Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 February 2014
This is now working very well. There are numerous reports of dropped connections, and as this is only day 2, I'm hoping that does not happen, as I'm very happy with it.
However, it was not particularly straightforward to set up. I work in IT, and have good experience in Networking, so hopefully can write this from a position of some knowledge.I do feel that this is mostly a very good product, but where is the bug testing, and quality control? This is how it was for me, yesterday:
Firstly, even though I have the DGND4000 Netgear Premium Router (a current model at the time of writing), the TP-Link Extender did not want to co-operate with the WPS syncing procedure. After several goes of a complete failure to pair the two devices, I gave up and tried the Ethernet option, with cable and web browser.
This looked like it was too, heading for failure, and I started to think of product returns, and my disappointment started to climb! The reason? : The server address for the unit, instead of giving me the setup password login page, gave me what appeared to be a series of "extra" links to what were essentially adverts. There were even links to other items available on Amazon, and one of the links prompted WOT (Web Of Trust) to flag up the clicked item as of dubious nature!
But where was the green and white setup screens I had seen in the instructions? Where was the user login? None of that came up in Firefox, so I tried Opera and Internet Explorer. Exactly the same. A complete inability to get to the setup screen.
I went to a completely different PC, and at last, managed to get to the Login to set the thing up. I've no idea why the units setup page didn't want to know on the other PC, which is very well set up and maintained.
Setup was then straighforward, and soon the unit was ready to plug into a wall somewhere, to try and test its' signal. Good extension of signal was seen, with at least 4 lights lit up, and in a rather dead spot area of only about 78 to 82 dBm, this has climbed rather nicely to the low fifties, around 52dBm I would say. Generally, the signal was improved everywhere, and even outside on the patio, a signal could be seen that was usable, though pretty thick UV screen double glazing.
I wanted to get back to the setup screen, mainly to familiarise myself with what it offered, and see if anything might need a tweak. Basically to see what was there. But none of the PCs I tried (4 PCs, wireless and wired) would let me back into the setup screen. Unlike before, where I got these strange advert links (with TP logo at the top by the way), well....this time, I got even less. An almost unclickable screen that looked nothing like the setup pages.
So I tried my Kindle Fire HD. Amazingly, this gave me the setup screen through the Dolphin browser, and I was able to see what the various settings and options were. I thought "at least if I need to change anything, I'll use the tiny screen of the Kindle"
Next, I noticed that all "wired" connected PCs had lost their connections to the Net. Meanwhile, Windows got a bit busy trying to determine new networks, and changed names (inappropriately) and even the Icon of the Network, as seen on the Windows Network and Sharing Centre.
After a re-boot of those wired PCs that didn't want to know, to my horror, they re-booted with STILL no connection. Then I began to worry a bit, and started to think of taking the TP extender out altogether and being done with it all.
So then I reset the router too, and at last, the wired and wireless PCs were now seeing a connection, and the wireless PCs were getting good signals. Walking around with a wifi analyser on the Kindle, I was able to see just what I was getting all around the house, and quite a few speed tests revealed at least what I was getting before, so no great loss there, even though these units can halve your bandwidth in the process of extending it.
For some odd reason, on one PC, I can now use Opera to see the setup pages, where before I got the odd screen that would not let me set anything up. Yet Firefox and IE still don't let me see that page. So at least if I want to change anything, I no longer have to use the tiny screen of the Kindle to do it, and I need to remember that Opera will now let me.
So while it now appears to be working very well, and settled in, it was by no means straightforward. Flaky things happened, which suggest to me a product that just has not been tested enough. I appreciate that some people are up and running in just a few minutes. That's networking for you! Odd things can happen, and there are a lot of variables that can come and bite you on the backside.
But when you have a very well set up network like mine, with all recent gear, things like this should not really occur to this extent, and WPS should just work, shouldn't it? Modern router, press....done? All the resetting, failed wired connections? All that suggests to me that some serious "real world" testing needs to take place on the part of TP Link.
Also, one other slightly strange thing. On wireless PCs, if I go to the "Currently connected to" networks using the system tray icon (the one that shows how many bars signal strength you are getting" and click on there to disconnect and then reconnect, it fails to! You just get the yellow triangle with an exclamation mark inside it. This never used to happen....you could connect to one network or another at will, wait a few seconds, and then you're up. Since the TP Extender went in, this seems no longer possible : a disconnect followed by a reconnect will always then result in failure to see the network, and the only thing you can do then is to re-boot the entire PC. This is a pain, and effectively makes this feature in Windows useless.
So now, it's great. Very happy with it. I just hope it stays that way and does not drop connections like many have suggested. I'll soon forget all this tedium, and if it keeps working, then that's all I want.
I should really give this two or even three stars, for all the hassle, but it's now working well enough that four stars seems just about right. I hope this helps anyone.
Buy it, yes - but keep your fingers crossed for an easy ride!
** UPDATE ** - 21st February 2014
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Firmware update: so normally, I tend to like to leave a firmware at its initial factory setting, for at least a day or so, to see how it goes. That way, you've sort of got an idea of how it was out of the box, before you update anything. After all, Firmware updates can be a mixed blessing, and sometimes make things worse.
Before the Firmware update, I had no problems with establishing a wifi connection after a re-boot of Windows 7, but AFTER the update, I seemed to have inherited some strange effects, which I can only put down to the update, since they didn't happen before.
Upon rebooting, although I got full bars for signal on wifi, no browser pages would load. It was as though the TP Extender gave Windows 7 to understand it had a connection, but there wasn't one. I noticed when I went into the Network and Sharing Centre, that the "establishing connection" icon was going off and on and off. Something I've never seen before.
At this same time, the Kindle Fire had NO problems seeing wifi, so it was as though just Windows had been affected by the Firmware update. Very odd!
I decided to roll back the Firmware, and went to the TP Link site from a wired connection (which was fine) and downloaded the version I already had noted was the original the unit had shipped with. This easily rolled back, though I have to say that when the browser finished transferring the data to the Extender, it seemed to get stuck, and never actually gave the finishing "Success!" message that it had done on the time before. This left an uncertainty as to whether the Extender was "incomplete" or not, but no problems, it had rolled back fine.
Then a wifi reboot, and now the Firmware was the older one, the "lost connection" on reboot problem seemed to immediately go away again. I really haven't yet bothered to "upgrade" again, to see if that behaviour creeps back in. Just these things can take so much time!
Interestingly, there is even a note on the TP Firmware upgrade page, that they knew of this issue, and they refer to it, AND they suggest they've fixed it in later releases. AMAZINGLY, at least in my case, quite the opposite is true.
Where is the testing?
I never leave long reviews, but just trying here to give as much information as I can about my experiences with this, in the hope it either warns or helps other people.
And having rolled back, all is now fine, and to be honest, I'm just going to leave it and hope it stays put and gives no other issues. At least be sure that you can successfully roll back a Firmware revision, if you have a problem.
Good luck!
** UPDATE ** - 22nd February 2014
Sadly, this has now had to be returned. It remained flaky, at best, and also (as is common of Extenders of this type) it truly slowed throughput to a crawl. In my case, as I live in an area far from the exchange, and at best, get a very lowly 1.6Megs, I was finding that a typical 5 meg download started to take as long as 5 to minutes.
This was almost like going back to 1992, and 14.4 dial-up modems!
I can't recommend this, and would avoid staying clear, or perhaps just about giving it a shot if you have a really good broadband speed to begin with.
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