the router. If it stands in the center of the apartment, you can install the device directly on it.

Home Choice

It is recommended to purchase extension cords with an external power supply

Many people find it difficult to choose an extension cord to further improve wireless signal transmission. Before proceeding with the choice, you need to decide which type of device is better to buy.

Active models are especially popular. This is not surprising, since they take up little space and do not need to be connected to a cord. It is the absence of wires that attracts people the most. They are also easy to set up using a special mobile application.

Despite all the above features of adaptive extensions, some people still prefer to use passive models. When choosing them, special attention should be paid to the length of the cable. To determine the optimal cord length, you need to figure out in advance exactly where the extension cord will be installed. If it is near the router, you won’t need a very long cable. However, sometimes you have to place it at a distance of several meters. In this case, you will need a longer Wi-Fi antenna extension cable.

Important! When choosing a device, be sure to read the user comments. With their help, it will be possible to determine how well the extension cord works for people who have already purchased it.

Advantages and disadvantages

If there is no Wi-Fi reception at all, then the device is in the “dead zone”

Extenders, like most other electronic devices, have a number of advantages and disadvantages. Among the main advantages are the following:

• Wireless extension. The main advantage can be considered that with the help of extension cords it is possible to really improve the signal quality. By connecting such devices to the router, the Wi-Fi coverage area increases several times.
• Internet speed improvement. By improving the quality of signal reception, data transfer is accelerated on PCs, laptops and smartphones that are connected to Wi-Fi.
• Elimination of “dead zones”. Routers are not always able to provide coverage for the entire apartment, which is why so-called “dead zones” appear. They completely lack a signal and access to the Internet. Using Wi-Fi extenders for the router allows you to deal with this problem.

Among the shortcomings, only the high cost of such devices can be distinguished. Also, the disadvantages include the connection of additional wires. However, this only applies to passive models.

DIY

Copper wire – ideal for making homemade antennas

Some people don’t want to buy extension cords and want to make their own.