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    August 12, 2016
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ifconfig's Reviews
 
Eliminate spotty coverage and dead zones. The AC1200 Wi-Fi Range Extender forms a wireless connection to your router and brings a Wi-Fi signal into areas that your router cannot reach. It also reduces signal interference to ensure reliable coverage throughout your home or office.
 
Customer Rating
5 out of 5
5
Great Range Extender and Excellent Product
on August 12, 2016
Posted by: ifconfig
The product I used for testing was provided by TP-Link free of charge as a part of their Review Program in exchange for an honest review. I am not being paid in any way to deliver a positive review.
The first thing you see is the packaging. TP-Link really nailed the presentation on this. It feels like opening up an Apple product, with all separately packaged accessories, matching colors and a nicely displayed view of the AC-1200 Range Extender. If the unboxing experience means anything to you, it will make you deeply happy inside as you set it up. Inside the box is the unit itself, a 3 foot Cat 5e patch cord (I wish this was a Cat 6 cable, as they have better gigabit performance), and the package of paper that contains the Quick Start Guide.
For whatever reason, the 1st setup option (With the Kasa app) didn’t work for me on my Moto G3, but the 2nd option (Through the web interface @ tplinkrepeater.net while connected to the repeater’s Wi-Fi network) worked very well for me. Personally, as a networking dude, that wasn’t an inconvenience, and it was so easy, my mom could do it. Setup with the web interface was a breeze. The setup was fluid: set up the 2.4GHz band and then the 5GHz band and then you are done.
At the top of the web interface, there are options to restart the unit and log out of the admin account. Peeking into the “Settings” tab on the web interface reveals more features, usually only featured on prosumer routers. If you want to try out these settings on your own, you can always use the TP-Link UI emulator for your product before you buy by going to their site: http://www.tp-link.com/en/emulators.html
1: The “Status” tab includes detailed info on the status of the connection to the router and that of the repeated network, status on the IP address and connection mode (DHCP or Static IP) of the LAN port on the side of the unit for use with Ethernet only devices and a client list of devices connected to the repeater.
2: The “Wireless” tab contains the fields to change the network it is connected to and the SSID of the repeater as well as a nifty feature that allows the ability to allow only certain devices on the network (white list) or to block certain devices from using the network (blacklist).
3: The “Network” tab controls whether or not the repeater will use a static or automatically obtained IP address (DHCP), whether or not the repeater has its own DHCP server, and which band
(2.4 or 5 GHz) the traffic from the LAN port on the unit will flow through. 5 GHz is better for Speed, but 2.4 GHz is better for reliability and range.
4: The “System Tools” tab gives access to the Time Zone settings, Night Mode configuration (Turns off the LEDs on the unit during hours you specify), Firmware Upgrade, Backup and Restore (settings and configurations), the admin account password and the System Log.
IMPORTANT NOTE: I do wish that TP-Link had included a feature allowing the repeated network to be broadcasted on a different channel than the host network, as failing to do this can result in degraded performance and crosstalk between the two networks.
Pros:
-The software is easy to learn and feature rich
-The inclusion of the Ethernet jack on the side is very useful
-The System Log is very verbose and has filters for sifting through it
-The settings give access to features usually only found on prosumer routers and very infrequently on repeaters
-There is a clear way for both a simple “Plug-and-Play” type user and a power user to make the most out of this unit, with a very shallow but powerful learning curve for simple users to get more involved
-A night mode is a nice touch for those who live in small apartments
Cons
-The repeated network must be broadcasting on the same channel as the host network
-The inclusion of only a Cat 5e cable instead of a Cat 6 is minor, but not negligible
-The Kasa app, while being easy to use, has no support for giving detailed errors when things go wrong in setup
Testing:
Pings: All tests were performed by pinging to my 1Gbps capable Desktop computer from my laptop capable of wireless AC 2x2 MU-MIMO. 60 pings were sent all tests.
-While connected to the host router (2.4G, N): Min: 2ms, Max: 102ms, Average: 18ms
-While connected to the host router (5G, N): Min: 6ms, Max: 32ms, Average: 16ms
-While connected to the range extender, directly connected to the host router (2.4G, N): Min: 5ms, Max: 78ms, Average: 17ms
-While connected to the range extender, directly connected to the host router (5G, AC): Min: 4ms, Max: 42ms, Average: 14ms
IPerf: All tests were performed by pinging to my 1Gbps capable Desktop computer from my laptop capable of wireless AC 2x2 MU-MIMO. IPerf measured every second for 30 seconds for all tests.
-While connected to the host router (2.4G, N): 50.3 Mbps/sec
-While connected to the host router (5, N): 76.5 Mbps/sec
-While connected to the range extender, directly connected to the host router (2.4G, N): 24.6 Mbps/sec
-While connected to the range extender, directly connected to the host router (5G, AC): 44.3 Mbps/sec
Conclusion: If all you want is to expand your network and eliminate dead spots, this product is a stellar example of how to do it properly. A wired solution with 2 APs (Access Points) connected to the same router by an Ethernet cable is always preferred, but with houses where that isn’t always an option, this is sometimes the only solution.
I would recommend this to a friend!
-1point
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