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i’m not a real fan Wi-Fi Extender, they are a bit outdated and don’t give the best performance.I have always been Mesh Wi-Fi System This has been my normal advice for the past few years.
However, you must evaluate the cost versus return. If you only have a small portion of your home with poor Wi-Fi, getting a full mesh system might be overkill. Also, with the current cost of living incredibly high, spending hundreds of Wi-Fi devices may not be a priority for many.
Why Buy a Wi-Fi Extender – The Benefits of Extenders
The main advantages of Wi-Fi extenders are:
- They are more affordable than mesh systems
- Use an existing router
- Effectively extend the range of your home Wi-Fi—albeit not the best
Mesh Vs Wi-Fi Extender
To reiterate, mesh Wi-Fi systems offer better performance, and if you can justify the cost, I think they’re well worth the investment. Many things in our lives depend on the internet, and good Wi-Fi coverage is an essential service in my home.
Wi-Fi extenders connect to your existing wireless network, usually broadcasting a new network name, blindly relaying traffic back to your wireless router. You can keep the same network name, but your device will struggle to intelligently switch between routers and extenders. Also, with a different SSID, you’re relying on the device to intelligently decide when the signal is too weak to connect to the router, but instead to the extender (you can get an app to improve this).
Wi-Fi extenders are half-duplex, which means they cannot send and receive data at the same time, which is very inefficient. So that means a huge drop in Wi-Fi speed, which will most likely drop below your internet speed.
A mesh system usually replaces the ISP router (you may still need to use it in modem mode), and then you have satellites. Mesh systems are paired together, and they use a set of protocols that allow them to talk to each other and understand their relationship to each other and the position of the client device (you) relative to each satellite. They will then intelligently switch you to the nearest satellite to ensure you can roam seamlessly around your home.
Dual-frequency mesh systems suffer from signal loss between satellites and typically drop in speed by about 50%, but A good Wi-Fi 6 dual-band The system still hits 400Mbps via satellite (in my large brick house), which is much faster than most internet connections.
Powerline Alternatives
I started this guide because Wi-Fi extenders are more affordable than mesh systems. However, there is another option. Equipped with WiFi power cord plug. There are some options priced similarly to WiFi extenders that may offer better performance if you have good quality wiring in your home.
- TP-Link TL-WPA7517 kit. This has a good powerline spec with average Wi-fi at 433Mbps on 5GHz and 300Mbps on 2.4GHz
- TP-Link AV1300 £90. It’s more expensive than most/all extenders, so it might defeat the point of my post, but it’s a well-configured power cord plug with WiFi.
The best Wi-Fi extenders
Finally, into the actual Wi-Fi extender. It’s a dying market and mesh has become so popular. More recently, companies like TP-Link and Netgear have introduced devices that can be used as extenders with third-party routers, or as mesh satellites with their own compatible routers.
TP-Link RE550 or TP-Link RE650
These two TP-Link extenders are just as good as the Wi-Fi extenders and cost £40 and £60 respectively.
The RE550 can reach 600Mbps on 2.4GHz + 1300Mbps on 5GHz. It has three external antennas for the best signal.
They work with any router, but they are also compatible TP-Link OneMesh. So if you later upgrade your router to something like the Archer A9, the extender can work seamlessly as a proper mesh system.
TP-Link RE300 or TP-Link RE330
I’d say these two are the most affordable options, it’s basically the same as the two above, just slower. It can also be used as a mesh device for OneMesh compatible TP-Link routers.
The difference between the RE300 and the RE330 is that the RE330 has an Ethernet port to which you can connect devices.
Netgear EX7700
The Netgear EX7700 should be the best performer of all of them. I’ll list it first, but at nearly £80 it’s close to the price of a cheap mesh system.
This is unique compared to the TP-Link option, which claims to have a smart roaming feature that keeps the same Wi-Fi name in your home. Then it has a tri-band radio, with a third band dedicated to wireless communication back to the router.
In theory, this should give you a similar experience to the grid system.
Inexpensive Wi-Fi Extenders
Generally, you can pick a random Chinese brand on Amazon for great value compared to the big brands. In this case, I’d be hard-pressed to find anything more recommended than the TP-Link RE300, which costs just over £20.
There are some cheaper options, and I’ve even seen the Mercusys MW300RE for under $10, but all of these cheaper options are limited to 2.4Ghz 300Mbps Wi-Fi, and the performance can be terrible. I’d say these are only worth it if you have smart home devices (like the Echo Dot) in areas without Wi-Fi.
Last updated on 2022-05-09 / Affiliate Links / Image from Amazon Product Advertising API
