We have a ranch style house, and once you get to either end, or the back yard, wifi won’t pick up.
Is there a decent extender that y’all have used and know that it works? It needs to be cheap too..😂

I moved my office from downstairs to upstairs room over the garage. I found my wifi connection to be lacking in that room. I moved my router to a central location downstairs and added a TP-Link wifi extender upstairs. The difference has been night and day better with the extender.

TP-Link AC1900 RE550

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Extender-RE550-1900Mbps-Wireless/dp/B08TLT65WM/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=1YB4396YVYGLS&keywords=tp%2Blink%2Bac1900%2Bwifi%2Bextender&qid=1692195902&sprefix=tp%2Blink%2Bac1900%2Caps%2C117&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&th=1

Extenders are ok, but you should probably upgrade to a mesh-type solution. Better connection speeds and easy to install/manage. Apple, Google Home, Eero, Ubiquity… most wifi vendors offer expandable residential mesh.

This.

I put a Google mesh system in our new(er) house. I have been liking it.

We have the EERO and it works great.

This again unless you have the skillz to run cable and put in an access point on that end of the house.

Yep

I used a Deco which I believe is now TP-Link. Mine works very well in my older 5500sf house. I have 3 devices and get coverage everywhere, even in my neighbors house I can pickup my signal.

I recently put a Deco in a friends house and it works very well. Easy set up and the app walks you through everything.
I wouldn't put a Google or Amazon mesh system in anything I own.

Those mesh systems are just acting as wifi extenders if you are hooking them into each other wirelessly. Now if you have a cat 5 running to each of your mesh devices, that is totally different.

EERO Pro 6E

That’s true for a lot of them, but some have a separate radio for “backhauling” the connection to the wired unit. Those tend to work better than a WiFi “backhaul.” I agree with you that wired interconnects are the fastest and most reliable. On the other hand, if you have a 50 or 100 Mb connection to the outside, a separate wireless backhaul providing 500Mb is plenty for most folks who are not doing anything much within the house. (Gaming, running your own video server, or a bunch of WiFi surveillance cameras.)

Interesting, I'll have to go look at which ones do that. I guess my point really was, if you think you just need one extender, then just get an extender, no need for a whole mesh system of sorts.

Thanks for all the input. I need at least two , one on each end, and possibly one outside.
Now I have some options to research though.
I can run cable, my bedroom tv is hardwired into my router because we have very little wifi back there.
I did that when we dropped satellite.

We have a house that has a couple floors and is spread out. We tried extenders and the mesh units, the best I found was to install access points. I added an access point outside and in the garage. They also work through brick walls not just drywall.

Hey Davy, an access point is just running one Ethernet cable to a room? I have one ran to my bedroom tv and it’s great, but it still doesn’t help with the room wifi, like cell phones. Am I missing something on access points? Is there another router there? Thanks

If you got a mesh system say with 3 devices, then you could put the primary mesh device by your cable modem/router and plug that bedroom ethernet cable into it, then connect the ethernet cable you have ran to your bedroom into another one of the mesh devices that's in your bedroom. Depending on your device, you could then still use an ethernet cable to your tv, but you would also have excellent wifi in your bedroom as well. And if you had a 3rd mesh device, you could have it setup on the other side of the house and wirelessly backhaul to the primary mesh device. Clear as mud?

In that scenario, your mesh device in the bedroom is essentially an "access point".

I added one of these downstairs. I needed a good signal downstairs for our movie room and I didn't want to run another cable/line down there. I found this. It plugs into the wall outlet near the modem/router and sends a signal over your powerline. You use the wireless plug in where you need another signal transmitted. It's worked great for years.



https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Powerline-802-11ac-Gigabit-PLW1000-100NAS/dp/B01B5CTRGE/ref=sr_1_3?crid=20SJ3SZ9W601Q&keywords=NETGEAR%2BPowerline%2Bwireless&qid=1692285360&s=electronics&sprefix=netgear%2Bpowerline%2Bwireles%2Celectronics%2C177&sr=1-3&th=1