We use the Nighthawk D7000 modem/router in a medium-large sized home. Our ISP is Century Link DSL with VERY slow download service of 12 Mbps advertised with typical 8 Mbps realized. My wife and I normally get by with this but my college daughter is suddenly home and her room (opposite side of the house from the modem/router location) has the weakest signal in the house with download speeds of less than 7Mbps. We cannot change the location of the modem/router and are not able to switch ISP at this time.
I have no experience with a range extender. Based on this limited information, would a range extender help bring the signal in this distant bedroom up to what we see in other parts of the house? I read somewhere that some extenders actually consume overall bandwidth which would defeat our purpose.
Any thoughts/comments would be appreciated. Also, we are interested in an extender that is compatible with our current Netgear modem/router.
Re: Will an extender help increase signal strength
yes and no. A range extender can help. Problem is that range extenders by their very nature reduce throughput and increase latency. Reason why is that they have to recieve and retransmit the signal. So bandwidth is cut in half and it increases latency. so it basically drops your speed to what she's getting.
the tri-band extenders reduce the loss quite a bit but you can still get a little loss.
but you might be better off investing the $ in centrally locating the router if possible. That many times provides the coverage needed without taking the hit from extenders.
Re: Will an extender help increase signal strength
Thanks for your prompt and helpful response! I wish we could change both the ISP and the location of the modem/router but our options are limited at this time.
The info I've read on mesh range extenders suggest that they may improve signal strength to "distant" locations without a negative impact on the bandwidth. Is this an option I should explore?
