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.

Typically an extender will set its own SSID by default and broadcast a network separate from your primary router.

However, if you set an extender’s SSID to match your primary network, your devices will usually get handed off between the different hotspots without interruption.

When buying a range extender, it is important to keep the different wireless modes in mind.

Some extenders come with two wireless modes — range extender or access point mode.

If an extender has an Ethernet port, it most likely will have an access point mode too.

In general, you will get better speeds and signal strength if you connect an extender to your primary router with an ethernet cable and use it as an access point.

You can also buy another Wi-Fi router to use as an access point, but this will likely be more expensive.

To ensure your extender’s network is not interfering with your primary router’s network, you can install a Wi-Fi channel analyser application on your smartphone.

If your primary router can broadcast both 2.4GHz and 5GHz network bands, your extender should ideally have the same capability.

Compared to a range extender, a mesh network system creates multiple access point nodes throughout your house.

According to TP-Link, Mesh Wi-Fi is faster and more efficient at delivering Wi-Fi signal than range extenders, which sacrifice speed for connectivity.

Due to its user-friendly design and minimal setup required, Mesh Wi-Fi is also ideal for users who do not want to deal with complicated router setups and configurations.

However, mesh systems are significantly more expensive than range extenders.

If you are hesitant to buy a Wi-Fi extender, moving your primary router to a more central location in your house might also improve your network’s signal strength.

MyBroadband tested several low-budget DIY options to improve Wi-Fi reception that you can also try before committing to a Wi-Fi extender.

Alternatively, you could also run Ethernet cables from your primary router to all the devices on your network that support cabled connections, but that comes with its own set of costs and effort.

Below are some of the best Wi-Fi extenders under R1,000 from Takealot and Progenix.

TP-LINK TL-WA850RE 300Mbps Wi-Fi Range Extender (Takealot) — R399

TP-LINK RE220 – AC750 Dual Band WI-FI Range Extender (Takealot) — R515

D-Link DAP-1610 AC1200 Dual Band W-Fi Range Extender (Progenix) — R615

D-Link DRA-1360 AC1300 Dual Band Mesh-Enabled Wi-Fi Range Extender (Progenix) — R965

D-Link AX1800 Wi-Fi 6 Mesh Range Extender (Takealot) — R1,469

Now read: Wi-Fi signal interference test — simple trick to speed up your connection