Just bought 2 x wifi extenders.

[sharper]

I recently purchased a couple of TP re300 extenders.

1. to extend from the hall to the Ring doorbell on the front door.
2. to extend the coverage of our kitchen, especially for my Wife's* Alexa plus (*important !!)

My router, on the same floor, is a Virgin hub running in modem mode attached to an ASUS RT-AC68U AC1900.
My network is mainly hardwired with a NAS, two Cameras and normal TV kit, Sonos Arc etc
I went for extenders as a "quick fix" rather than getting involved with more cables which is a pain for me due to poor physical mobility.
The extenders are driving me bloody crazy.

I've decided to concentrate on the kitchen extender before I attempt to sort the hall/Ring one.
I have set them up several times using TP's Tether app. The latest attempt was a new setup renaming 2.4 & 5.0 for the Kitchen previously I left the network name as the same as my router, I know not advisable thus the renaming. All went well as usual until a few hours later I couldn't connect the iPad or iPhone etc to the newly set up extender......they see the wifi names but when I attempt login/use it, it comes up with 'No internet connection' in orange.

THEN we had a power cut 24 hours ago. I've everything other than these two extenders back up and running and I've decided to ask for some tips/help.

Thanks in advance.

 

[mushii]

Those extenders are designed to work with TP Link's own mesh system (OneMesh) and although they say they will work with 'other routers' I think that you are falling foul of brands 'own systems'.

Going to the Products home page, here are the weasel words

2. The product may not be compatible with routers or gateways with firmware that has been altered, is based on open source programs, or is non-standard or outdated.

Which is ambiguous enough that, if you are not using them with TP Link's own OneMesh Router they 'may' not work (read unlikely to work) well. This is because they used dedicated channels for their back-haul which may already be in use on your non-TP Link router.

Given the age of your router (nearly 8 years old now) and that although it is an early wifi5 device it doesnt support MU MIMO and actually has a pretty poor throughput on its 5GHz its unlikley to pair well with any 'wireless extender'

I would suggest that you have 3 options now:

1. Buy a new TP Link router that is compatible with these 'extenders' and preferably on that uses the OneMesh system (one of the Archer WiFi Routers)
2. Buy a stand-alone mesh system to replace the TP Link extenders.
3. Buy wired access points and wire them back to your Router

I know that non of this is what you wish to hear, but decent wifi needs investment and should be treated like any other part of your home's infrastructure (electrical wiring, plumbing, heating etc)

 

[Jase]

Would adding another Asus RT-AC68U and using their AiMesh option be a solution?

https://dongknows.com/asus-aimesh-overview/

 

[sharper]

OK
Just sent TP re300 extenders back to Amazon.

Recommendations?

I looked at
Amazon product
To be honest I'm clueless.
I want something easy to set up. I'm presuming I have to replace my Asus RT-AC68U? It looks like I will need some physical help to sort this.
Don't want to spend too much, £250 max.

Thank you for your help thus far.

 

[Jase]

The AiMesh looks like a good system as it's something I'd been considering. I was thinking about adding an RT-AC86U to my existing RT-AC88U. I use the Asus Router App with that and so far it's been pretty faultless.

Going by the App it looks to be a fairly simple procedure to add the extra router as an AiMesh Node. Whether that translates to actually being easy in practice, I don't know.

Alternatively, a completely new system like the one in your Amazon link might be an easier/better way forward.

 

[sharper]

still undecided.