Editor’s Note: We think you should be aware that TP-Link routers are under investigation by the US government over security concerns and could be banned in the US this year, according to multiple news reports. The TP-Link Archer RE605X was previously named our best overall choice for Wi-Fi extenders. While our evaluation of the hardware hasn’t changed, out of extreme caution for our readers, we decided to pause it as our top recommendation until we learn more. Read CNET's reporting for more information.
Even the newest Wi-Fi routers will struggle to connect every corner of a multi-story home. When that happens, you have two choices: Swap out your router for a mesh system or add a Wi-Fi extender to your existing router. For as little as $20, a Wi-Fi extender can boost your internet signal to a specific area without you having to invest in an entirely new setup. Installation is as simple as plugging the extender into an electrical outlet and connecting it to your Wi-Fi router. If that sounds too good to be true, it kind of is.
CNET’s testing has found that Wi-Fi extenders can be a passable solution if you’re looking to improve the connection in a single room, but you’ll likely end up disappointed if you’re hoping to boost the speeds to an entire floor or wing of your home. For that, you’re better off upgrading to a full-fledged mesh system.
If you’re looking to bring your Wi-Fi outside the house, be sure to check out our explainer on extending Wi-Fi outdoors, which includes recommendations for Wi-Fi extenders and mesh networks.
What is the best Wi-Fi extender overall?
If you decide to go the Wi-Fi extender route, our vote for the best Wi-Fi extender is the Linksys RE7310. While it’s slightly more expensive than other models at $80, it delivered significant speed boosts in every room we tested and offers full support for Wi-Fi 6 speeds.
If you’re looking for something more affordable, there are plenty of options for under $50, although not all of them have Wi-Fi 6 support. We’ve spent the past few years regularly testing them to find the best of the bunch. After countless tests, our data identified the range extenders that reigned supreme. Let’s get right to them.
Best Wi-Fi extenders
What is a Wi-Fi range extender?
Also called a Wi-Fi signal booster, a range or Wi-Fi extender is a compact, plug-in device that is simple and hassle-free to implement. Wi-Fi extenders use built-in Wi-Fi radios and antennas to pair wirelessly with your router; no Ethernet cable required. Just plug one near the edge of your router’s wireless range and pair it with the network, and it’ll start rebroadcasting the signal farther out for significantly faster internet speeds throughout your home.
Should I buy a Wi-Fi extender?
Wi-Fi extenders are great options when you have a single room that you want to give a speed boost, like an office or a room with a smart TV. Wi-Fi extenders are generally less expensive than upgrading to a full-fledged mesh router with its own mesh Wi-Fi systems and range-extending satellite devices. Plus, they are generally a cinch to set up, they’ll work no matter what brand of router you’re using, and you can typically use the same SSID and password as your original router. That creates a single, seamless connection that will give you the best Wi-Fi range available with your current setup — all without you needing to think about it too much.
However, signal boosters can’t extend your Wi-Fi signal to an entire floor or side of the house like a mesh router can. An extender is only as good as the router it’s connected to, which means you won’t see huge improvements if your router is failing, outdated or in the wrong spot.
How CNET tests Wi-Fi extenders and signal boosters
We ran tests at the CNET Smart Home, a 5,800-square-foot multistory home in the outskirts of Louisville, Kentucky, that served as a living lab for our product tests. It’s a much better environment for testing wireless devices at range than a personal, somewhat cramped, shotgun-style house — and with more ground to cover, it offered a much bigger challenge for these extenders.
The CNET Smart Home has a fiber internet connection with matching upload and download speeds of up to 150Mbps. That’s a far cry from the gigabit connections more and more of us have access to (not to mention the new, blazing-fast multi-gig internet plans emerging across the country). However, it’s in line with the Federal Communication Commission’s broadband definition, which makes it a great place to test how home networking products will work for the average consumer.
For our purposes, we started by setting up a router in the Smart Home’s laundry room, where the modem is set up. We went with the Netgear R6700AX, a perfectly decent model we’ve reviewed in the past. It offered reliable performance but limited range when we tested it — and that’s exactly what we wanted for these range extender tests.
Sure enough, the router delivered strong speeds on the home’s main floor, but as soon as we went down to the basement level, speeds started to fall. That includes single-digit upload speeds in the bourbon room and the mud room. (Yes, the Smart Home has a bourbon room that the previous owners used to age their own barrels. We don’t have any barrels of our own, but it smells amazing in there. Kentucky, ya’ll!)
Running the range test
With our control speeds established, it was time to start adding in the range boosters and seeing which ones improved things the best. Pairing each one with the router required us only to plug it in nearby and press the WPS button on both devices — after that, we relocated them downstairs to the basement rec room, which was the farthest point from the router that still had a decent signal and speeds. Whenever you’re using a Wi-Fi range extender, that’s typically the best place to put it: just shy of the edge of your router’s range, where it will still receive a strong enough signal to put out a strong signal of its own. The best way to find that spot? Grab your phone or laptop and run some speed tests.
In the end, we ran at least 96 speed tests for each extender, two rounds of 24 tests to find its average speeds to a Wi-Fi 5 client device (an iPad Air 2 from 2015) and another two rounds of 24 tests to check its speeds to a Wi-Fi 6 client device (a 2021 Lenovo ThinkPad laptop). In each case, we started the first round of tests with a fresh connection in the laundry room, closest to the router, and then started the second round of tests with a fresh connection in the mud room, farthest from the router. With each test, we logged the client device’s download speed, its upload speed and the latency of the connection.
