Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 11 years and 9 months old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

I picked up a refurbished Netgear WN3000RP “universal” WiFi range extender on Amazon figuring that $40 was worth a shot to see if I could fix my wireless signal strength issue around the house.

I’ve tried this before by getting a new wireless router, but the location of my network closet just isn’t conducive to equal coverage since it’s not in the middle of the house. As a result, the signal strength dips sharply on one side of the house which causes occasional issues with devices (like my outdoor cameras) in that area.

The WN3000RP promised an easy way to extend the wireless … just plug it into an outlet between the router and the “dead zone,” make a few web-based configuration changes, and enjoy increased signal strength. As is usual for me, however, it wasn’t that easy … but I did finally get it working.

My first problem was getting the extender to connect to my existing wireless network. After I had plugged it in I was able to connect to it with my laptop via the NETGEAR_EXT SSID it was broadcasting and go through the setup wizard (you can also connect to it via direct ethernet if necessary). It detected my wireless networks (I have three: the main one, one for guests, and one for ZoneMinder) but would fail to connect to the one I wanted to extend no matter what I tried (even a firmware update for the extender). That particular wireless network was running off of my older Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 router so I eventually tried connecting the extender to the wireless network on my Buffalo WZR-HP-G300N instead … and it worked right away. Both were using the same WPA2 Personal AES encryption so I can’t explain why it wouldn’t connect to the older router. I’ve seen strange problems like this in the past though, when my TRENDnet cameras wouldn’t connect to the newer router but worked just fine with the older one. The extender does support WPS, so if your router supports that, connecting the extender to your existing network should be a lot easier (I run DD-WRT on all of my routers, which doesn’t support WPS).

One important thing to note here is that the extender does not provide a “transparent” extension of your wireless network (like a repeater would). It connects to your existing SSID as a client and rebroadcasts the signal as a separate SSID. Netgear’s default is to add “_ext” to your existing SSID, so if your main network is named “home-wifi,” the extender broadcasts “home-wifi_ext.” This means you need to specifically configure your wireless devices to connect to that new SSID. This isn’t a big deal for stationary devices like my cameras (I just connected each one to the SSID with the best signal strength) but could present issues for mobile devices like laptops and phones. It’s my experience that the iPhone will connect to the SSID with the best signal, but I’ve noticed at times I’ll be on the side of the house where the main WiFi is stronger, but my iPhone is still connected to the extender with the lower signal on the other side of the house.

Also, since the extender is basically acting as another wireless client to your router, the bandwidth through the extender is slower than a direct connection to the main wireless network. This is because the extender has to talk to the router and any clients it is servicing and it can’t do both at the same time. Again, not a big deal for what I was trying to accomplish, but if you’re trying to stream Netflix onto your laptop through the extender, you’ll probably notice the slower speed (check out this review of the WN3000RP for more details).

The only other strange thing I’ve noticed with the extender is that sometimes it will be inaccessible from the network. The extender’s WiFi is still working (all of the devices connected are still visible and can access the home network and the internet), but I can’t ping the extender or access the web-based configuration pages! 😯 This makes no sense to me but as long as it keeps working I guess I’ll try not to let it bother me too much.

Finally, earlier this week Netgear announced the WN1000RP, WiFi Booster that seems to be the same thing as what I just installed except that it lacks external antennas and seems to be aimed at “mobile devices in the home.” I don’t see why it wouldn’t work with any wireless device, though, so I’m curious as to what’s different about it. Also, the announced price is $40 (available later this summer) which is the same price I paid for my refurbished WN3000RP. Stay tuned, I guess …