From the Wirecutter: The best consumer-grade Wi-Fi extender

Can't stop the signal—at least, not if you've got one of these things!

by David Murphy 

This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a list of the best technology to buy. Read the full article below at TheWirecutter.com.

Enlarge / The winning EX6200 is much bigger than most of the other extenders we tested. The performance is worth it, but the EX6200’s size could affect where you place it in your home or apartment.

After 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.  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.
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. The Netgear EX6200 had the best long-range performance of the extenders we tested (35.4 Mbps), even through exterior walls. 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.

Do I need one?

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. 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.
It’s an easy solution to a common problem, but it’s not the first thing you should try. 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. 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 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.

How we picked

A good extender should support the older, more crowded 2.4GHz band and the newer, faster 5GHz band. 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.

Enlarge / How we tested
Our four finalist AC1200 extenders (from the top left, clockwise) were Netgear’s EX6200, D-Link’s DAP-1650, Amped Wireless’s REA20, and Linksys’s RE6500.

Many cheap extenders, like the $30 Amazon bestseller, are single band, and most of them are terrible. Dual-band extenders can connect to the router on one band and output a Wi-Fi signal on the other; single-band extenders can't, so you're stuck with the speed penalty you get when you connect to the same band that your extender uses to talk to your router.
We came up with our initial list of 25 extenders after researching top reviews from SmallNetBuilder, CNET, and PCMag.com. We also considered any of the 20 bestselling extenders on Amazon that were dual-band, as well as any dual-band extender currently featured on the major manufacturers' sites (to make sure we didn't miss anything). We then tested 10 finalists, from a $30 single-band wireless-n extender to a $150 AC1200 extender.

How we tested

We set up each extender in the middle of our 2,577-square-foot, single-story house, which put it around the midpoint of our router's Wi-Fi range—the ideal spot for an extender. We then connected a two-stream, wireless-ac laptop to each extender from three different locations: 26 feet away and within its line of sight, and from two locations with walls, furniture, and other obstacles between the laptop and extender (at around 26 feet and 63 feet away).

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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. (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).
Finally, we tested the extenders' real-world performance with high-bitrate streaming video. 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. We repeated each test on each band and each mode the extenders offered.

Our pick

The Netgear EX6200 is the best wireless extender for most people. 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 EX6200 gave us the strongest signal at long distance of any extender when it connected to our router on 2.4GHz and only output a Wi-Fi network on the 5GHz band. Its opposite mode—connecting to the router on 5GHz and emitting 2.4GHz Wi-Fi—was only 5 Mbps slower at long distance.  Unlike every other extender we tested, the Netgear's 5GHz signal didn't crap out at long-range even when the extender was using the same band to talk to the router.
Every extender we tested had good-enough performance at close range through interior walls and furniture. However, the Netgear EX6200 was the only extender we tested that hit speeds above 30 Mbps from 63 feet away—faster than most home Internet plans in the US. It delivered a flawless 4K YouTube stream at that distance, and it was the only extender we tested that delivered an excellent 1080p Netflix stream on every mode, at every location.

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The EX6200 has three different connection modes: Dual Connect, which extends a router's 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks simultaneously, and two FastLane modes, which connect on one band and output a signal only on the other.  We like FastLane mode more than other extenders that connect to a router on one band, but output a Wi-Fi signal on both bands. If you're not careful, and you connect to the same band, your extender is using to talk to the router, your throughput can plummet. Our pick's FastLane modes are specifically designed to avoid this issue, and its Dual Connect mode is even okay as long as you're not on the 2.4GHz network at long distance.
We liked that the EX6200's color-changing LEDs that show the strength of its connection to a router's Wi-Fi, which help you figure out where to position it. Our pick is also a five-port Gigabit Ethernet switch. Many extenders only come with one Gigabit Ethernet port or, worse, only support 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet.
The EX6200’s USB 3.0 port—unusual for an extender—lets you hook up a drive full of movies and music that you can then stream via DLNA to devices connected to the extender. You can also add a USB printer and share it with connected devices.  Finally, the EX6200's "Smart Setup" process is easy to understand and only takes a few minutes to get through.
On Amazon, our pick has 463 reviews with an average rating of 4.0. Almost three-fourths of these reviews gave the extender four or five stars. We also like that Netgear representatives respond when users report problems in their Amazon reviews—that's good customer service.

The Runner-up (makes a good wireless access point)

If you don't mind stringing Ethernet cable to your extender, or if the Netgear is out of stock or too expensive, you should get D-Link's DAP-1650 ($85). As a wireless extender, it's not as fast or as flexible as our pick—Netgear's EX6200 was 10-28 Mbps faster at long range when both extenders connected to our router's 2.4GHz Wi-Fi and 15-23 Mbps faster when connected to our router's 5GHz Wi-Fi. However, as a wired access point, the DAP-1650's wireless-ac speeds are much better than anything the EX6200 can do. D-Link's extender comes with four Gigabit Ethernet ports (one fewer than our pick). Its USB port is only 2.0, but that's enough for media streaming and printer sharing.
The DAP-1650 only uses one of your router's Wi-Fi bands for backhaul, but it broadcasts extended networks on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz. You'll suffer a performance hit if you connect to the same band your extender is using to connect to the router, especially if that's the 2.4GHz band. A great extender shouldn't make you worry about which of its bands you're connecting to.

In closing

If you already have a good wireless-ac router and it's not enough, the EX6200 is a great extender because it offers the best combination of speed and range for a reasonable price. It's a better fit for the devices you likely own than an AC1750 or AC1900 extender, which can cost $80-$100 more and support speeds you won't be able to reach. It's also better than cheaper wireless-n extenders. It's easy to set up, it doubles as a Gigabit Ethernet switch and DLNA media server, and it's well-liked by previous purchasers. For most people, the EX6200 is the best extender you can buy.