D-Link N300 Mesh Wi-Fi Range Extender- Cover up to 850 sq. ft. - Mesh, Booster, Repeater, Access Point, Extend Wi-Fi in Your Home, Ethernet Port, Easy App Setup, (DAP-1325-US)

My Comcast combination modem/router (Arris TG862G) provides a terrible wireless signal. It is big and ugly and sits in the office near the front of the house. Unless we are in the same room as the router, it is pretty much useless. The wireless signal has zero strength outside the room. Our 2 story + daylight basement has cat5e wiring throughout, but they were not active. I am familiar with installing software and I'm happy to research and try to learn just about anything, but I am definitely not a computer expert and I know nothing about networks. This weekend I decided to try to fix our internet problems.Stage 1: Get the in-wall ethernet ports working. It bothered me that I had all of these outlets throughout the house and they were inactive. I wanted to be able to hard-wire my Xbox. It turned out to be easy. Find the cable panel, buy an 8-port switch, plug the 8 ethernet cables that are dangling in the panel into the switch, and run an ethernet cable "out" of the Arris router and into the wall. Done. I took my laptop and an ethernet cable to each port and tested it. 120mbps at every outlet (which is far higher than what I pay for).Stage 2: Improve wireless signal. Since we have the ethernet ports throughout the house, I only really needed an access point (not necessarily a router, although a router would have worked just the same). I did a fair amount of research and read a lot of reviews. Ultimately, I think there are a lot of good routers/access points and I just had to pick one. My criteria? (1) I wanted something with ac connection for our iphones and tvs. (2) It didn't have to be the fastest thing out there, given that our internet is only about 100 Mbps. (3) Around $100 or less (not because I don't think that the more expensive ones are better, but because I felt I could get what I needed for $100). (4) Something that would fit on a shelf or tv stand in my family room and not look like a router. (5) Easy set up.When I got this router, I read through the few short pages of instructions. If you are using this as a range extender, setup is literally 30 seconds. There isn't a section of the instructions labeled "access point mode," so I just followed the "configure the dap-1650 using a web browser" instructions. It was easy. It took 10 minutes max to name the 2.4GHz and 5Ghz, set the passwords, and connect my devices.My setup: Unlike some other reviewers, I have set the 2.4GHz to be a separate network from my existing network (i.e., the 2.4 GHz signal from the Arris router). If the Arris router was good, I could see merging those networks (using the same SSID and password) so that your devices could jump from one to the other, but the Arris signal is so bad that our 2.4GHz devices won't ever use it. Ever.Results: On the 5Ghz network, in our open concept family room, kitchen, and dining room, I am getting 120 mbps --- the same as if our devices were hard-wired. Amazing. At the other end of the house, opposite this AP, it is about 70. Upstairs and downstairs, immediately above and below where this AP is located, we are also getting 120 mbps, with decreases to about 70 throughout the house.On the 2.4GHz network, in the family room area, it is about 35Mbps, although I haven't tried to optimize this by changing channels, etc.For comparison, on the 2.4GHz network from my Arris router, in the family room (about 30 feet from the router), the download speed was 1.4mbps. Yes, 1.4.Not only does it work great, but it is small and easy to hide, and it doesn't have a bunch of antennas screaming that it's a router. I could place this in any room in the house and it would look fine.Overall, I'm extremely pleased. It does everything that I wanted it to. I don't need a network that covers acres of property, but I want to have a good signal everywhere in my house. This has allowed me to do that. I would definitely recommend it (and already have).

I was really surprised with this router, in a good way. I purchased it to expand our home's wireless coverage, using it in the "access point" mode.My primary router already had Wireless AC 1200+ connectivity, which is located in the basement. The house also has CAT6 networking pre-wired throughout which is centralized through a gigabit Hub. Basically I ran a network cable from one of my primary routers' Ethernet ports into the wall. Then I connected this new D-link router into one of the network ports upstairs which enables them to communicate with each other. Using the router's built-in configuration software (as indicated in the instructions) I was able to go through the set-up wizard, and elect "Access Point" mode. Thanks to being connected already via the network cable to my primary router it was able to pick up all the right settings and add an additional Wireless signal to my network.IMPORTANT TIP: When you add this to a network essentially creating two wireless signals, you should make sure that your channels are different to help boost your performance. For example: for your 2.4Ghz signals, make sure that one device is set to Channel 6, and one to Channel 11. With the 5Ghz signals, do the same, having one set (for example) to 36 and one to 44. Keep in mind that the gap you set between the 5Ghz channels may need to vary depending on the channel "width" you set. I.e. a "40Mhz channel width" will mean your signal will broadcast on BOTH channel 36 and 40 (as opposed to a 20Mhz channel width which will only utilize channel 36). This means that your second wifi signal's channels should start at 44 so it does not overlap.I realized that I could have this new access point set up in one of two ways: With the same SSID and Password as my existing wireless signal coming from my primary router. OR: Set it up as a new Wireless signal (for Example: "network2" or "upstairs"). Both would work fine as your connected devices would automatically choose the stronger of the two signals when connecting. I chose, however, to have it called a different name to my existing Wireless signal, because I understand that once a device is connected and you move to an area where the signal you have locked onto is weaker than the other signal, it may not switch automatically. I wanted to be aware of this when it happens (something you have no way of knowing if they both share the same SSID). This is just a personal preference, and ho no bearing on performance.The performance is great, maintaining a solid connection, regardless of the device, throughout the home, and the AC performance is really fast and great for streaming HD video (even 4K). All of this functionality and performance comes at a very reasonable price and I would highly recommend this device, either as an expansion on an existing network, or a standalone router!

Using this device (DAP 1650, Wireless AC1200 Dual Band Gigabit Range Extender) as an Extender.Update: Now works really well. Speed is good. All my devices in the dead area are connected to the extender and they work really well. Occassionally when my provider lags, it will drop. It sometimes reconnects on it's own, but sometimes it takes so long I push the rest to force it to search for the signal. But I am happy with it. So happy I wanted to buy another and now see the price has increased.The instructions in the book seemed easy enough, but I must not be as okay with tech as I thought because I didn't realise that the extender set-up was the long one (page 7 of the manual) and not the short "press WPS on router, then press WPS on D-Link then you're done". So I had left it for hours thinking it was doing a firmware upgrade (flashing orange internet LED)Once that was sorted (and it was easy to follow instructions) it gave 2 solid green lights and I moved it to the dead zone. It took longer than the 10 seconds I see in the majority of reviews, but it did eventually give me 2 steady green lights as well. My devices picked it up and connected.ButI tested the speed and it was slow. So slow that I went back to using my main system (that I had THOUGHT was slow) to be able to send this review. The laptop is connected to Old Slow Boat and the phone is connected to New Slow Boat. Phone is slower in speed (read: connectivity) than the laptop.Could be I am having a really bad service night form my provider? Dunno. But the signal strength is VERY strong, but not fast at all. Will give it a few more days.