Wi-Fi Extender

Linksys RE1000 Wireless-N Range Extender Review

I used to have 2 Wireless Routers, one in the living room (for smartphones and guest laptops) and one in the master bedroom (for my iMac and personal laptop). But since my family has moved back home to Indonesia, I’ve decided to move the iMac and the ThinkPad to the living room, so that I can multi-task among wathing CNN/BBC, playing Xbox, on my iMac, on my Windows 8 tablet, and on my ThinkPad. This is my new ZeddyLabs setup in the living room:

Now with all my possible desktop/laptop/tablet in one long table, the master bedroom is now just that, a gadget-free place to rest…until I found out that during the weekend I’m too lazy to get up and walk to the living room just to quickly check my emails or browse the online Kindle Book Store.

So my master bedroom once again needs Internet access, but this time I wanted to try if one of those Wi-Fi range extenders really work. If it does, that would be great, as it is more aesthetically-pleasing (no extra table to put the extra router on and no messy LAN cable below the table connecting to the far-away LAN outlet).

0. The Target

The room next to the living room (where the router is) can access Internet with no problem. So we can plug the Wi-Fi Extender here, and let’s see if it extends to the room next to it (the target room):

And this is what Windows Phone sees when we’re inside the target room (living router network name is ZSabai, not found below):

 

1. Introducing Cisco Linksys RE1000

This is what the box looks like:

Next, we plug the Extender into an electric wall socket in the middle room that can see the router:

There is no manual in the box. There’s only a CDROM that Linksys asks to insert in order to setup the Extender. Right, let’s see if this CDROM works in my iMac…

Right, so the CDROM works for Mac, now let’s see what Setup does…

So we want this Extender to extend the ZSabai wireless network, let’s just do that then…

Now let’s walk to the target room and see if my Windows Phone can pick up the extended ZSabai network…

Wohoo, success and judging by the radar meter, the signal is pretty strong too!

PS: There is a reset button on the Extender. You need to hit this reset if you want the Extender to switch to a new network.

 

2. VERDICT

Recommended to buy if you just have one router and more than 1-bedroom apartment.

Click below to find out the current price from Amazon