TP- Link 3. 00. Mbps Universal Wi. Fi Range Extender (TL- WA8.

TP- Link 3. 00. Mbps Universal Wi. Fi Range Extender (TL- WA8.

RE) Review & Rating TP- Link's 3. Mbps Universal Wi. Fi Range Extender (TL- WA8. RE) is one of the better wireless range extenders I've tested in the last two years. It's not as powerful as D- Link's Wireless N3. Range Extender DAP- 1.

It's also much less feature- rich than the Netgear AC1. Wi. Fi Range Extender. Additionally, its one Ethernet port only supports 1. Gigabit Ethernet. Still, the TP- Link extender, is affordable and extraordinarily easy to set up and configure. And, in my tests, it  provided decent range, extending a signal up to about 7.

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That's not bad, though I'd like to have seen better. Specs. The TL- WA8.

RE is a dual- band wall- mountable device that supports up to 3. Mbps throughput. It's larger than the D- Link DAP- 1. TP- Link's extender measures 3. HWD). It has two prongs to fit into a power outlet and a very cool, circular LED on the front. The display will tell you, depending on which section of the circle is lit up or blinking, whether the gadget is currently extending a network,  and the strength of the wireless signal. The extender also has an Ethernet port, so it can act as a bridge, allowing you to connect one device via wired to your wireless network.

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However, it's only Fast Ethernet, so you won't get the advantage of wired Gigabit speed. Set up and Pairing with a Router. I tested the extender with TP- Link's Archer C7 router.

Although you should be able to use any range extenders with any brand of router, my testing shows you get optimal performance and fewer setup hassles when you use an extender of the same brand as your router. The extender ships with an RJ- 4. CD containing a user manual, and a quick installation guide. There are two ways to set it all up; I tested both, and they both work swimmingly. The first method is using WPS, if your router supports it. Plug in the extender and turn it on.

Once the Wireless portion of the circular LED flashes, press the WPS button on the router and then the WPS button on the extender (the button is on the front of the extender in the middle of the circular LED). When the RE (Range Extender) part of the LED blinks and then lights solid, a connection between the router and extender has been established. Using WPS, the router's settings are automatically copied over to the extender, as well as the security level and passphrase. The extender and router now have the same SSID. To ensure that the extender was connected to the Archer's wireless network, I went into the router's management interface to check the DHCP client table (the extender will pick up an IP address from the router's DHCP).

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Sure enough, the TL- WA8. RE was listed as a DHCP client.

The second method takes a little longer, but it gives you more control over the extender's settings. When the Wireless portion of the LED flashes, you can connect a laptop to the extender via the extender's Ethernet port, or you can wirelessly connect using the default Wi- Fi network preconfigured on the extender. The SSID is TP- LINK. Of course, once the extender is paired with your router, you use the router's security and passphrase or change it manually from the default. After connecting, fire up a browser and go to http: //tplinkextender.

Enter username and password when prompted (This information is also provided in the guide). A wizard within the extender's interface walks you through a quick setup: Select your country and then the software detects all of the wireless networks in proximity. Choose the network you want to extend from the list of neighboring networks detected. You will need to know the passphrase of the network to be extended, of course.

You can copy over the SSID of your router's network, or you can customize an SSID so that you can manually connect a wireless device to the extender—this is the method I prefer. It's handy to know which SSID belongs to the router and which to the extender, because if you are in a known . This way, if you need to reset the extender back to factory settings, you can just import the configurations back into the device. The setup process was smooth no matter which method I tested. I also tested doing a hard reset to the extender; this promptly set the device back to factory default and gave me no issue re- configuring. I have tested extenders that are finicky when getting reset back to factory settings; the Netgear Universal Wi. Fi Range Extender (WN2.

RPT), is a good example. Performance. TP- Link's extender did not offer the farthest- reaching coverage of extenders I've tested.

As I mentioned, both the Editor's Choice pick D- Link DAP- 1. Netgear EX6. 20. 0 are more powerful extenders. However, the TP- Link device did a good job of extending the Archer router's signal up to about 7. At 7. 5 feet, I still had four signal strength bars in Windows and Internet access, albeit at slow speeds. Beyond 7. 5 feet, my signal was so slow as to be useless. At this price point, I'd like to see at least some throughput at this distance.

Both the D- Link DAP- 1. Bear. Extender PC managed to at least let me browse the Internet at a reasonable speed at a distance over 7. Affordable Extender for Smaller Areas.

The TL- WA8. 50. RE is a good choice for a smaller home or apartment that has a dead zone in a particular area. It's very easy to set up and not headache- inducing to return back to factory settings. It's certainly worth a look if you use TP- Link's routers or access points. The TP- Link's 3. Mbps Universal Wi.

Fi Range Extender (TL- WA8. RE) is a good extender.

The current Editors' Choice for wireless range extenders is Netgear's AC1. Wifi Range Extender (EX6.

Using a repeater halves the bandwidth of the wireless network for devices connecting through the repeater, which in many cases is livable but may cause some significant speed loss. It all depends on what you're trying to do. If you're trying to get wireless in the garden, a repeater is probably your best choice. If you have an office upstairs that doesn't quite get a strong enough signal from the router downstairs, you may be better off setting up an access point instead. This means running an Ethernet cable from the downstairs router to the upstairs office, and connecting an access point (there are lots of multi- mode devices out there, that can operate as repeaters, access points or bridges) to that.

The access point will transmit a Wi- Fi signal which will be a separate Wi- Fi from the downstairs. This means that moving a laptop from upstairs to downstairs will mean having to switch the Wi- Fi network you are connected to. However, the overall quality of the connection will be better upstairs.

Also even though there are two distinct wireless networks, you can still share something like a printer between them - that's because they're still part of the overall, wired network, and at the end of the day all connect through the same router to connect to the Internet. Some more information on repeaters here.