No, even the best Wi-Fi-Exterender is not worth your time (2025)

No, even the best Wi-Fi-Exterender is not worth your time (2025)


Difficult placement: Most Wi-Fi extensions are designed in such a way that they connect directly into a socket, but they limited where they can place them and make it difficult to achieve the best performance. They are also often bulky enough to block neighboring branches.

Price problems: Cheap Wi-Fi extensions work very badly and are not recommended, but good Wi-Fi extensions are too expensive compared to ever affordable routers and mesh systems.

Wi-Fi Extender alternatives

There are many alternatives to a Wi-Fi-Exterender, but they are my best recommendations: these are my best recommendations:

Move your router: Seriously, try before you buy something. Router pumps Wi-Fi in a rough circle, so that the ideal place for your router is in the middle of your house, and higher is better. If you can operate a cable and move your router from the edge of your house in the middle, you can expect a big improvement. Even if you cannot move your router far, consider increasing it, changing your position and fumbling with the antennas (if this has). Do not close your router in a closet or a drawer. A quick path to test the difference is to enter the “speed test” into the browser on your phone and to carry out changes before and after and after changes in the location with which you have problems.

Use Ethernet cable: The best way to get fast internet everywhere is to run Ethernet cable In your house, but this can be invasive and will probably not work as a solution for tenants. Ethernet cable, which are connected in their main router, they bring as well as possible to their fastest internet speed (the speed that your ISP delivers). You can reconsider old routers and Wi-Fi-Exterzers as additional access points in other parts of your house if you can run Ethernet cables to you. Mesh systems also work best with a wired Backhaul.

Buy a new router: If you use the router your ISP delivered or an old router (Wi-Fi 5 or older), it may be time to consider an upgrade. Our Router purchase manual Can help you decide what is best suited for you and there are several solid options for different budgets in our Best Wi-Fi router Guide. It is better to spend $ 100 for a new router than for a Wi-Fi extender for an old or bad router.

Buy a network: You probably have to spend a little more, but Mesh systems are becoming more affordable. They offer a main route and one or more nodes or satellites that you can place in your house. They are very simple and you can add more and more knots later. Mesh systems are smarter than extenders and create a single optimized network in your house that efficiently releases the connections when you move. While there is a speed drop between the main route and the knot (unless they connect it via the Ethernet cable), it is far smaller than with extenders. There are several options in our Best mesh wi-fi router Guide.

When to use a Wi-Fi extender

The only scenario in which you best buy a Wi-Fi-Exterender is, if you have a certain dead point in your house where you want to improve the download speeds. For example, the television becomes buffer in the back when you try to look at Netflix. I do not recommend using Wi-Fi-Exterenders in which high-load speeds and latency are important, e.g. B. for online games or video calls.

How to choose a Wi-Fi-Exterender

A hand holds a Netgear EA15 a white WLAN -extender that shows the gigabit connection

Netgear EAX15

Photo: Simon Hill

It is important to correspond to the functions of your router with your Wi-Fi-Exterender in order to make the best of it. If you have a dual band Wi-Fi 6 routersFor example, get a dual band Wi-Fi 6 Extender. Choose for a simple setup and configuration, wherever possible, for an extender that is the same brand as your router. Some extenders offer mesh -like functions if they are combined with the right routers (although the right network systems do better and better).



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