Most people are told to never use a Wi-Fi extender, and in most situations, that’s good advice. Many Wi-Fi extenders cut your bandwidth in halfThey increase latency, can interfere with your main router’s Wi-Fi signal, can be unreliable, often have limited range, and are generally the worst way to extend Wi-Fi to dead spots in your home.
But when I needed to provide Wi-Fi coverage for my mom’s house about a year ago, I opted for a Wi-Fi extender and it ultimately turned out to be the right choice. Here’s why.
I had a unique problem on my hands.
My mom needed Wi-Fi
My mom and my uncle (her brother) live in a small town in two different houses that share the same yard. While my uncle’s house has a landline, my mother’s does not and neither house has access to cable television or the internet.
For years they used a 20 Mbps DSL connection, which was enough for them because they are not at all demanding. The router was located in my uncle’s living room, the closest room to my mom’s house, so it had a solid Wi-Fi signal that maxed out at about 10 Mbps and covered the rooms where I needed Internet access (the kitchen, dining room, and bedroom) pretty well.
But about a year and a half ago, my cousin, who lives in the same town, managed to negotiate a deal with a local ISP that offered fixed wireless Internet. They would get a 50 Mbps plan that was cheaper than their 20 Mbps DSL service, which sounded great. So the technicians came, installed the antenna on the roof of my uncle’s house (it’s a two-story house, while my mom lives in a one-story house), drilled holes in the floors to run the cable to the ground floor, and installed the router there.
The problem was that for some reason they placed the router right in the middle of the dining room, which is the farthest room from my mom’s house. That was too far away for the router’s Wi-Fi signal to reach your home reliably. Had to go outside to get a usable signal, which wasn’t ideal, to say the least.
Since the router couldn’t be moved without us drilling a few more holes in the concrete walls, I had a couple of options on the table for extending Wi-Fi to my mom’s house that didn’t involve such drastic measures.
I decided to try a Wi-Fi extender and see how it works.
It couldn’t hurt, right?
For starters, I couldn’t run an Ethernet cable to my mother’s house or close enough to it to install an access point that could provide Wi-Fi coverage, because that would have required drilling multiple holes through thick concrete walls. As I already said, moving the router was also out of the question and we agreed to use that option only as a last resort if nothing else worked.
Buying a mesh system was a possibility, but before going that route, I decided to try a universally hated Wi-Fi extender. It wouldn’t hurt to try and you could get one for about $25. So I went out and bought a cheap Tenda single band (2.4 GHz) Wi-Fi extender. I went back and set it up, which was very easy thanks to the mobile app. But when I went to my mom’s house to plug it in, I ran into a problem: The router’s Wi-Fi signal was too weak inside her house for the extender to pick up, so I had to improvise.
Their house is attached to a summer kitchen in the garage that they use as their only car, cooking during the warmer months and keeping a large freezer. The garage gets a useful signal from the router and has multiple outlets, so I grabbed an extension cord, hung it around a structural beam, and plugged in the extender. And what do you know, it worked. The signal was strong enough to deliver around 15Mbps to your house, although the signal light was glowing yellow instead of green, indicating that the router’s signal was not particularly strong.
Testing the signal at his house showed that the extender was handling everything without problems. Even in my old room, which is the furthest from the garage, the signal was stable and offered the same 15Mbps performance.
So I came home and left her with the extender to try it out for a few weeks. If things went wrong, I’d get a mesh Wi-Fi system and call it a day. But I was happy with the speed and experienced no interruptions or bandwidth issues. It turns out that Wi-Fi extenders may be the right choice, but only in specific situations.
A Wi-Fi extender was the right choice for that specific use case
A solid option when you don’t need a fast, low-latency connection
A Wi-Fi extender turned out to be the right choice for this use case due to a perfect storm of circumstances. For starters, they live in a small town that isn’t drowning in Wi-Fi signals. There is a vacant lot next to my mom’s house, and they only have one neighbor with wifi next to my uncle’s house. However, that neighbor’s Wi-Fi does not reach my mom’s house or the garage where the extender is located, so interference is not an issue.
Then the Wi-Fi signal from the router only reaches the garage, so my mom’s tablet doesn’t pick up the network from the router, only the signal coming from the extender. Your tablet is the only client device that has to handle the extender, which helps explain why the connection is so stable and doesn’t slow down. Also, you only use WhatsApp and YouTube, so about 15 Mbps is enough for your needs, especially since there are no other devices competing for the bandwidth.
You also don’t need a low latency connection, so the fact that the extender provides less than half the available bandwidth and adds some latency means nothing in your case. Lastly, the extender covers your entire home, so I didn’t have to daisy chain multiple extenders, which would likely have severely reduced both the speed and quality of the Wi-Fi connection.
So yes, I realized that Wi-Fi extenders are not complete garbage, but only in specific circumstances. When the area you want to cover is not drowned by Wi-Fi signals, when you don’t need fast Internet, when client devices can’t see the main router’s network, and when the extender only has to handle a single device or several of them, it can be a solid option for covering Wi-Fi dead spots.
You shouldn’t completely ignore Wi-Fi extenders
Just be aware of its limitations.
In the end, choosing a Wi-Fi extender was the right choice, probably due to the right combination of factors:
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Minimal interference from the main router or nearby Wi-Fi networks
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Client devices connected to the extender do not have access to a usable signal from the main router
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The extender only has to handle one or more client devices
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No need for a fast or low latency connection
If you have a similar combination of factors, you may be able to make it work even with a Wi-Fi repeater. For example, if you live in a rural area or suburb with little Wi-Fi interference, only plan to connect one or several devices to the extender at a time, and don’t care about fast, low-latency Internet, an extender is worth trying out. But if you need stable, high-speed Wi-Fi and your home or apartment is inundated with Wi-Fi and other wireless signals, consider a different solution.
an old router repurposed as wireless access point can be a great option, as can a proper access point with wired backhaul. A mesh Wi-Fi system is also a better solution, even when using wireless backhaul. If you have coaxial cabling, you should investigate MoCA Adapters. Even power line adapters It can be a better solution than a Wi-Fi extender in many situations.
One year later, still going strong
Since installing it, I have not received any complaints from my mom. I’ve also visited several times and slept in my old room, the farthest from the extender (we’re talking about 16 feet and multiple concrete walls between the extender and my room), and the connection has been stable, if not particularly strong. I managed to browse Reddit and listen to Spotify simultaneously, watch YouTube in 720p and 1080p, and even download some small indie games on my laptop PC without the signal dropping or the speed slowing down.
In most situations, Wi-Fi extenders are the last option you should turn to for bringing Wi-Fi to dead spots in your home. But when the stars align, as they did in my case, a Wi-Fi repeater can be a cheap and cheerful solution to your Wi-Fi problems.
