NETGEAR WiFi Mesh Range Extender EX6250
Price as of 11/11/2020
List Price: 119.99
Discount Price I paid: $89.00
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2.4Ghz is slower speed wifi but the signal travels farther
5Ghz is faster speed wifi but the signal doesn't travel as far
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My Goal:
Extend my verizon fios router wifi signal for both 2.4Ghz & 5Ghz to my entire NYC apartment.
(Large apartment with many bedrooms, many walls, some of those walls are concrete)
My Verison fios wifi router is on one end of my apartment and i need to boost the signal from that to the other end of the apartment.
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Currently:
I have a Linksys wifi extender i bought years ago but it's too weak to boost both 2.4ghz & 5ghz to the other side of my apartment, it's not strong enough to penetrate all the walls.
All the walls in my apartment eat up the wifi signal.
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New Setup:
With this new Netgear wifi extender, i was able to remove my older wifi extender and i plugged this new Netgear wifi extender into an outlet on the other end of the apartment and now i get FULL BARS for both 2.4Ghz & 5Ghz in the ENTIRE apartment!
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The Netgear status shows me the signal strength the extender is picking up:
2.4Ghz signal strength: 162Mbps
5Ghz signal strength: 585Mbps
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INSTALLATION (setup):
(It comes with a paper instructions booklet plus the instructions are online)
Google: EX6250
The instructions are on the Netgear website.
Very basic simple instructions.
Connect to the netgear extender using a device that has wifi (i used a windows 10 PC), connect it to the netgear wifi extender and then in your web browser go enter this URL address:
http://192.168.1.250
(You should be able to do this same thing on a mobile phone or tablet)
That will take you to the Netgear admin page where you can follow the steps to configure your device.
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Additional options:
There is an ethernet port on the device if you want to hardwire an ethernet cable to the wifi extender to configure the admin settings and as another way to connect the wifi extender to your network.
Fastlane option. From what i read, that will boost your 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz signal. You have to turn this option on and then you need to pick which signal to boost. You can only do one. So have to pick 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz. So if you only need 5Ghz then you can use fastlane on the 5Ghz and the 2.4Ghz will be turned off. And now your 5Ghz will be faster.
NOTE:
I would not use the "fastlane" option because Amazon Alexa smart plugs use 2.4Ghz. They won't work with 5Ghz unless you can find ones that do.
There is a 1 button quick setup. (WPS) but i don't use that. That basically lets you configure your home router so that if you press the WPS button on two devices (router and wifi extender). They will quickly sync together (quick setup) but you need to have that WPS option on your home router for it to work and that option needs to be enabled to allow it.
NOTE:
I don't use that because that will also allow anyone to walk over to your router and connect themselves to your network without needing any passwords. (bad security)
Access point option. I don't plan to use that option. The wifi extender has a ethernet port on it, for the access point to work you need to use an ethernet cable and connect your router and this wifi extender together. I'm not 100% sure what the access point would be good for because the wifi extender option works really well. It's all you really need.
I don't know much about how that access point would work or how you should or could use it so i wont comment much on that.
In the end i ended up using the Ethernet port on the WIFI Extender to connect an ethernet cable from the WIFI Extender to my Roku.
Another good option, buy a small 8 or less port Ethernet Hub. Connect an Ethernet cable from the WIFI extender into the Hub. Now you can connect devices with an Ethernet cable (laptop, ethernet printer, etc), directly to the WIFI extender (assuming you need / want a wired connection)
The only reason to do this? Possibly a more stable internet connection? If all else fails. Try that.
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CONCLUSION:
This Netgear wifi extender is POWERFUL while being very compact. No external antennas required. Looks very clean when installed into a wall outlet. If you install at the top outlet, the bottom outlet will NOT be blocked.
I highly recommend buying it. A little pricey but it works well! Now it may be overkill if your apartment is very tiny. But if you have a ton of bedrooms with lots of walls & weak wifi signal. This should easily fix it.
If you have a big home especially with a big backyard and you currently have a weak signal. This might also be useful to cover a huge range and get wifi across your whole home and yard.
BUT check the specs first. The specs show the range it covers. It looks like you can connect two of these wifi extenders together if you need a bigger range but start with only 1 because it works so well you might only need 1.
| Wireless Type | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac |
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