[section_title title=Conclusion]
Conclusion
So what did I make of the TP-Link RE200 WiFi AC750 range extender? Well, hopefully, it’ll be first of many we here at play3r will get to see.
It performed admirably, even without antennas it provided a signal over a distance of 25m through one fo the walls of my flat outside to me down the road. The signal was somewhat weaker than from the actual router itself which was strange, as I thought the router may have just taken over, but it showed it was doing its job. Ping times were more than acceptable, but I wasn’t going to sit outside in the wind to play a game on my laptop for an hour to prove a point.
The aesthetics of the RE200 are very pleasing. TP-Link could well have stuck a plain rounded panel on the front like other competitor models but chose to do something nice with the finish. The glossy plastic didn’t attract much in the way of finger prints either which was good to see. Wherever you plan on putting this in your house, apartment, flat, office, etc it will look at home.
Being able to connect directly to it to set it up is good. Without having to rely solely on a feature like WPS, which doesn’t always work, is a great addition. Connecting to the device once set up, the easiest way I find is connecting to it through the ‘Network Map’ loads TP-Links familiar easy to use menus from all other products they offer.
The TP-Link RE200 can be had for around £40 making this a good priced AC range extender product. We need to remember that AC is still the newest networking standard so prices so still reflect that. Using 300Mbps 2.4Ghz and 433Mbps on the 5GHz range, the RE200 is ideally suited for a lot of the AC router TP-Link, and others, have to offer. As I was using it with the TP-Link Archer D9 router, I noticed the drop from the 866Mbps connection I get on my laptop when connecting directly. However, if I needed the range I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending the RE200 to you.
I would like to thank TP-Link and eBuyer for sending me the RE200 for review and look forward to seeing more from them in the future.
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Performance
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Design
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Value
Summary
A great price, the usual TP-Link features and a nice white body.
Pros:
– Glossy textured white finish.
– Small size.
– Easy to use menu.
– WPS connectivity.
– AC750.
Cons:
– Internal antennas slightly hinder performance.
I bought the TP-Link RE200 AC750 today and honestly it was such a disappointment! I use the powerline adapters and there amazing but this is such a let down. It can’t pick up the wifi anywhere in the house unless it’s in the same room. Makes it kinda useless!
Hey Mick, thanks for letting us know what’s going on with your Wi-Fi extender. I didn’t review the product so I can’t speak for our editor’s experience, but having used a very cheap extender / repeater I can see that what you’re reporting is certainly not what anyone would expect when they buy such a device.
There are a couple of things you can do which may improve the situation…
1) Download a wi-fi sniffer app onto your smartphone to get a visual representation of not only your network but also all other local networks which might be causing interference. If your neighbour has a powerful router running on the same channel as your network it can cause interference and greatly reduce the effectiveness of your wifi setup. There are plenty of free apps that will do the job for both Android and iPhone, the one I use on Android is made by Netgear and called Wifi Analytics. It’ll give you an easy to read graph showing all bandwidth use and armed with that info you can take the guesswork out of finding a clear channel for your network. I’m not saying the Netgear app is the best choice, it’s simply the one I use and because it does everything I needed it wasn’t necessary for me to look further into the alternatives.
2) Try to find out if there’s a firmware update that will improve the effectiveness of the TP-Link RE200 AC750 – It’s important to know that there may be regional variations in the hardware and so you need to download the correct firmware for your region. If you’re in the UK you can find all the support info here https://www.tp-link.com/uk/support/download/re200/ otherwise you can use that link as a gateway to then change to your own region.
3) If none of the above options help, ie. there’s no interference and the device is up to date, it might simply be that you have a faulty unit. It’s never a nice experience to receive a defective product, but I would suggest that you report your problems directly to TP-Link so that they can assist you either by resolving issues that I’ve not considered or helping to arrange a replacement device if it’s necessary.
I hope this reply is helpful for you. Please let us know how you get on if you choose to persevere with the extender… our reviews are only as good as our own experience with any product so feedback from the community (even if it’s ‘bad news’) helps other shoppers when it comes to choosing their next purchase.
My son bought me one to improve lap-top, tablet & mobile internet reception on the ground floor of our 1929 brick built house. The Virgin router is located upstairs. The RE 200 doubled the DL speed from about 20 to 40 Mbps. This made a noticeable improvement particularly to Facetime chats with family & friends.