Recommendation for WIFI extender with Ethernet ports / WIFI

rampant

Hi all,

i'm looking for a WiFi extender with ethernet ports.

i live in Thailand, i have a fibre connection with a Humax router (HG100RE-02) - i live in a 4 story apartment, and need to have Ethernet ports and WiFi on the 3rd and 4th floor. I have an Ethernet cable to the 4th floor in place already, and an existing WiFi only repeater which works fine, but i need to have some Ethernet ports on the 4th floor, so looking to change the WIFI repeater to something which has at least 4 ports with 2.4hz and 5ghz.

i've been looking at something like:

DLINK DAP-1650
Linksys RE6500

does anyone have experience with these? or can recommend any other products?

regards

mickevh

Pretty much any SOHO "router" can be "crippled" to use it as a combination ethernet switch and Wi-Fi Access Point. How to do so is described in the "Using Two Routers Together" FAQ pinned in this forum.

Thence it's a matter of selecting a device to use that has enough physical ports for your needs, (don't forget to count one for the "Uplink" to the rest of the network,) that those ports are fast enough for your needs and the device has the Wi-Fi facilities (protocol support, waveband support, etc.) you require.

If you have an "old" router lying around anywhere, you might like to consider whether it could be used, thereby saving you the cost of buying something new.

As well as recommendations in these columns, you might care to take a look at a USA based web site called SmallNetBuilder. The guy who runs it tests and review a fair bit of kit aimed at the SOHO market and does a better job than most of objectively testing it. He also tabulates the results by various performance metrics. Just bear in mind that SNB is USA based, so if you are outside that territory, exact specification of the equipment may vary  - often it's just the price and the type of power supply, but Wi-Fi transmit power (for example) is allowed to be "louder" in the USA than Europe.