Then you have a router that is quite good, but unfortunately does not reach the corners of your house. You can live with that, but when I am on my balcony I also want to have WiFi, and sometimes in the bedroom too. Solution: the Netgear Wifi Booster for Mobile.
Of course there are more solutions, such as a bridge with netgear wn1000rp serious intentions or extra access points. The difference is about the price and what you get in return. However, the 300mbit Netgear WN1000RP is a great solution for a relatively low price. You plug it in and then you’re almost done.
The Wifi Booster for Mobile is in fact a small white box with some buttons and lights. Fortunately, yellow, and not the tainted blue lights that devices often have these days. There is a WPS button on it to quickly connect to devices (strangely not to the router) and an on / off button. If you turn it off, it just saves the settings. It also only transmits 2.4Ghz signals.
netgear wn1000rp 1
Plug ’n Play
After you have plugged it in in a place where the router still has a reasonable range, you first have to let it initiate. Eventually a yellow light will come on and then it’s your turn. With your laptop (is most convenient) you connect to the Wifi Booster, which in my case was called NETGEAR_EXT. After connecting with standard username and password you will be sent to a webpage to set things up. This is also very easy, with a handy setup wizard in Netgear Genie, the interface that is also used for routers.
Check channels
What initially went wrong with me was the fact that my router was set to channel 13 and the WN1000RP can only scan up to channel 11. It took me a while to figure that out after exhausting all other options. Now it seems that in Europe devices go to channel 13 and in the US to channel 11. So maybe it’s in the firmware. In short: if you have trouble connecting to your router, you should check whether the channel is not at 12 or 13.
No problem for the rest. After setting up, you can connect to the Wifi Booster with your mobile phone, for example, and you will have internet without any interruptions. The speed is not what it would normally be if you had the same ‘radiation’ from your own router, because after all there is another device in between, but it is good enough.
Range
What illustrates the difference in range / radiation are the screenshots I made with a super handy app, the Wifi Analyzer for Android. This indicates the range in dBm ( decibels milliwat or something), where the number is below zero, and therefore higher numbers are worse. The app measures from -40 to -100. My own router has -78dBm range (fig.1) in the bedroom, -53dBm (fig.2) where the Wifi Booster is in the socket, more than enough to quickly send packets to the booster. The booster has -69dBm range in the bedroom (fig. 3), which is a bit better than my own router. Could be even better, but in my apartment I have a lot of noise from the routers of all neighbors and the choice of channel unfortunately makes little difference, as the app also indicates.
wifi normally in bedroom reach router up to wifi booster
wifi via booster in bedroom
Conclusion
So it is a handy device, although I would prefer something stronger if I really needed the internet often in my corners. For now I am quite satisfied, I can browse, email and download some apps relatively smoothly. Previously, downloading was notable and browsing was really slow. So I almost always switched to the mobile internet connection. Small disadvantage though: the Wifi Booster only transmits 2.4Ghz signals. Now it is true that on 5Ghz you often have a bit more range and less noise, and also a few fewer devices that already work with 5Ghz, but still. For 49 euros (suggested retail price) you cannot expect too much and this is a great solution for the smaller range problems.
Heb toevallig ook even gekeken naar dit apparaat laatst. Ik vond het nogal een nadeel dat de extender een nieuw wifi netwerk opzet met een *_EXT naam. Je moet expliciet verbinding maken met dit netwerk in plaats van met je bestaande wifi router/accesspoint.
Heb je dit ook opgemerkt of heb je handmatig de instellingen veranderd zodat de extender op hetzelfde SSID en channel zit?
Hallo,
Wat voor gebruikersnaam en wachtwoord moet ik invullen???
Al vast bedankt!
De standaard inloggegevens zijn admin en password. Maar dat staat ook in het boekje dat je erbij krijgt. Die moet je ook niet vergeten zo snel mogelijk aan te passen voor de veiligheid.
heb hem net aangeschaft en alles werkt voorzover ik kan zien.. Krijg alleen geen contact met mijn Cisco router van UPC, dus heb er nog geen fluit aan.
bij zoeken vind hij mijn router wel, later bij afronden ineens niet meer 🙁
Hee Mark,dat klopt inderdaad. Ik was daar misschien niet heel duidelijk in maar je maakt opnieuw verbinding met een andere ssid. Dat heb ik in de screenshots wel laten zien, zoals je ziet heeft de een *_EXT erachter. Zoals wel gezegd kun je met AP’s of bridges alles wat handiger opzetten maar dit is voor niet-zo-spannend gebruik ook best praktisch. Mijn printer bijvoorbeeld heeft hier best profijt van, die verplaats ik niet. Tis even afwegen voor dit geld 🙂
Al zoekende via google kwam uit op deze pagina, omdat ik het ook een nadeel vind dat er een extra SSID bijkomt waarmee je verbinding maakt.
Ik heb op mijn 1e verdieping wat verbindingsproblemen, en wil deze dus aanschaffen, hoe werkt het dan precies? Beneden heb ik wel goed wifi bereik, schakelt hij dan automatisch terug op mijn router of blijft hij op de extender verbonden?