WiFi Extender recommendation

If you decide to get a wifi extender, make sure the purchase place offers a good return policy.  That way, if it doesn't work out, you could return it free of charge.

Example:  Amazon sells thousands of items with a free return policy.  This gives you a high level of confidence when buying a product.  If you don't like it, you just log into your amazon.com account, locate the order and request a refund.  Amazon will even ship you a box to send it back to them in, if the original box is lost/damaged.

I have used this when buying mechanical keyboards (it is difficult to know whether you would prefer Cherry MX Red, Brown or Blue switches, unless you can try them first), monitors, clothes, etc.  Most of the time things work out perfectly, but just in case they don't, it's a great comfort knowing you could return it for a full refund.

Now to your original question:  I have used wi-fi extenders on both 802.11b/g/n and 802.11ac networks.  Hopefully you have at least an 802.11ac (WiFi 5) network, because those routers have a stronger signal that can reach further into all parts of the house.  However, you may still find some dead spots, and in those cases a wi-fi extender would certrainly help to some degree.  Even on 802.11bgn networks (WiFi 4), extenders are helpful, but they don't work as well as on a WiFi 5 (802.11ac) network, in my experience.  You stated your house size is "1400sq ft per floor" but I have no idea how many floors comprise your home.  Is it 2 stories?  3?  This will play a role in your decision process for whether a wi fi extender would be useful.

The larger the home, the more opportunity for "dead zones" that have no wifi signal.  For a really large house (2600+ square feet, 2 or 3 stories) it would probably be better to consider investing in a mesh networking solution, as it's going to be more challenging to cover all that living area with Wi-Fi signal from a router in a single location.  However, even if you have a larger home, using 1-2 Wi-Fi extenders may be enough for you, if you only care about extending wi-fi signal to a certain portion of the house.  As long as you have decent Wi-Fi signal to a point between where the router is located and the ultimate location you need coverage, the Wi-Fi extender should be able to help extend the signal to the place it is needed.  I have used 802.11ac routers with 2 Wi-Fi extenders with good success in the past.  This was more economical for me than investing in a mesh system, as I was able to get the extenders on a good Black Friday deal several years ago. 

This is the wifi extender I used, which works very well as it not only extends the signal, but it has 4 ethernet ports.  So you can use this to help connect wired devices (which don't have wireless connectivity, like an older gaming console) to your wifi network. D-Link says this is discontinued, but this should give you an idea for what type of features may work well for you too:  https://us.dlink.com/en/products/dap-1650-wireless-ac1200-dual-band-gigabit-range-extender

Something I have used in the past to determine Wi-Fi signal strength is my iPhone, while connected to the in-home WiFi network.  Look on the phone's screen and you can see Wi-Fi signal strength.  Right next to the router, I have full strength; then go downstairs, and 1 bar of strength may go away.  As I get further from the router signal strength for the wifi network diminishes more and more.  As long as I get to a good midway point between the router and where I want to get more wifi strength, that could be a good location to place a wifi extender.

Hope that info helps you with your decision.  Good luck and enjoy!  WiFi is great when it works.. :D

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LIDA7065 wrote:

The router is the basic Verizon router.---which one? its pointless to recommend a dual band extender if the router is only single band. 

The house is about 1400 sq. ft. per floor.

The walls are wood stud & plastered.----plastered wth plaster lathe or just sheetrock and standard mud? 

The issue was just identified as the SiriusXM WiFi radio is new.

I think that it is a dual band radio.----looking up its specs or even putting a model would help us determine this. 

The radio is located in the basement.

Limited budget.---limited to how much? Again, if your budget is $20 its different from a $80 budget. 

There is no gaming or streaming requirement.

I was thinking that a WiFi extender might work; your thoughts?----it might work indeed. tough to tell off limited info but it might. 

For some reason I had difficulty getting back to the community page.

Thank you.

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