Few things in life suck as much as slow WiFi.
I know, I know, that may sound like the very throat-stickingly filthy epitome of a First World Problem, but what used to be a minor inconvenience prior to a pandemic-inspired mass work-from-home revolution, today if you’re lagging, you’re lagging behind.
The main enemy of decent WiFi reception is, of course, your signal strength and just how deeply that is capable of penetrating your home. Naturally, for those bunking up in a bedsit in Barking this might not be so much of a problem, but for other of you who live in London’s many sprawling luxury mansions with thick walls, the chances of getting unrestricted access to the online domain pumped powerfully to every corner of your urban castle is highly unlikely.
So how do you ensure a strong and consistent internet signal across your entire home and, when the weather is less wintry, into your al fresco spaces too? Well, first things first, before we get bogged down in upgrading your tech, you need to check that you simply aren’t suffering the effects of painfully slow broadband by running a speed test (while next to your router for best results). Basically, if you’re getting speeds to rival a tortoise, you need to have a chat with your provider to see if they can sort the problem for you. Job, possibly, done.
However, if speeds are up to spec, then it’s time to broaden your broadband horizons with the friend with benefits that is a WiFi booster.
What’s a WiFi booster and how does it differ to a WiFi extender or WiFi repeater?
Well, firstly, it’s all in the name – a device that sits in your WiFi network and literally boosts the signal. Secondly, it’s all the name – they’re all the same thing.
What should you look for in a WiFi booster?
Of course, the amount of boost and therefore the type of booster you require depends very much on your situation, how big an area you need to cover and how many devices will be relying on it. If you’re simply trying to delete deadspots around your home for blanket basic coverage for your personal devices, then a relatively cheap booster will be all you need.
But if you’ve got a vast amount of turf to cover and more tech to connect across multiple users than the Google building itself, you’re going to need to upgrade your game massively, but we’ll cover that as we come to it.
So, keeping the technobabble to a bare minimum (this is the Evening Standard and not What Convoluted WiFi? after all), what kind of WiFi booster is right for you? Let’s bring you up to speed…
devolo WiFi 6 Repeater 3000
Best for: Quick and simple set-up
Scraping in at under £100, the WiFi 6 Repeater 3000 from devolo is the easiest and, indeed, peasiest way to hyper-speed your home WiFi by upgrading your existing flavour of wireless to the latest WiFi 6 (802.11ax) standard via a minor bit of plug and play.
It offers transmission speeds up to (note the ‘up to’, always) 3000Mbps and is compatible with all contemporary routers and devices. Set-up time is around the five-minute mark and the process is a piece of wire-free cake; just plug the devolo in, press the button marked ‘ADD’ in big, friendly letters and… Bob’s your rapidly online uncle. Your WiFi range and speed is instantly ramped up across every crevice of your home.
What’s known as a ‘mesh’ system (no need to go any deeper into that), the 3000 is mains powered, meaning you can plug it into any convenient socket, freeing yourself to forget all about it as your assembled smartphones, computers, tablets and gaming consoles enjoy life in the fast lane without any faff, blowing away the cobwebs of buffering from streamed entertainment and important big-business video conferences alike.
With custom configuration available via the iOS or Android app, you can keep the kids safe, set time constraints and even add in guests so that neither offspring or occasion visitor can over-extend their online stay.
Security protected to WPA2/WPA3 standards (banking standard) to keep your data safer than smart houses and featuring a Gigabit ethernet port for hard-connection to things like smart TVs, receivers and gaming consoles, the devolo WiFi 6 Repeater 3000 is your easy access route to wide-ranging stable WiFi the whole house over.
Buy now £69.99, Amazon
Zyxel WiFi 6 Access Point NWA50AX
Best for: Small businesses
Another nicely priced mesh way to enhance your home network to the wonders of WiFi 6. Supporting the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz rates of WiFi 4 and WiFi 5, the NWA50AX (no association with Dr Dre, that I’m aware of) is both easy to set-up, thanks to an Android or iOS-based app-based installation wizard, and more secure than the lid of an unreasonably stubborn jam jar due to the inclusion of the latest WPA3 Personal standard encryption.
Designed specifically with the home office and small business in mind, the Zyxel allows for both local web interface access and/or Nebula Cloud networking management, making configuration for yourself, guests and – should your business flourish – employees, keeping you in constant control at the click of a virtual button.
And that’s it – ultra-fast internet at up to 1.8Gbps is now in the air all around you, ready to crank up connectivity stability, reach and speed no matter how many devices depend on it, within reason, obviously.
What’s more, designed for desktop, wall or even ceiling mounting, the Zyxel WiFi 6 Access Point NWA50AX can be installed pretty much everywhere, keeping it right out of sight and mind, while you surf the information superhighway (as it used to be called back in the 90s) with all the lightning-like response of a suddenly startled Usain Bolt.
Buy now £77.00, Amazon
Netgear Orbi RBK763
Best for: More palatial pads with plenty of people
Undeniably upping the cost ante quite a bit now, Netgear’s Orbi RBK763 WiFi 6 mesh system may pile on the pounds, but the benefits of the upgrade are also quite considerable. For a start, not only can it deliver expandable coverage of up to 10,000 sq. ft, it can also boost your WiFi up to a whopping 5.4Gbps, letting you stream, video call or game on up to 75 different devices simultaneously without bother from buffering – and that’s range, speed and stability enough for the biggest abode or small-to-medium-sized business.
