Five of the best Wi-Fi extenders you can buy for less than R1,500

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Best Wi-Fi extenders under R1,500

South Africans struggling to get complete Wi-Fi coverage throughout their home have several affordable range extenders available.

Wi-Fi extenders connect to your primary Wi-Fi router, creating and broadcasting a new wireless network, and relaying the traffic back to your main router.
 
Skip every wifi extender and just get a great/decent router, as most support running as an access point or extender. Wifi range will be way more and these plug point ones are inconveniently placed all the time being forced to be by the plug.
 
I have three repurposed Huawei E5573 routers that I've spread around the house. I've got two houses in 1 yard serviced by them using rain 4G. Stable 10MBs constantly anywhere
 
Extenders suck the big one if you have a fast incoming link where the drop in speed is more noticeable.

Getting <100Mb/s with 500Mb/s incoming link when connected through a Wi-Fi 5 extender.

Mesh Wi-Fi 6 router does around 400Mb/s at the same location.

eyenetworks.no

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ghostRgg said:
Skip every wifi extender and just get a great/decent router, as most support running as an access point or extender. Wifi range will be way more and these plug point ones are inconveniently placed all the time being forced to be by the plug.
Click to expand...
I use my old wifi routers as access points. Get full coverage anywhere in my house. Maybe not as seamless as mesh. But I dont need it to be.
 
rh1 said:
I use my old wifi routers as access points. Get full coverage anywhere in my house. Maybe not as seamless as mesh. But I dont need it to be.
Click to expand...
Me too. They have LAN cables connecting them all. I just make sure each is using a different channel.
 
Mesh = extenders in today's market.

Old school extenders, called repeaters, don't really exist anymore.

They are still greatly inferior to running a cable to a second AP. Don't gooi an MTN, run a cable.
 
Sapphiron said:
Mesh = extenders in today's market.

Old school extenders, called repeaters, don't really exist anymore.

They are still greatly inferior to running a cable to a second AP. Don't gooi an MTN, run a cable.
Click to expand...
Yes, cables are the best way, but the problem with using regular APs is that the Wi-Fi clients cling on for dear life to the first one that it connected to until they almost completely lose signal and then only connects to the closer one with the stronger signal.

Mesh routers (the proper ones at least) in my experience roams seamlessly.
 
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Apogee said:
Yes, cables are the best way, but the problem with using regular APs is that the Wi-Fi clients cling on for dear life to the first one that it connected to until they almost completely lose signal and then only connects to the closer one with the stronger signal.

Mesh routers (the proper ones at least) in my experience roams seamlessly.
Click to expand...
That's actually a good point. Stay away from most cheap APs and extenders because of roaming issues.

It's more a function of the AP. The 802.11r fast roaming standard works if both the APs and the devices support it. Most routers and extenders fail to implement it.

Running a cable is still better than a wireless link between the APs.
 
Apogee said:
Yes, cables are the best way, but the problem with using regular APs is that the Wi-Fi clients cling on for dear life to the first one that it connected to until they almost completely lose signal and then only connects to the closer one with the stronger signal.

Mesh routers (the proper ones at least) in my experience roams seamlessly.
Click to expand...
Same SSIDs, channel and bandwidth and all of my devices roam seamlessly - I'm using a mix of routers and a few range extenders. For a home network, the complaints about rebroadcast performance hits are insignificant.

The only pc latched onto an extender via (gb) ethernet is my media/vmhost pc and I can shoot stuff across there at +600Mbps very reliably. That's through an AC2350 extender and I'm happy enough to not bother going for a cable to the main router.

The other extenders are not as well specced but do what they need to in their areas of the house.
 
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dlevine said:
TP Link Deco mesh is just brilliant. Works like a dream....
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ive tried a few of the mesh kits,

the tenda is ok, its app is absolute crap

so far, value for money , the Tp link deco is great, very cool app

i did find ( although it costs much more) the ubiquiti amplifi kit is amazing! all round
 
I have 3 of these around the house , all on LAN and in Bridge mode .
Roaming is seamless

Amazon.com: Nokia WiFi Beacon 3 Mesh Router System - Intelligent, Seamless Whole Home WiFi Coverage Extender - Connect Your Whole House WiFi Network, Ultra Fast Self-Healing Mesh Router System – Trio (3-Pack) : Electronics

Amazon.com: Nokia WiFi Beacon 3 Mesh Router System - Intelligent, Seamless Whole Home WiFi Coverage Extender - Connect Your Whole House WiFi Network, Ultra Fast Self-Healing Mesh Router System – Trio (3-Pack) : Electronics
www.amazon.com
 
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