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Recommendations For A Decent Wifi Extender, Please

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CW1 | 15:00 Tue 02nd Nov 2021 | Technology
7 Answers
Hi,
Looking to get a wifi extender that'll give me a decent signal outdoors, & in my neighbour's place (less than 100 yards but 2 non brick walls in between). Don't want to spend more than £20 ideally, been looking at https://www.onbuy.com/gb/wifi-range-extenders~c8454/ but don't really know where to start.
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Sorry but you're simply asking for the impossible. Legal restrictions on the transmitting power of wi-fi devices (including extenders) mean that the maximum reliable distance they can be used over, even with a clear line-of-sight path, is around 30 metres. There's no a moggy in Hades chance of any device being able cover nearly three times that distance.
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Really ? I can get a signal next door but is flaky (especially if my neighbour's sitting next to me ! LOL) but, for instance, this one says extends up to 300m outdoors.
https://www.onbuy.com/gb/wifi-extenders-and-antennas-300mbps-plug-in-wifi-repeater-booster-home-office-accessories~c8436~p51864293/?lid=67247613
Hmmm.

I suppose that it might be possible that the extender shown there can provide a signal so weak that a web page takes 10 minutes to load over that range, thus allowing the manufacturer to claim that it can operate at up to 300m, but I'd think it more likely that the range figures shown have simply been plucked out of thin air and are therefore completely meaningless.

The manufacturer of that repeater is given as 'HOD Electronics' but the only firm of that name that Google knows about is a Dutch firm selling individual electronic components (such as switches, relays, etc) and which appears not to manufacture any type of finished products. So it's impossible to find any independent reviews for it.

A Google Images search though finds the same product sold under various brand names across the world, such as 'Auveach' in Italy, where 26% of Amazon reviewers award it only a 1-star rating: https://www.amazon.it/Auveach-Ripetitore-Funzionamento-crittografia-One-Click/dp/B07S3F7PC1
I think this is the seller https://www.hodhealthandhome.com.au/search?q=wifi+extender

House of Dasein Health and Home; if you search for House of Dasein you will find they specialise in different products altogether.

That unbranded WiFi extender makes claims that far exceed the more expensive well known brands. I can guarantee it will be rubbish
TomsGuide is one of the most trustworthy sites on the web. In their reviews of the best wi-fi extenders, they refer to the range of the Netgear EAX20 (which costs £160) as 'awesome' but even that's only 95 feet.
https://www.tomsguide.com/uk/us/best-wifi-extenders,review-2225.html
I simply can't see how an extender costing an eighth of the price could overcome the laws of physics (and/or the laws of the land if it's transmitting at an illegal power level) to provide a reliable signal at three times that distance.
TP-Link range extender model TL-WA850RE has worked fine for me for a while now.

£20-ish
^^^ I have no doubt that the range extender recommended by Douglas is an excellent product. (TP-Link is a first rate manufacturer). However it's still not going to cover the sort of distances that CW1 requires.

Quote: "The TL-WA850RE is a good choice for smaller homes or apartments that have a Wi-Fi dead zone, but it didn't manage to extend a signal at a distance beyond 75 feet in our tests".

Source: https://uk.pcmag.com/first-looks/3822/tp-link-300mbps-universal-wifi-range-extender-tl-wa850re-review

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