Netgear WN3000RP WiFi Range Extender Review

Netgear's range extender will help banish those WiFi black spots forever!

by Greg Hook
Tech Review

9

Netgear WN3000RP WiFi Range Extender Review
MSRP: £29.99

What is the Netgear WN3000RP?

Basically, it's a very cost effective solution for banishing those annoying WiFi black spots. The WN3000RP-200UKS is a WiFi Range Extender from popular networking products manufacturer Netgear. There are numerous devices available today to ensure your home has network access in every area and room, from routers and switches to Powerline Adaptors and Wireless Range Extenders. With prices starting at just £15 for a pair of Powerline Adaptors making sure every device has that much needed network access has never been easier or so affordable.

With an eye on the more affordable end of the market we have the Netgear WN3000RP WiFi Range Extender available for just £34.99 (November 2014). From Netgear's N300 range this offers WiFi speeds (in theory) up to 300Mbps using the 2.4Ghz band and includes a single Fast Ethernet port for wired connectivity too. Based on our previous experience with Netgear products we expect this to be a piece of cake to install, work as it should and offer up no problems. Let's find out...

Design and Connections

Netgear WN3000RP
If you have used or seen any of Netgear's Nano Powerline Adaptors then the design used for the WN3000RP will not be an unfamiliar one to you. It basically looks identical to a Nano adaptor save for the two external antennas mounted to each side. As such it conveniently plugs straight into a socket without needing the additional power supplies required for the more feature rich, but more expensive, Linksys RE6500 and Netgear's own EX6200. Weighing only 98 grams and measuring just 67 x 55 x 34mm it definitely isn't going to cause any fuss other than taking up a electrical socket.

It looks identical to a Netgear Nano adaptor except for two antennas mounted to each side.

The design is simple yet functional with elements of Netgear's Pick-A-Plug feature as seen on their Powerline Adaptors. The two main LEDs for the Router Link and Client Link instantly tell you by their colour - green, amber or red - what quality the connection is. Arrow LEDs are found next to the Link LEDs which will flash if a connection can't be found to your Router or to a Client and this should therefore suggest fitting it in an alternative location. The final two LEDs are for the Power and WPS (WiFi Security). The Ethernet port is only Fast Ethernet which limits any wired connections to 100MB. Finally we have the Power and WPS buttons to the side with the reset button underneath.

Setup and Features

We have yet to review a networking device that wasn't a piece of cake to install and starts to work within just a couple of minutes and the WN3000RP was no exception. A very easy and quick installation that took us 2 minutes from start to finish. You simply plug the WiFi Extender into your chosen socket, ideally half way between the area where you have no or very little WiFi coverage and your router, press the WPS button on the extender and then on your Router and very shortly once the WPS LED has stopped flashing, your new extended WiFi network will be available for use. You then connect your chosen device to the new wireless network, which will be your existing network's name with _EXT at the end using the same password and that's all you need to do.

Should WPS not be available to you or you prefer a different option, then via any device you can connect to the new WiFi network which will appear as NETGEAR_EXT, follow the simple on screen instructions via the Netgear genie smart setup and as with the WPS option, within 2 minutes your new WiFi network will be available to use and can be connected to using your existing network's password.

As far as features go it doesn't have any of note other than its core purpose. The WiFi is on the 2.4Ghz band only using 802.11 b/g/n. Not that you would ever need to use it for general use but the Netgear genie interface offers more advanced configuration options including a very simple way of upgrading the device's firmware and changing wireless settings for example.

Another feature independent of the WiFi extender but worth mentioning is the very useful Netgear 'WiFi Analytics' app (available for Android devices only). This free app offers a great deal of functionality for analysing your existing WiFi network, such as identifying which channel is the best to use, checking the status and even a room testing feature to see how strong and fast a WiFi signal will be in various areas of your home.

Netgear WN3000RP

How effective is it?

The testing was carried out in a standard 4 bed detached house. The router was a BT HomeHub5 (located on the ground floor), connected via Gigabit Ethernet to a PC at one end, then with a laptop via Wireless using the WN3000RP at the other end. We used a program called LANSpeedTest by Totusoft which is a simple but powerful tool for measuring Local Area Network (LAN) speeds. It does this by building a file in memory, then transfers it both ways (without effects of windows file caching) while keeping track of the time, and then does the calculations for you. This gave us the results of transferring files from our main PC to the Laptop via the WiFi extender.

For a baseline we carried out three different tests shown below using LANSpeedTest in two locations with our laptop connected to the existing wireless network. The extender is then placed roughly in the middle between the laptop and our router. Location 1 is with the extender on a floor directly above the router and the laptop 9 metres away from the extender through 2 walls. Location 2 is with the extender on the same floor as the router, about 3 metres away with two walls between, then the laptop 6 metres from the extender. The wired tests were with the laptop directly connected to the extender.

Our tests are as follows:
1. 1000 x 1MB files successively transferred.
2. 2 x 1GB files successively transferred.
3. 1000 x 10KB files successively transferred.

As you can see from the results below our wired tests for Locations 1 and 2 gave peaks of 46.25Mbps and 53.11 respectively. With the wireless tests we had peaks of 20.41Mbps in Location 1 and just 9.42Mbps in Location 2. Not particularly fantastic top end results but we weren't expecting to be blown away with a device that can be found for just £34.99. In both of our test locations using the existing wireless network you can see our speeds received were very poor indeed, the WiFi Extender here did the job it was supposed to and gave a perfectly decent wireless speed for streaming from Netflix for example or similar services.

Clearly it's not a device where you can expect to have multiple HD streams or expect to transfer multiple files quickly, but at a location where we can barely receive any signal at all, to get up to 9Mbps is a real improvement for just £34.99.

Test Results

Netgear WN3000RP

Conclusion

Pros

  • Very easy to setup
  • Useful WiFi Analytics App
  • Netgear genie interface

Cons

  • WiFi Analytics App not on iOS
  • Possibly a tad too expensive

Netgear WN3000RP WiFi Range Extender Review

Is it worth buying?


You can't really go wrong for just £34.99. For such a small outlay you get a very easy to install and setup WiFi Range Extender and one that works without issue with a very small and convenient wall-plug design. With the Netgear genie interface, advanced options such as upgrading firmware or changing security settings can be done with ease. Alongside the excellent free WiFi Analytics Android app that gives very useful information on your current network and possible interference issues from other networks. The speeds we received weren't fantastic but in areas where we had very little WiFi signal, we were able to receive a signal fast enough for most general uses.

What is the competition?


There are several competitors even at this low £34.99 price point. In fact the Netgear WiFi Extender may even be slightly overpriced; examples from TP-LINK and Belkin which use the same wall plug design but are available for around £23 and even as low as £16 for some models. For a simple, quick and cheap way of banishing those annoying WiFi black spots forever the Netgear WN3000RP WiFi Extender is one worthy of consideration although maybe not the best value on the market at this time.

Scores

Build Quality

.
.
8

Connectivity

.
.
.
7

Ease of Use

10

Connection Speed

.
.
.
7

Value for Money

.
.
.
7

Verdict

.
.
8
8
AVForumsSCORE
OUT OF
10

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