Aside from our speed tests, we streamed video on each extender’s network and made several video calls while connected through each one. We also spent time playing with each extender’s settings. You shouldn’t expect much, but most will at least make it easy to change the extension network’s name or password. Some include app controls with extra features, too.
It’s also worth making sure that your range extender includes at least one Ethernet port (almost all of them do). If you can directly connect your wired device (like a smart TV), then you’ll enjoy speeds that are as fast as possible.
Wi-Fi extender test results
Ready to see how the range extenders did in terms of upload and download speeds? Let’s take a look.
On the left, this first set of graphs shows you the average download speeds by room for each extender we tested. On the right, you’re looking at the average upload speeds. All of these speeds are to our Wi-Fi 6 test device, a Lenovo ThinkPad laptop from 2021.
So what jumps out? First, all five of these extenders did a decent job of boosting speeds in those last four rooms, down in the basement. With all of them, we had a faster connection throughout the house than we had when we connected through the router alone. The D-Link EaglePro AI struggled a bit with upload speeds in the basement, but still kept things above a minimum of 20Mbps or so.
That was with a Wi-Fi 6 device, though. How did the performance look with an older Wi-Fi 5 device from several years ago?
Things get interesting here — you can see a greater gulf between download and upload performance, as well as some more distinct weak spots and dead zones throughout the house. Each of the five extenders struggled to keep uploads speedy in the upstairs dinette, for instance. With Wi-Fi 6, we barely saw any issues there at all, save for the Netgear Nighthawk X4S.
Meanwhile, in the basement, our top picks from TP-Link and Linksys (as well as the high-performing Asus RP-AX56) were each able to keep download speeds above 100Mbps, which is great. Uploads were another story, as all of the extenders struggled. None of them failed to deliver a usable upload connection outright, though the D-Link EaglePro AI came close with single-digit upload speeds in the basement’s farthest reaches.
The TP-Link RE605X makes it easy to tweak settings via TP-Link’s Tether app on an Android or iOS device. Again, the features make for slim pickings, but you can check signal strength or turn on High-Speed Mode, which dedicates the 2.4GHz band for traffic from the router to the range extender, leaving the 5GHz free for your regular Wi-Fi network traffic. That mode wasn’t as fast as sharing the 5GHz band like normal when we tested it out, because those incoming 2.4GHz speeds are limited, but it still might be a helpful option in some situations.
Another key takeaway from these tests is that Wi-Fi 6 delivers some of its most noticeable speed boosts on the upload side of things. If you’re looking to make lots of video calls, upload lots of large files to the web or anything else requiring sturdy upload performance, then upgrading to Wi-Fi 6 hardware should be high on your list of priorities (assuming you haven’t already made the jump).
Affordable Wi-Fi booster picks
For our first batch of range extender tests a few years back, we tested four bargain-priced models to see which one offered the most bang for the buck. It was the start of the pandemic and people were scrambling to bolster their home networks — we wanted to be sure we could point them to a good, budget-friendly pick that would do the best job as a signal booster offering an extra room’s worth of coverage in a pinch.
In the end, the aforementioned TP-Link RE220 was the runaway winner. Currently available for $15, it remains a solid value pick.
We’ve separated these models from the other six because the test setup was different in our initial tests, and it wouldn’t be fair to directly compare those results. You’ve already read about the TP-Link RE220, but here are our takeaways from the others we tested:
D-Link DAP-1620: This was the only range extender that ever managed to hit triple digits during our tests, with an average speed of 104Mbps in the bedroom during evening hours. The setup was just as simple as what we experienced with TP-Link, too. We could stream HD video, browse the web and make video calls on the extender’s network without any issue.
Network speeds were inconsistent, though — and much slower in daytime hours, with a bigger dropoff than we saw with TP-Link. The device also dropped our connection at one point during our speed tests. On top of that, the app was too finicky for our tastes, refusing to let us log in and tweak settings with the supplied device password, which ultimately forced us to reset the device. That’s too much hassle for us to recommend outright, but if you can grab it on sale for less than $30, it could be a decent alternative to the TP-Link RE220.
Netgear EX3700: It’s a dated-looking device and it wasn’t a strong performer in our tests. The 2.4GHz band was able to sustain workable speeds between 30 and 40Mbps throughout most of the home, which was strong enough to stream video with minimal buffering, or to hold a quick video call with a slight delay. But the 5GHz band was surprisingly weak, often dropping into single digits with only a single wall separating the PC or connected device from the range extender.
We also weren’t fans of the web interface, as it seemed more interested in getting us to register for the warranty (and opt in to marketing emails) than in actually offering any sort of control over the connection. WPS button-based setup lets you skip all of that, which is helpful, and some outlets now have it listed for less than $30, but even so, this is one you can safely pass by.
Bottom line
Before investing in a Wi-Fi extender, evaluate the Wi-Fi problems you’re trying to fix. Are you trying to improve internet access in one room or extend the internet to an entire floor? Wi-Fi extenders aren’t as effective as mesh Wi-Fi systems in improving signal throughout the house, but they still offer impressive speed boosts in rooms that need them. Our top pick was the Linksys RE7310w, with the TP-Link RE605X coming in as a close second. If you want to stay within a budget, our top competitively priced pick is the TP-Link RE220.