Guide and tips to buy a WiFi repeater and improve your internet connection

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One of the peculiarities of repeaters is that each one of them tends to create a new different network, so you will have to change the connection point from your device to use it and the repeater will act as an intermediary between your device and the router .

This is the most basic and least efficient solution of all to extend the WiFi coverage of your home. It is, so to speak, like installing an extension so that your WiFi network reaches a few meters away.

The repeater must be located at an intermediate point between the router and the device you want to connect. However, the repeater of a WiFi network should always be under the coverage area of ​​your router, so it is even possible to have to install several if it is very far away.

To maximize the WiFi coverage in your home, these devices are usually at the edge of coverage, a point at which much of the power and connection speed has already been lost, so it is rarely achieved take advantage of the connection speed you have contracted.

WiFi repeaters are useful for connecting certain devices by Ethernet cable, such as Smart TVs, computers or decoders that do not have WiFi connectivity and that are located near the router. In this way, the WiFi repeater is used as a WiFi to Ethernet cable converter, allowing these devices to be connected by cable, but without having to fill your house with network cables.

WiFi repeaters can be found for just over 17 euros if they only use the 2.5 GHz network or for about 26 euros WiFi repeaters that use the two 2.4 and 5 GHz frequency bands to offer greater speed. And if you prefer, you can always buy a new router.

WiFi network extender

With a concept very similar to that of WiFi repeaters, but with slightly higher performance. The purpose of WiFi network extenders is to offer a vitaminized version of the WiFi or network signal they receive.

The main difference between WiFi repeaters and WiFi network extenders is that they boost the same WiFi network they receive, amplifying the signal to take it where the coverage of your router is not capable of reaching.

A characteristic feature of these devices is that they display 2 or more externally visible antennas, which they use to boost your router's wireless signal. They are often confused with WiFi repeaters due to their similarity since, in fact, it is very common for WiFi extenders to include repeater functions.

There are portable WiFi extenders, which have the same plug format as the extenders, and desktop extenders that look more like a router.

The main difference is that the WiFi extenders can not only receive and transmit a WiFi signal from the router, but you can also connect it via a network cable to your router, to broadcast the signal of your WiFi router with more strength. .

Since they need to broadcast with more power or in several frequency bands simultaneously, WiFi extenders usually sport between two and four external antennas.

Its use is recommended when you do not have a WiFi router, or the one you do have is not capable of offering dual frequency band to speed up the WiFi connections in your home to play streaming games without lag or watch streaming videos.

In this case, the WiFi extender extends the features of your router by making its signal reach further and with the same connection speed as by cable.

As you can imagine, higher features also mean higher costs. For a little less than 50 euros you can already find WiFi network extenders with good transmission speeds and Gigabit connectivity, although the most powerful WiFi extenders can be around 130 euros.

Wi-Fi Bridge

The so-called WiFi Bridge or WiFi bridge, is a more advanced WiFi extender system, consisting of two devices in which the first acts as a WiFi transmitter, while the second acts as a receiver.

The sending device connects directly to the router via an Ethernet cable and is responsible for transmitting a powerful encrypted WiFi signal that is only capable of deciphering the remote receiver with which it is synchronized.

For its part, the receiver has several Ethernet connections to which different wired devices can be connected.

This sending device also clones the router's WiFi network, and transmits it using both frequency bands to achieve the same WiFi connection speed that you would get when connecting a device to the router while standing next to it. So it would be almost like cloning the router and placing it near the farthest rooms.

This type of device is perfect when you need to connect several devices using a network cable or deploy greater WiFi coverage at a higher speed, such as when setting up a room for leisure, or to provide coverage to an area where you go to connect gaming devices such as PC gaming or consoles and you do not have a good WiFi connection.

The best exponent of these devices is the Devolo Gigagate which is available on Amazon for around 300 euros.

PLC (Power Line Communications)

The latest method to bring the WiFi signal to the last corner of your house are Power-Line-Communications devices. These devices are often mistaken for WiFi extenders or repeaters because of how they look, but how they work has nothing to do with them.

This system uses the electrical network cables to transmit the Internet signal throughout your house, so that any socket can become an access point.

This is done using a transmitter that connects to your router via an Ethernet cable and plugs into a socket. This device is responsible for converting the digital signal of the Internet into electrical impulses that travel through the electrical installation of your home.

In one of the rooms, a second adapter will be connected to a power outlet that is synchronized with the emitter and connects to the devices via a network cable or WiFi connection. In this way, the information that one transmits to the other is decoded to send it to the Internet or to the device respectively.

The main difference between an extender and a PLC is that the signal is not transmitted via WiFi, but through the electrical installation, to be later decoded and, then, yes, it can be transmitted to other devices via WiFi .

That is, you can take the Internet signal from one end of your house to another, and once there, start transmitting the WiFi signal without the need for intermediate devices that amplify that wireless signal.

This option is perfect for bringing the Internet to different floors of the same home and improving WiFi as long as the electrical installation is the same throughout. Something that is quite a challenge for repeaters and extenders.

The great advantage is that the system is scalable and you only have to add new adapters to expand the WiFi coverage of your home. It would be necessary to add an adapter per floor to have connectivity throughout the house.

In addition, if the electrical installation is of quality, there will hardly be any loss in the connection speed you have contracted, so you will be able to browse at maximum speed from anywhere in your home.

Most allow you to clone your router's network, so for all intents and purposes it will be as if there was just one big WiFi network for your whole house.

These devices are a bit more expensive than quality Wi-Fi extenders, but as a general rule they give better results in most cases. They come in the form of kits made up of two or three devices (transmitter + 1 or 2 receivers) for about 150 euros, although later it can be expanded with more loose adapters for about 70 euros per PLC unit.