With my control speeds established, it was time to start adding in the range boosters and seeing which ones improved things the best. Pairing each one with the router only required me to plug it in nearby and press the WPS button on both devices -- after that, I relocated them downstairs, to the basement rec room, which was the farthest point from the router that still had a decent signal and speeds. Whenever you're using a Wi-Fi range extender, that's typically the best place to put it: just shy of the edge of your router's range, where it will still receive a strong enough signal to put out a strong signal of its own. The best way to find that spot? Grab your phone or laptop and run some speed tests. There are two types of Wi-Fi range extenders: desktop and plug-in. Most desktop extenders look just like a wireless router and are typically equipped with external adjustable antennas, multiple LAN ports for connecting to devices like TVs and gaming consoles, and USB ports for attaching to peripherals such as storage drivesand printers. But now that the range extender is linked to our router, the app changes the name of the range extender Wi-Fi to use the same name - 0606 Hyperoptic - as our router’s Wi-Fi network.

Right now I have only one repeater plugged in and connected to my laptop via ethernet cable. The 2nd repeater is unplugged. The Wifi on my laptop is switched off and disabled, so I'm actually connected to the Internet via my laptop's ethernet port via ethernet cable to the repeater's ethernet port, then via wifi signal from the repeater to my Zyxel wireless router and Comcast cable modem. With so many of us working from home these days, we now have more apps than ever careening across our household Wi-Fi networks. And some of these require not only a good amount of bandwidth, but steady bandwidth. When they don't have it, that chat you're having with your boss on your company's voice over IP (VoIP) phone system suddenly sounds like you're underwater. The same goes for many consumer-grade apps, especially video streaming services like Netflix, and certainly the latest games.

The same goes for the latest Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E technologies, the current fastest flavors of Wi-Fi. If you recently bought a new router that supports these standards, you'll certainly want to make sure any range extenders support them as well. Before you launch the extender’s app, just go into the Wi-Fi Settings panel on your smartphone or tablet. When you have an existing wifi but the wifi range is not long enough, please select Repeater Mode to cover longer range and eliminate wifi dead zones. (Repeater mode doesn’t need to connect Ethernet cable) While fairly easy to configure, range extenders have their limitations. They often use a separate network SSID that you have to log into as you move through the house, and Wi-Fi speeds are typically half of what you get from your main router. Most dual-band extenders use both radio bands to transmit data to and from the router, which means devices connecting to the extender are competing for bandwidth with the router. To help alleviate network congestion, some manufacturers let you dedicate a band for router-to-extender communications. Netgear's Fastlane technology and Amped Wireless' BoostBand technology are good examples.

Our normal router is called 0606 Hyperoptic, and you can see that it transmits Wi-Fi on both the 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz bands. You can also see that the range extender is transmitting its own wi-fi signals - again on the 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz bands - called TP-Link_Extender_2.4GHz and TP-Link_Extender_5GHz.Now take a look at the range extender’s app. At the moment, we’ve got the range extender positioned about halfway between our main router and our home office where the Wi-Fi signal tends to be a bit weak. If you used WPS to get started, you may already be connected to the range extender. Alternatively, you can just tap on TP-Link_Extender_2.4GHz to connect your smartphone to the range extender. 4. Dual-band Wi-Fi This is where things can get a little confusing. At the start of the set-up process, the range extender’s Wi-Fi network was called TP-Link_Extender on both the 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz bands.

It's also worth noting that setting a range extender up is about as painless as it gets. Most support Wi-Fi Protected Setup, or WPS, which is a universal protocol that wireless networking devices can use to connect with each other. Just plug the range extender in, wait for it to boot up, press the extender's WPS button and then press the WPS button on your router within 2 minutes. Voila, connected. So what jumps out? First, all five of these extenders did a decent job of boosting speeds in those last four rooms, down in the basement. With all of them, I had a faster connection throughout the house than I had when I connected through the router alone. The D-Link EaglePro AI struggled a bit with upload speeds in the basement, but still kept things above a minimum of 20Mbps or so. We have worked for the past 6 months on building a new review system on how we produce content. Using it, we have subsequently redone most of our articles to provide actual hands-on expertise on the guides we made. Also called a Wi-Fi signal booster, a range or Wi-Fi extender is a compact, plug-in device that is simple and hassle-free to implement. Wi-Fi extenders use built-in Wi-Fi radios and antennas to pair wirelessly with your router. No Ethernet cable is required. Plug in one near the edge of your router's wireless range and pair it with the network, and it'll start rebroadcasting the signal farther out for significantly faster internet speedsthroughout your home.

When shopping for a range extender, it's important to find one that matches your router's specs. For example, if you have a dual-band AC1900 router, get a dual-band AC1900 extender (or better). If your router supports Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO) data streaming, which provides enhanced performance by sending data to compatible clients simultaneously rather than sequentially, look for an extender that supports this technology if you want to extend your MU-MIMO network. I ran all of this year's range extender tests with a Netgear R6700AX router running the network. It's a low-power, budget-price Wi-Fi 6 model that offered consistent performance when I first tested it out, making it an ideal control router for these tests. Ry Crist/CNET

The wifi extender will scan available wifi signals automatically. Please select the wifi signal that you want to extend. You’ll also need to repeat the process for the 5GHz band as well. Once this is done, the range extender is linked to the router on both Wi-Fi bands, and this allows the range extender to act as a kind of relay so that your computers and mobile devices in rooms that normally have poor Wi-Fi can now link to your router via the range extender. 6. Network namesAll electronic devices will have different degrees of normal heating during use. The temperature of this device during operation is within a reasonable range, please rest assured to use. Most plug-in range extenders only offer basic features at best, but the TP-Link Tether app includes a signal strength tester and a High-Speed Mode in the app. Screenshots by Ry Crist/CNET Other elements to consider