Struggling with dead spots in your home network can be frustrating — especially when you’re trying to stream your favorite show or finish up some work in a quiet corner of the house. That’s where the best Wi-Fi extenders come in. These handy gadgets help boost your Wi-Fi signal by extending the coverage of your wireless network, so regardless of whether you have a new wireless router or not, you can get online in every corner of your home and maybe even the backyard.
Whether you’re dealing with thick walls or a modem that can’t cover a larger home, a Wi-Fi extender will help eliminate those annoying dead zones by capturing your existing signal and pushing it further. They’re great for keeping your home network strong in every room, and if you’ve ever considered upgrading your entire system to mesh Wi-Fi, these extenders offer a simpler, more budget-friendly option. So, if your wireless connection keeps dropping in those hard-to-reach spots, it might be time to look into the best Wi-Fi range extenders to keep your devices connected.
These handy wireless devices do exactly what their name suggests: extend your Wi-Fi network so it covers more areas of your home. Most Wi-Fi extenders plug into an AC outlet and connect to your existing network so they can then rebroadcast it to spots that your router alone may not cover well. As a rule of thumb, you’ll get the best results by placing the extender half way between your router and the dead zone you’re trying to fix.
One important thing to note about Wi-Fi range extenders (also sometimes called “repeaters”) is that most of them actually create a new Wi-Fi network when rebroadcasting your existing one. That network will have a new name (it’ll often be your default network’s name with an EXT appended at the end, unless you change it) and that means you’ll have to connect to different networks when in different parts of your home. While that’s a small tradeoff in return for improved coverage, some will be more inconvenienced than others.
If you’d rather have one, much larger network in your home, you’re better off upgrading to mesh Wi-Fi. Mesh systems come with a main router and access points that, by default, create one large Wi-Fi system that should be accessible throughout your whole home. They tend to be the best Wi-Fi routers you can get, but that also translates to more expensive, and possibly more complicated, devices. Mesh Wi-Fi systems are, by far, more costly than a simple extender, plus you may have to work with your ISP to get your home’s existing network working on your new router.
What to look for in a Wi-Fi extender
Extenders today can support single, dual or tri-band Wi-Fi, and they will tell you the maximum speeds they support on all of their available bands. For example, one dual-band device might support 600Mbps speeds over its 2.4GHz band and up to 1300Mbps over its 5GHz band, for a combined maximum speed of 1900Mbps. For the best performance, you’ll want to go with a Wi-Fi extender that has the highest speeds possible (and those, as you might expect, tend to cost more). Some extenders even support Wi-Fi 6e, giving you the latest in wireless technology for faster speeds and lower latency.
However, it’s important to remember that Wi-Fi extenders are not true “signal boosters” since they are not designed to increase speeds across your home. In fact, you may find that the extender’s network is slower than your router’s. Instead, extenders are designed to increase the Wi-Fi coverage throughout your home, making them ideal for filling in dead zones.
With the name of the gaming being coverage area, taking note of a device’s range is important. Depending on the size of your home and property, you may only need up to 1,200 square feet of coverage. But those with larger homes will want to spring for an extender that can support upwards of 2,000+ square feet of coverage.
Similarly, those with lots of gadgets will want an extender that can handle them all at once. If you spend most of your time on your phone or laptop and maybe have your smart TV online for a few hours of Netflix each day, you could get by with a more limited extender. Smart home aficionados and tech lovers should invest in one that won’t buckle under the pressure of a few dozen connected devices. This is especially important if you plan on linking all of the devices in a certain part of your home to your Wi-Fi range extender’s network, rather than directly to your Wi-Fi router.
There isn’t a ton of innovation when it comes to design in the Wi-Fi extender space. Most of the ones you’ll find today are rounded rectangles roughly the size of your hand that plug into a standard wall outlet. They usually have a few indicator lights that will show you when the extender is connected, how strong its signal strength is and when there’s a problem, and some will even have moveable antennas that companies claim provide even better Wi-Fi signal. Generally, they are pretty simple to install and get connected, but if you’re struggling with how to set up your Wi-Fi extender, there are plenty of YouTube videos you can check out.
Aside from that, there are the scant few standalone Wi-Fi extenders that sit on an end table or a desk, and those look pretty similar to regular ol’ routers. But make no mistake, anything labeled as an extender or a “repeater” will need an anchor router in order for it to work.
