Many people suffer in silence when it comes to poor Wi-Fi signals and are unaware of fairly inexpensive solutions.
Of all the nuisances we encounter on a daily basis, poor Wi-Fi quality is one of the most frustrating. Paying a small amount of money for a service only results in intermittent signal or slow speeds that leave you banging on your desk in frustration.
This is a problem I recently experienced, and thankfully, thanks to a £22 gadget and Amazon’s Prime delivery service, I was able to resolve it within 24 hours. We’re about to have a baby, and even before the baby arrives, strollers, cribs, and all kinds of toys are already making the house feel a little smaller.
So I had to move my computer setup that was in the spare bedroom to have a place to put all the baby clothes. No problem. Utility Her room has a perfect spot for a computer monitor and enough room to squeeze a chair in, so I thought the problem was solved.
Read more: Sky gives you Paramount+ for free, so you can cut your bill by £125
After what felt like an eternity of dismantling the desk and disconnecting 6,000 wires (who knew a basic setup could be this complicated), I thought I was done. Ta. That was until I started using a laptop.
The Wi-Fi icon had that dreaded single line indicating a very weak signal, which showed up in the speeds. Web pages took a long time to load, and I couldn’t do things like watch videos, so my relocation plan fell through before it even started.
In hindsight, I should have thought about that before moving, but I live in an average-sized house rather than a thickly walled mansion, and that was definitely an issue I didn’t anticipate. was. However, the utility space was located farthest from the router and seemed out of reach.
After a few huffs and puffs, I remembered hearing about Wi-Fi extenders. I’ve always been a bit cynical about such things and wasn’t sure if it would work, but I thought it was worth a try.
After scouring Amazon, I found that I could get it pretty cheap and thought it might be worth a try before I go through the trouble of setting it up in another inconvenient spot in my house. And it proved to be a great decision.
After reading reviews of fairly basic options, I chose the £20.99 TP-Link AC1200. He chose the latter, at £21.99 if you chose to include an ethernet port. Thanks to Amazon Prime, it arrived the next day and was very easy to set up.
I initially tried running it via the WPS button, but couldn’t get it to work, so I opted for the TP-Link app, which worked fine. After a quick setup to connect to your existing Wi-Fi, you’re ready to go.
Just connect within your router’s existing range and the signal will be welcomed. I cautiously turned on my computer and prayed it was working properly. And I was happy to see that one Wi-Fi line had been replaced with a full bar.
I’ve used it for about a week and found it to be a good fit. This also has the added bonus of pushing the signal further out into the garden, which will be welcome during the summer months.
If you have Wi-Fi dead zones or weak signal areas around your home or garden, you might want to give it a try. Some Wi-Fi boosters are quite large and a bit ugly. I mean, it looks out of place when connected, but I didn’t think this booster was that bad in that regard.
One thing worth noting is that the place you plug it in has to be within the router’s existing range for it to work and send more signal. Other user reviews left on Amazon are generally very positive, with an average rating of 4.1 out of 5 stars.
One user wrote, “Very easy to set up and worked great. I had a room where the Wi-Fi was very slow. After installing the extender and connecting to the network it created, the signal was about 50x faster. “We have been boosted by this,” he said.
But another added: “On the positive side, it’s easy to set up because the options are limited, and it’s very cheap.
“On the downside, it’s very limited in functionality. Unless you really dig deep, one specific thing you won’t see mentioned anywhere is that it only supports one WiFi SSID. EAP230/235 or 6XX if you need or need multiple SSIDs (for example, an isolated SSID (guest network to isolate guests from household devices) or VLAN support) You need a more professional level device like the series.”
Argos also sells Wi-Fi boosters at various price points. The Netgear EX3700 AC750 Wi-Fi Dual Band Range Extender is cheap at £29.99, while more expensive and advanced options include the Sonos BOOST Wireless Range Extender, priced at £75.