Want to buy a WiFi repeater? Want to know How to buy a WiFi extender? Are you confused about the specifications? You must read this WiFi repeater buying guide. You may have too many doubts. In this tutorial, I am going to solve almost all your doubts.
What is WiFi Extender?
WiFi extender receives a weak signal, amplifies it and broadcasts. All homes and offices have dead spots where the WiFi signal does not reach. You can cover those dead spots with Wi-Fi extenders. Suppose, if your WiFi router gives a signal up to 100 feet, place Wi-Fi extender after 100 feet, it will boost the signal. And sends further 100 feet. That means you can extend WiFi router coverage with WiFi repeaters. Read more details from Wikipedia.
How to buy wifi extender?
Should I buy from same manufacturer of WiFi router?
No. You need not to buy from the same manufacturer of your WiFi router. You can use a WiFi router from a different company and a WiFi extender from another company.
You must consider WiFi standard and frequency band.
WiFi standard
First, you need to look at your WiFi router standards. Standards are like 802.11AC or 802.11N or 802.11a/g. 802.11AC is the latest one. Read How to Buy WiFi router for more details on these specifications.
If you are using an 802.11N WiFi router, you need not to buy a high standard 802.11AC model. You can buy a WiFi extender which supports 802.11AC.
Frequency band
WiFi works in two bands 2.4 GHz and 5GHz band. Some extenders work only in the 2.4 GHz band which is called single band repeaters. Some works 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz band. These are called dual-band repeaters. It is recommended to buy dual-band extenders and routers. It is also recommended to match the working frequency band of the Wi-Fi repeater with your WiFi router.
Ethernet ports
Some WiFi repeaters come with Ethernet ports. So that you can also connect wired devices to it for better speed. Consider buying a Wi-Fi repeater which has Gigabit Ethernet ports(GE Ports). GE ports speed up to 1 GBPS. Some devices have FE ports which provide speed up to 100 MBPS. Consider buying an extender which has GE ports.
USB Ports
Some repeaters will have USB ports to attach printers and external hard drives to share on the network. You can choose the repeater according to your need.
Audio Jack
If you like to stream audio from repeater, you may consider buying extender with an audio jack.
External antennas
Some repeaters have external antennas. They look like repeaters. Always repeater with external antennas will give better coverage area than repeaters without external antennas.
Conclusion
If you want to use repeater in small homes, you can buy TP-LINK TL-WA850RE, NetGear WN3000RP or D-LINK DAP-1320.
- Next Topics To Read : 5 Best WiFi extenders to buy
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I am in the market for a Wi-Fi extender or repeater, and this article was very helpful to me!