Designed to be ultra-premium, the Orbi’s unique shape, height and top-end components allow it to produce such incredible performance, reaching the parts that its contemporaries cannot.
As stated, the system is expandable to cover up to 10K of square footage, but a single unit will comfortably manage 2000 sq. ft alone, so just work out how vast your empire is and buy your Orbis accordingly (2x pack costs £370, a 4x pack £500 and additional satellites come in at £220 apiece).
Throw in one-year of free, tough-as-nails Netgear Armour internet security too, and your expansive wireless network is as impenetrable as it is fast.
From £370 (2x pack).
Buy now, Netgear
Netgear Nighthawk M5 Mobile Router
Best for: WiFi without wired internet
Some people, for reasons known mostly to themselves, choose to live in remote areas festooned with fields containing animals both domestic and wild and probably without access to proper wired internet. These people, normally found in Hunter wellies, tweeds and Land Rovers, therefore have two options to fill their downtime when not worrying about the ‘drainage in the south field’, listening to The Archers or protesting in outrage about plans to bring a branch of McDonalds to the village high street, and those are to sit by the fire and vividly imagine what’s happening online or invest a not-insubstantial amount of money in a 5G WiFi 6 Mobile Router, such as the Netgear Nighthawk M5 featured here.
Simple enough to set-up, the Nighthawk (possibly some 80s TV fanatic’s mash-up between Knight Rider and Street Hawk?) plugs into your existing home router or mesh system using the ethernet port and – boom! – within the blink of an eye you’re imbued with breakneck broadband that will allow for high-end streaming on up to 32 devices – more than enough for rural types to enjoy tutting at the likes of Clarkson’s Farm in HD without drop out.
Fully customisable via the Netgear app, you can track data usage and manage guest WiFi to your heart’s content, while VPN pass-through support and password protection keeps you and those momentarily mentioned guests safe from hackers in all their forms.
Mains powered or offering up to 13-hours of operation from a single charge, the Nighthawk M5 is free to go with you outside of the homestead, guaranteeing the widespread super-speedy WiFi will always be by your side no matter how physically disconnected from society you become.
Buy now £829.99, Amazon
devolo WiFi 6 Repeater 5400
Best for: Medium-demand smart domiciles
The step-up model from the devolo WiFi 6 Repeater 3000 looked at earlier, the 5400 offers all the same simplicity of ‘plug-in and press the button’ set-up, plus the myriad benefits to be had from configuration over the Android or iOS app.
But what it also gives you, for that extra £40, is an even greater speed boost of up to 5.4Gbps and an extra ethernet port to let you hard wire static kit like TVs and consoles for even greater speed.
A great option for blossoming smart homes and small businesses alike, £130 is a very small price to pay for such performance.
Buy now £99.99, Amazon
Amazon eero 6+
Best for: Lovers of all things ‘smart’
Bringing gigabit speeds (wired) slamming into your home for a tad over £100, the Amazon eero 6+ system delivers the fastest and crispest WiFi 6 speeds to all unwired devices lurking around your increasingly intelligent home.
With support for both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz standards, the eero 6+ couldn’t be simpler to get up and running, just download the app, plug it in and watch as your WiFi optimises before your very eyes, while also linking up with Thread and Zigbee smart wotnots. This allows them to all work together under the command of Alexa, thus giving you voice control over lights, lamps, locks and countless other things that doing begin with an ‘l’.
Expandable, one eero 6+ will provide 140m² of unwavering coverage, whereas the 3x pack lets you expand outwards to 420m². Plus, add in dual ethernet ports for stupid-fast ethernet connection to two static devices simultaneously, and your house of smart will be taking real shape in next to no time.
Buy now £139.00, Amazon
Linksys Atlas 6 Whole Home Mesh WiFi 6 System
Best for: Semi-detached homes
I’ve mostly looked at boosters as individual models in this round-up, focusing on what’s possible by linking them up later, but for the sake of this final recommendation, I’m going to look at the overwhelmingly weighty package offered in the shape of the Linysys Atlas 6 Whole Home Mesh WiFi 6 System in all its ménage à trois glory.
Yes, three of them, sold as one system, delivers whip-cracking WiFi 6 across up to 6000 sq. ft. of your prime pad, delivering red-hot speeds of up to 3.0Gbps to up to 75 separate devices. This ensures you can work, rest and play free from signal drop out, buffering or any of the other tech tedium that stops connection to the wireless world being anything but a breeze.
Linksys’ app guides help you through the simple setup process, also allowing you access to parental control features, and guest settings, while automatic firmware updates and WPA3/WPA2 security keep your network safe and up-to-date without any bother required from you.
A rock-solid and unerringly stable solution to gaining all-areas access to vastly superior speed WiFi. If there are corners of your crib crying out for fast and furious wireless, then get it locked down with Linksys.
Buy now £250.00, Amazon
