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Forum Discussion
wifi range extender
I have installed a EX2700 wifi range extender but my download speed to my laptop is still the same as it was without the extender. The extender, I believe is correctly placed relative to the router a...
Extenders are great at getting the wifi reach further away than what it was. They're not great at increasing speed. here's why.
an extender has to recieve and then retransmit the signal. That means, by the very nature of how it works, it cuts bandwidth in half and increases latency.
That's why I say they do great at making wifi reach further. but they don't increase speed.
the tri-band extenders do a great job of negating some of this as they reserve 1 of the 5ghz radios just for the router-extender communication.
What router are you using?
Firmware on the extender?
What speeds do you get off the router?
Have you tried to optimize placement? https://wifirepeater.org/best-placement-of-range-extender/
I am using a BT hub 6 - speeds of about 35Mbps. I do not know what firmware is on the extender. I have yet to experiment further with placement of the extender.
If you've only got 35mbps connection from the router, your extender is going to cut that in half for the devices on the extender. something to keep in mind.
Thank you for that information. However, the description of the product in various places as a "booster" gives the not-too-expert user the idea that boost means an enhancement to speed.
What does cutting the bandwidth in half mean practically?
My laptop is connected wirelessly to the extender not by cable.
Range extender is just that. It extends the range to a location that it couldn't reach/poor signal prior. It receives the signal from your router and then has to retransmit it. Because it uses the same chip*, it reduces bandwidth by half because it can't receive and transmit at the same time.
It means that if you have a 35mbps connection, the best you can expect from an extender when not in fastlane mode is roughly 17mbps if its setup optimally.
*caveat to that is tri-band extenders and fastlane. Triband reserve a wifi radio just for router----extender communication leaving the other 2x radios for device communcation.
Fastlane is for dual band extenders. They can be set with either the 2.4ghz or 5ghz radio to go router----extender.