#The wirecutter reviews 1080p
#The wirecutter reviews plus

It's expensive, but its great speed and range, multiple operating modes, and five Gigabit Ethernet ports make it the best choice for people who need a good signal for all of their faraway Wi-Fi (and wired) devices. The Netgear EX6200 is the best wireless extender for most people. We repeated each test on each band and each mode the extenders offered.

#The wirecutter reviews 1080p

We put three different laptops at each of our three testing locations, connected them to one of the extender's bands, and streamed a 1080p YouTube video on each. (The laptop connected wirelessly to the extender, which connected wirelessly to the router.) We also tested each extender using a wired connection from a laptop to the extender (when applicable).įinally, we tested the extenders' real-world performance with high-bitrate streaming video. We used iPerf 3.0.11 to test the throughput from a laptop to our wired PC, which was connected via Gigabit ethernet to our router. If you live in a neighborhood or apartment complex that's swarming with competing 2.4GHz Wi-Fi networks, the 5GHz band might be your only way to get a good signal. How we pickedĪ good extender should support the older, more crowded 2.4GHz band and the newer, faster 5GHz band. If that's not feasible, or if it sounds like too much work just to get Wi-Fi in a few extra rooms, the Netgear EX6200 is the next-best option. If you already have a good router, try moving it to the center of your living space or buying an extra long Ethernet cable and adding wireless access points (or routers configured as access points) where you need them. If you don't already have a good wireless-ac router, your first move should be to buy one: it can vastly increase the speed and range of your Wi-Fi signal. It’s an easy solution to a common problem, but it’s not the first thing you should try. The extender connects to your existing Wi-Fi at a location that gets a good signal and re-broadcasts its own Wi-Fi network(s), extending your Wi-Fi bubble beyond your router’s range. If there are parts of your home or apartment that don’t get a good Wi-Fi signal, and you can’t run a long Ethernet cable to a wired access point, a wireless extender can give you a boost. It was the easiest to configure, and because it's an AC1200 wireless-ac extender, it supports the fastest connection speeds of dual-stream Wi-Fi devices. The Netgear EX6200 had the best long-range performance of the extenders we tested (35.4 Mbps), even through exterior walls. In our tests, the EX6200 could stream 1080p YouTube videos to three laptops at the same time (one up to 63 feet away), and it was the only extender we tested that could stream a 4K YouTube video to a single laptop, outside the house, at the same distance. It costs as much as a great router and it shouldn't be the first thing you try to fix your Wi-Fi range, but it has the best combination of range, speed, flexibility, and physical connections of any extender we tested.

#The wirecutter reviews plus

The performance is worth it, but the EX6200’s size could affect where you place it in your home or apartment.Īfter spending a total of 110 hours researching 25 different Wi-Fi extenders (and testing 10 of them), plus analyzing reviews and owner feedback, we found that the $100 Netgear EX6200 is the best Wi-Fi extender for most people right now. Enlarge / The winning EX6200 is much bigger than most of the other extenders we tested.