Range extender

[SjoerdNLD]

Can anybody recommend a range extender for use with the rt-ac66u?
It will be used to extend current coverage to the top area of my house.
Cable connection to the extender is NOT possible. (at least not easy)
N speeds to 300 are more than enough.

 

[Brouno]

HI,

I'm using the TP-link wa850re with the RT-N66U

http://www.tp-link.com/en/products/details/?model=TL-WA850RE

Working like a charm, 300Mbps, WPS for quick install, even an ethernet port to share locally wifi access with devices without wifi (eventually adding a little switch 4/8 ports

 

[RogerSC]

Keep in mind that a range extender that isn't a wired AP will cut the transfer rate in half. That's because an extender has to wirelessly listen and then transmit, and can't do that at the same time. What that means is that if you have a 300Mb/s wireless network, and you add a range extender, the clients using the range extender will be running at a maximum of 150Mb/s.

That most likely doesn't matter for web surfing, etc., but if you need heavy duty streaming or file transfer, then you might consider connecting an AP using powerline networking or MoCA. Neither of those will be as fast as a cable connection, but should be faster than half your wireless speed.

 

[Cvarta]

I am using two RT-N66U. One as my main router connected to my cable modem. The other works as a wireless bridge for other devices without wireless lan as well as a repeater for the wireless itself. (I use the experimental firmware from merlin, works like a charm over 5GHZ). Performance is great as I am able to achieve speeds in the range of 150 - 180 mbit/s (plenty for hd streaming and occasional ps3 game download)

 

[SjoerdNLD]

Thanks for sharing.
It looks like I'm going for the tp link, as it is one 1/5th of the RT-N66U price.
I had some bad experience with their tl-WDR4900, but the range extender seems to be working solid from hw version 1.20.

 

[Pericynthion]

I'm using an Asus EA-N66 and its pretty impressive.
My only word of caution is that you can only select to do EITHER 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz, but not both at the same time.

I can echo the SNB testing findings that for extending the 5Ghz from my A66U it does a great job.