Extenders & powerline
Extending coverage where no cable can be run
Both product families exist for the same reason: a cable cannot be run. Neither publishes a figure that predicts what it will do in your building, and both are worth trying rather than theorizing about — which is why the return policy is part of the specification here in a way it is nowhere else.
By Jean-Benoit Buisson
Try the free options before either purchase
Both families are substitutes for a cable, and both are worth less than the thing they substitute for. Before buying, spend an hour on the changes that cost nothing.
Move the router towards the middle of what it has to cover, and up rather than down. Take it out of the cupboard. Take fixed devices — a television, a console, a desktop — off the air onto a cable if any socket is within reach. Then walk the building and write down the signal in the rooms that matter, so that whatever you buy can be judged against a starting point.
Very often the far bedroom improves enough that neither product is needed, and that is the cheapest possible outcome.
What a repeater actually does with the air
A repeater joins the existing network as a client and re-broadcasts it. Everything it delivers has therefore crossed the air twice.
On a single-radio unit both halves of that conversation use the same radio, so the airtime for a given amount of traffic is consumed twice over. On a unit with a second radio kept for the link back to the router, the two halves are separated and the doubling goes away — this is what the band listing on the specification is telling you, and it is the difference worth paying for.
Some units also offer a wired socket, which turns them into a small bridge: a device plugged into the repeater gets a wired connection to a wireless relay, which is often better than that device’s own radio.
Give the repeater the same network name and password as the router where the maker supports it, so that devices move between them without anyone intervening.
A powerline pair carries data over the electrical wiring between two sockets. The figure printed on the box is derived from the signaling scheme the pair uses; what arrives depends on the circuits in your particular building, and no maker has ever seen them.
Some patterns are reliable enough to plan around. Two sockets on the same circuit do better than two on different ones. A pair plugged directly into wall sockets does better than a pair on extension leads. Distance through the wiring, which is not the distance across the room, matters. And some adapters include a pass-through socket so that the outlet is not lost, which is worth having.
Everything about installing and using them follows the manufacturer’s instructions and the wiring rules that apply where you live. This page has no advice about the mains, and nobody should take any from a product listing either.
Which family suits which problem
One room, upstairs, with good signal on the landing outside it. A repeater on the landing is the straightforward answer, and a dual-radio one if the room is used heavily.
A room where the signal is already poor before you get near it. A repeater has nothing good to relay. A powerline pair skips the air entirely and is the better bet.
An outbuilding or a garage. Usually powerline if the wiring is continuous, and often neither: this is where a cable, if it can be run at all, is worth the trouble.
A device that never moves, in a difficult room. A powerline pair with an Ethernet socket at the far end gives that device a wired connection and takes it off the air, which helps everything else as well.
Judge the result the same way both times
Whichever you buy, take the same walk afterwards that you took before, standing in the same places, and write the readings beside the old ones. One change at a time, so the result can be attributed.
Keep the box until you have done that. Both of these products are bought on a prediction nobody can make, which is exactly why the ability to return them belongs in the decision.
