Efficient way to BOOST wifi, not strictly an extender though!
Positioning of this is critical, it does pump out both 2.4GHz and 5GHz, but take my advice, and put some doubled-up tin foil about baking-tray sized, behind your wifi hub first. This, may be the biggest boost you will ever get for nothing - think of the microwaves in wifi as light - reflect more from the back, where it probably is ‘wasted’ and it gets focused to the front. About 40% boost in power just from tin foil - no it’s not a joke, I worked in IT in an emergency service, not kidding this really works. Same as if you put foil at the back of a lamp.
This unit, you plug it in, you will want to download the TP-Link ‘tether’ app now. Don’t connect to the little network the ‘extender’ - really a booster or repeater in truth - until you get the app downloaded.
Once you have the app, you have to have an ID on the TP-Link system! That’s the paperwork over, NOW you can log onto the non-connected world of the ‘extender’ wireless network, it will be called something _EXT if it’s new. NOW, setup the unit to be able to log into your existing wifi.
NOW, you may set the unit following the option of ‘extender’ to have the wifi network name the same as your little extender/booster unit. This makes the transition seamless as you move through your home, because you set the password to be the same, and the wifi network name to be the same as your main wifi hub. It’s called ‘cloning’.
OR of course, you can mess with the pressing of the WPS or quick-setup button. I didn’t because I have no idea where this button is on my wifi hub, and it’s buried behind the TV.
POSITIONING - essentially, you want to make this unit plug in to where SOLID wiring is in the wall. I say this, staring at my own device, slapped onto a dangling 4-gang, but don’t do as I do, do as I say...!
The location, is to be BEFORE your wifi ‘runs out’ properly. If two rooms down, the wifi has gone, do NOT plug this unit there. Move one room nearer or the hallway or something.
To be brutally honest, if I had my money back after the umpteen extender/booster boxes and broken obsolete wifi hubs stacked in the loft, I’d just get a mesh system - but in effect, I am going to end up with that, once the other extenders arrive (really extenders this time, it goes through the mains then emitted as wifi after that).
This unit is technically a booster, or repeater, because it takes the existing wifi signal and reinforces it or repeats it, amped back up to full power.
At the extremities of our property - the summerhouse - I utilise the fact a mainscable runs to the shed opposite, and there is a socket in there, from which a ‘proper’ extender emits wifi, having received the data via the mains cable instead of wifi, which was non-existent in the garden. It sprays the wifi willy-nilly, so again I got sticky-back copper foil this time and CAREFULLY stuck it to the ‘backside’ of the wifi powerline unit, the side furthest from the garden, so it too, gets boosted for free, focused in the direction of the summerhouse/garden.
As a result, these boosters/repeaters work to give us 50Mbps in the front lobby, then the next room the kitchen, so they daisy-chain in effect, from where the hub is in the front room in that manner, their ‘zones’ of wifi overlap, this is what you must do. Unless all the front lights are green, it ain’t working properly.
With wifi, the POWER emitted, is exactly proportional in reality, to the SPEED you benefit from. These boosters/repeaters, can only give what they get - if your hub has no foil sheet reflector behind it, is at the far end of an obstacle course in your front room, and has a wall or two, dropping to ten MBps, don’t expect much. Slot this in where ‘ookla’ speed meter app, tells you you have maybe 15mbps let’s say, or more.
And at the extremity of your domain, you may well need ‘proper’ extender units, with a ‘base unit’ that plugs in near your wifi hub, uses a LAN/ethernet cable - looks like a phone cable end but is not - and that cable, plugs the other end into your hub. This gets a wired (as opposed to wireLESS) signal nice and clean and not corrupted or degraded, into the base unit.
That base unit then fires it along the mains cable (it is called carrier wave method, because the light network signal piggy-backs onto the mains sine wave electricity), and when received by the other paired wifi-emitting unit out in our case, in the shed, wifi appears nice and cleanly, as if the hub almost, were in our garden.
So, booster/repeater vs extender, don’t get confused. Good luck, if in doubt, search for the instructions online, TP-Link’s website will let you grab them.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
