In other words, you don’t have to pug the LAN cable in for it to work. More Extender vs Repeater confusionĪdding to the confusion is the fact that newer Extenders, the one that SHOULD be plugged in via LAN cable, will also work as Repeaters.

Cheap repeaters do one than the other so their performance is terrible. Good repeaters will have two or more antennas and have the tech to both listen and transmit at the same time. Not all WiFi Repeaters are the same – some are built better than others. This new signal can reduce connectivity speed by as much as half! Therefore, the further it is away from your router the Repeater is, the weaker the signal is that it is trying to transmit which results in poo WiFi and Internet speed.

However, a WiFi repeater needs to receive a strong WiFi signal in order to repeat it. It picks up your existing WiFi signal and transmits it or re-broadcasts that signal. On the other hand, a WiFi Repeater isn’t typically connected via a LAN cable. You will need to connect your devices to that new WiFi whenever you are in the room where you are relying on the Extender. Typically a WiFi Extender creates a new WiFi Network which will have a EXT in the new WiFi name for eg. This allows it to broadcast your WiFi signal but still gives you the speed you are looking for. An Extender that has a hard-wire connection becomes a powerful access point. In order for a WiFi Extender to be effective, it should connect to your main router via a wired LAN connection. However, they both go about it differently so it’s important to under that they are not the same. The idea behind both the Extender and the Repeater is the same: get you WiFi where there is none. The difference between WiFi Extender and WiFi Repeater

Wifi repeater vs extender