Wi Fi extenders anyone?

Dogfeathers

Dogfeathers

Well-known member
Now that I and many of you are trapped at home and cuddled up with either your motorcycle, honey or laptops, I am finding that what used to be pretty good wi fi in our home is gradually deteriorated to the point that I have to wander about the house to sometimes get a page to finish loading. Sometimes I have to find a spot next to the router to get things to load. This has been slowly happening for a few months not just since the virus pandemic.
It is so annoying that I am considering getting a wi fi extender, one of those plug in gizmos that boosts the signal a bit and give better coverage and ups download speed.
I look on the web and they seem to come in many flavors, prices and abilities. Was wondering if any of you have had experience with them. Snake oil, internet con job to BS you or do they actually work?
Any particular features to look for, any particular brands that have performed as expected or should I just invest in a comfy chair next to the router.....which only sorta works!
 
Climber

Climber

Well-known member
WiFi extender's work.

However, streaming is way up and I'm finding download speeds have degraded over the last couple weeks. Tons of people streaming movies during the day.
 
budgie45

budgie45

panty sniffer
Yeah my internet has been pretty slow since all this virus shit has happened,even streaming Netflix it’s lagging
 
HappyHighwayman

HappyHighwayman

Warning: Do Not Engage
Yeah I keep a router on the ground and second floor wired together. Second is just an access point. COvers all three floors well.
 
gnahc79

gnahc79

Fear me!
A mesh setup is usually better than adding an extender. However it can be more $$$. I've been eyeing the orbi mesh kit from netgear, but it's not a must have for my home.
 
M

mlm

Contrarian
Picked up the xfinity "pods" a few months ago and strongly recommend. They give you a mesh network and they've been seamless. Get perfect signal everywhere including the back yard studio shed. This is after trying a Netgear extender.
 
westie

westie

Its Dethklok!
My house has a bit of square footage so getting the wifi to the smart tv was a chore. I use a netgear extender. Works well.
 
Yakoo752

Yakoo752

USN
I picked up a Ubiquiti dream machine a few months back. Works great

Added a Ubiquiti Networks UniFi FlexHD Access Point today. Should arrive on Sunday.
 
solarae

solarae

old lady hah!
I have a Netgear extender. Works for my rental cabin over 100' away, lime of sight. Also have an ancient Pepwave that works over 100'. Just insecure at this point and I'm too dumb/lazy to reconfigure it.
 
SFSV650

SFSV650

The Slowest Sprotbike™
I picked up a trio of TP Link Deco mesh wifi stations for about $175 when we moved to a bigger house.

51U1dtbQAnL._AC_SL1000_.jpg


They look great.
We have great signal in every part of our 2,000 sq ft split level.
Setup was a breeze.
My devices only see one network, not 3. This is amazing when I walk from one room to another on a video call, for example.
These are capable of being hardwired together (they call it an ethernet backhaul) to speed up the connection. I haven't gotten around to that but I will when the weather is warmer and I feel ok getting in the crawlspace. Right now I only have the primary node hardwired to my ISPs modem.

5/7, perfect score, I'm very happy with them.

I believe you can add more nodes if you want.
 
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uclaktsai

uclaktsai

Well-known member
If you can run another access point, that'll get you the best performance. Mesh node second, and extender last.

I second Ubiquiti. Not the most user friendly interface, but great hardware and performance.
 
Abacinator

Abacinator

Unholy Blasphemies
TBF I don't have experience with the pod thinks you mention, but the arris/motorla modem units they lease out are terrible, and the "Xfinity WiFi" unit's I've used seem to need at least yearly replacement. We've been through 3 of the wifi units at my work in 3 years and my parents have had theirs replaced twice before my brother bought them a Netgear modem and separate wifi router. It's a small sample size, but it hasn't exactly inspired confidence.
 
rodr

rodr

Well-known member
Routers don't gradually degrade, but your provider's service can. It's also possible their DNS is overloaded. Diagnostics are in order.
 
MikeGyver

MikeGyver

:)
How old is your router? Mine was about 10 years old and I didn't realize how much better the tech got. When I replaced my old one I was also able to ditch the extender since the new one was so much better.
 
Yakoo752

Yakoo752

USN
uclaktsai said:
If you can run another access point, that'll get you the best performance. Mesh node second, and extender last.

I second Ubiquiti. Not the most user friendly interface, but great hardware and performance.
Click to expand...

their new interface is pretty simple. Lots of user resources available as well
 
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