Always, its is advisable for you to be careful before making any move to improve Wi-Fi connection in your office or house. You should consider functionality, setup ease and compatibility. One may confuse WiFi Boosters with WiFi Extender since both are used to improve wireless connectivity . The two device as they sound are very different in their specs although their prices are almost same.
The wifi booster is purchased after checking the range of the products. Different stores and online stores are selling the products at different rates. You can compare the rates and choose the right product to get the benefits. The speed and range of the best product is excellent.
As the name suggests, WiFi Extender is simply used to capture Wi-Fi router/switch signal, boost the signal and then retransmit it. In this case, the reach of the wireless signal is expanded.
Best Wifi Extender can be placed between the base router’s access point and a client who is far from the router, enabling that client to receive the signal from the access point but with a different name.
On the other hand, Wi-Fi Booster is used to amplify the signal. The signal is later repeated by the repeater. In this case, the repeated extends the signal, but not boosting it. Booster helps to prevent wireless connection from fading away by capturing signal and then rebroadcasting it when it is already amplified.
Problem with WIFI Extender
Although Wi-Fi extender sound like the ultimate solution to wireless network problem, it has lots of functionality hiccups.
Wi-Fi extender contributes 50% loss of signal throughput and sometimes can be much higher than this. This is because repeater mostly receive signal packets, then transmit them using the same radio on the same channel with same SSID.
However, there has been some improvement with development of an extender that has a dual-band 2.4 GHz and GHz radio. Even so, Wi-Fi extender would be my last thing to think of for improving my wireless network.
Why WIFI Booster
- Provides Unlimited Wi-Fi access by the amplifying signal and making it accessible from a distance.
- Easy to setup: setting a booster in a network dead zone is extremely easy since does not need lots of procedures
Setbacks of Boosters
Portability of devices used in network is greatly affected by antenna design.
For instance, directional antenna can direct signal to a single direction, spanning a bigger distance but with little portability supported. Sometime boosters amplify signal in a single direction.
These type of boosters are referred to us an “Active” booster. Application in case yields better transmitting power but reduce sensitivity of the signal. This mean that you may as well realize best distance as expected.
