Stretching your WiFi network to the limit
As somebody who has just moved into a house that doesn’t have Gigabit Ethernet conveniently piped through the wall cavities, I’ve had to endure the delights of trying to establish a Wi-Fi network over three floors. With my main router on the middle floor, I’ve been dealing with a signal strength of about 60% up on the top floor, where my HTPC and office PC are located, and frequent drop outs have become part of my daily routine. Enter this Wi-Fi repeater, which aims to boost the existing Wi-Fi signal, allowing the wireless network to reach further, faster.
Setting up this thing couldn’t be simpler. Just plug it into a power point in an area where you’re getting about 50% signal strength from your main router, then log in via a Web browser. It can be set up to work as an access point or a repeater. It supports 802.11ac, and I patched it into a network powered by a Linksys EA6500 802.11ac router.
When connecting directly to the 2nd floor router, I measured a download speed of 79.18Mbps and an upload speed of 36.92Mbps, with a ping of 10ms. That’s an excellent result considering I’m on just 60% signal strength. However, after connecting to the extender, my download speed dropped to just 40.29Mbps. Upload speed was similarly decreased, down to 19.4Mbps. This was at a range of about 3 metres from the device to my phone though. Moving my phone right next to the extender saw the speed jump through the roof, with a download speed of 86.5Mbps and an upload speed of 23.92Mbps.
So this thing does indeed work… provided your device doesn’t stray too far from the repeater. BENNETT RING
VERDICT
It might be easy to set up and affordable, but this extender’s short range could limit its practical applications.