Dual Band Routers - Are They An Improvement?

rozel wrote:

Hi I have been away and just read your post - apologies if you thought me rude. That is precisely the explanation I was after - I'm no expert but felt that I would get better results from a new Extender. OK so if I'm getting 10Mbps download speed (starting from 78 Mbps at the router) now with my existing extender, could you hazard a guess as to what I could expect with a new EX6200? And would this be fast enough for Bluray/HD movies do you think? I may take a punt :-)

I would offer no guesses - partly because of a lack of detail - there's no mention of how those measurements are being made, what the end points are, and what's between those two end points.

I know there's a dual band router and a single band extender, which, as has been discussed WILL cause a minimum of 50% drop in throughput - you're going from 78 mbps to 10 mbps - quite a bit more than 50% - which if I assume is being measured with a laptop connecting in both cases with WiFi - would suggest that you have either significant attenuation or interference along the way.

It is my belief that most end users (and an alarming number of professionals) don't understand the importance of proper positioning of the wireless access points/routers, and the impact it has on performance.

Assuming you have a smartphone or tablet, download Netgear,s WiFi Analytics app and have a look at it - you can use it to "plot" the signal strength in the various rooms of your house - make a floor plan sketch, mark your router's position, switch off your extender and plot the strengths, and then repeat with the extender on - can you relocate the extender or router to improve anything?