Another convenient feature you’ll find on most Wi-Fi extenders is an extra Ethernet port (or a few). This allows you to use the extender as a Wi-Fi access point if you connect it to your wireless router, or an adapter to provide devices like TVs, smart home hubs or game consoles a hardwired connection to the internet. Unsurprisingly, this wired connection usually provides you with the fastest speeds possible, so you may want to use it for your most crucial devices.
TP-Link has a bunch of Wi-Fi extenders under its umbrella, but the one that will likely serve most people the best is this AX3000 model, which comes in two variations: the RE700X and the RE705X. Both extenders have the same specs, including Wi-Fi 6 support, but the 705X has a slightly different design with pull-out antennas on either side. I tested the 705X, so I’m basing my recommendation off of my experience with that model, specifically. Setting up this extender was as easy as plugging it in and following instructions in TP-Link’s Tether mobile app. All of the devices I tried followed the same basic setup process: first, plug in the extender close to your wireless router, follow instructions in a mobile app or on a setup webpage, and once the connection is established, move the extender to your desired location. It took all of five minutes to pair the 705X with my Verizon FiOS router – probably the most time-consuming bit was deciding what I wanted to name the new 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz networks. I went with the same name for both because I didn’t want to manually choose from two different bands when connecting things like my phone or laptop. The device will automatically pair your device with the appropriate band — for example, connecting most smart home gadgets to the 2.4Ghz network, which often helps reduce latency. The permanent location where I moved all of the extenders I tested was in my basement, since that’s where we can get the spottiest Wi-Fi signal. I first ran speed tests on my iPhone and MacBook using Speedtest.net and Speedcheck.org so I could compare them with the standard speeds I got when connected to my router’s main network. Unsurprisingly, the speeds generated by TP-Link’s extender were much slower than those from my router’s network, but that was the case with all of the devices I tested. Only our top pick (see below) got close to my router’s standard speeds, but I expected this. Wi-Fi extenders aren’t going to make your connection better – they’re just going to give you a wider area of coverage. From a spec perspective, both the 705X and the 700X are rated for speeds up to 2402 Mbps on the 5GHz band and 574 Mbps on 2.4GHz band. Despite the results of my tests, I was happy to discover that I wasn’t held back by the 705X’s seemingly slower speeds. I worked as normal for hours with my phone and laptop connected to the extenders wireless network, answering emails, messaging in Slack, streaming YouTube videos and otherwise maintaining a few dozen tabs in Chrome, without any hiccups or noticeable slow-downs. I was not surprised to find TP-Link’s Tether companion app to be easy to use, if a little simple, because that was my experience with TP-Link’s smart home app. Tether is specifically used with the company’s networking devices, and you probably won’t spend a ton of time in it after initial setup. I especially like that you can name wireless devices that are connected to your extenders network like your phone and smart TV. That makes it much easier to know which things in your home are constantly paired with the extender rather than your router’s default network. One important thing to note with these TP-Link extenders is that they both support OneMesh, which is the company’s feature that allows you to create one seamless network if you have a compatible mesh router. Since I’m still using the router provided to me by my ISP, I wasn’t able to test out this feature, but it works like this: if you have a OneMesh router and OneMesh-compatible extenders, you can link them all together under the same network name. So rather than having a router network and an extender network under the same roof, everything would be linked and filed under your main network’s name. It’s a small perk that becomes not so small if you have a spotty extender, or even just an awkwardly laid-out home. In my testing, I found my phone disconnecting from some extenders’ networks when I went upstairs to the main floor of the house from my basement. It would then attempt to reconnect to the extender network, when really I would have preferred it to default back to my router’s network. That thankfully didn’t happen with TP-Link’s RE705X, but it’s something to keep in mind when considering buying a Wi-Fi extender at all. If you can get one that has a feature like OneMesh, it’ll make your life much easier. Coming in at $130 and $120, respectively, the RE705X and RE700X may not be the cheapest Wi-Fi extenders out there, but their coverage range, latest Wi-Fi support and max speeds make either of them a good pick. If you know exactly where you want to put an extender and it’s not in an awkward or hard-to-reach location, the slightly cheaper, antenna-free RE700X may work just fine for you. But if you want that extra ability to tweak antennas to suit your needs, the RE705X is the way to go.
Having more than one Wi-Fi network in your house is par for the course when it comes to adding an extender into the mix. But that’s not so with the Netgear EAX80 mesh network range extender – it has “seamless smart roaming,” which allows you to set it up under your existing SSID name. So instead of disconnecting from your main wireless network and reconnecting to the extender’s network when you move from your living room to your basement, all you have to do is… move from one room to another and let Netgear’s device do the heavy lifting. That’s one of the premium features included on the EAX80, but its $250 price tag can be attributed more so to some other perks. It’s a dual-band, Wi-Fi 6e mesh range extender that will work with pretty much any wireless router you may have. It supports speeds up to 6 Gbps and can have more than 30 devices connected to it at once. As far as square footage goes, it’ll widen your Wi-Fi’s coverage by up to 2,500 square feet, which should be plenty for small and medium-sized homes. It performed well in our speed tests, coming very close to the upload/download speeds I got when being connected to my main network before installing the extender. There’s nothing out of the ordinary about the Nighthawk mobile app, which is what you’ll use to initially set up the EAX80 extender. After that, you can use the app to troubleshoot, check Wi-Fi speeds and see which devices are on your network. It’ll likely be a big list since you’ll see everything that’s paired to your router’s network as well. My only gripe is that you can’t edit device names. For example, my den’s TV shows up as “LGwebOSTV” and our soundbar in our basement shows up as “sonyaudio” — but there are a number of connected devices with no name at all, and we’re just stuck with that. Aside from its fast speeds and reliable connection, two things set this Netgear extender apart from the other devices I tested. First is that seamless smart roaming feature – not having to switch between Wi-Fi networks when going around my home was super convenient. I never had to worry about my laptop losing connection to a dedicated extender network when I moved from my basement to my second floor, which is something I frequently had to deal with when testing other devices. The second differentiating factor is the EAX80’s design. Unlike other range extenders that are chunky blocks that plug directly into an AC outlet, Netgear’s model looks more like a standalone router. While that does mean it has a larger footprint than other devices I tested, it was actually easier to find good spots for it in my home because it didn’t have to be chained to the wall right above an outlet. Most people, especially those tight on space, will probably prefer the standard extender design, but the EAX80 gave me a bit more flexibility. I also appreciated that the EAX80 has four built-in ports for using an Ethernet cable to physically connect things like TVs, consoles and more, plus one USB-A port for hardwiring a printer. Netgear’s EAX80 range extender is a solid option if you don’t mind dropping a bit of money to get a bunch of convenient features on top of stellar speeds and Wi-Fi 6 support. But it’s worth noting that Netgear has a few options that are similar to the EAX80, but with various differences in speed, coverage and feature set. The most similar is the $130 EAX20 extender, which includes 1,500 square feet of coverage, support for Wi-Fi 6 and up to 1.8Gbps speeds, plus seamless smart roaming capabilities. The wall-plug version of that, the EAX15, is actually a tad more expensive at $140.
• “Seamless smart roaming” lets you use your existing SSID name
What’s the difference between a wifi booster and extender?
Nowadays, there’s really no difference between a Wi-Fi booster and Wi-Fi extender – they’re just different names for the same thing. Previously, however, Wi-Fi boosters were devices that received signals from wireless routers, broadcasting them to another network. This essentially extends the range of the signal. Wi-Fi extenders expand the coverage within your home’s Wi-Fi network, but often you will see extenders described as boosters.
Is a Wi-Fi extender better than a mesh router?
Mesh routers, or mesh Wi-Fi systems, use multiple devices (or nodes) across your home to create a larger home network. Essentially, you have multiple routers around your home with these systems, and that will hopefully provide the best coverage possible. Wi-Fi extenders, on the other hand, are usually just one device that extends your existing Wi-Fi signal, and they often require you to switch networks when connecting. Wi-Fi extenders are more affordable, though, and are great if you’re traveling or need a Wi-Fi signal in harder-to-reach areas. However, a mesh router can offer a better long-term solution to upgrade your entire home’s Wi-Fi.
Some people may need to use multiple Wi-Fi extenders, for instance, if your home is large or has dead zones in different areas. But if you do use multiple Wi-Fi extenders, there’s a chance of interference. You may also need to manually connect to the extenders separately, which isn’t always convenient.…Read more by Mark Mucale