AT&T Launches $35 Smart Wi-Fi Extender to Boost Coverage by Up To 1,000 Square Feet

[whbunn]

I have AT&T's 5268AC router. I wish they would make it more powerful so that I don't need an extender in a 1200 sq. foot single story home. Signal strength 80% less going through two plaster walls (40 feet). 124 MBPS DL and UL in the room with the router, under 20 Mbps two rooms over.

 

[hobbbz]

I have AT&T's 5268AC router. I wish they would make it more powerful so that I don't need an extender in a 1200 sq. foot single story home. Signal strength 80% less going through two plaster walls (40 feet). 124 MBPS DL and UL in the room with the router, under 20 Mbps two rooms over.

That's because plaster has more than plaster, it's almost solid wood behind with lathe strips and sometimes chicken wire mesh.

 

[justperry]

That's because plaster has more than plaster, it's almost solid wood behind with lathe strips and sometimes chicken wire mesh.

Wood shouldn't be the problem, however the chicken wire mesh will greatly influence a wifi signal,Faraday's cage rings a bell, but you are probably aware of this.

 

[craigmak]

I bought 2 and hooked them up to my gateway. I get much better signal on the far side of the house then with 1 time capsule and an airport express. For the cost I’d highly recommend. Once I wipe the time capsule, I will look for sale the Apple hardware.

 

[sean5900]

My first words where exactly that I have experience with this device as stated. The first unit malfunctioned after 6 months, delivering poor performance the whole time and intermittent signal, 5G signal would go out consistently requiring a restart of the unit. Placement was from one room to the other over standard walls. Repeater was already at 50% speed from main unit, therefore much slower speeds. After the first one died I was supplied a replacement, same unit different manufacturer name, same software as well. The software provided on this is done y manufacturer not the ISP provider, the way I know is that i followed manufacturers configuration booklets online and they were the exact same details. Second unit performed even worse, 5G signal would kick out consistently after a couple of hours and would go into red, then it would forget settings and broadcast original SSID and also the updated SSID, 2G signal was slow and intermittent, sometimes it would work others it would not requiring system to be restarted and another circle of errors to start. I have the unit with me, I Will happily ship it to you free of charge just so it can give you the same headaches it gave me since your trying to be a smart ( ( ).

Well Frontier has to have screwed something up with something they did to the firmware because my experience with the AT&T AireTies extender is complete opposite. AT&T is pretty notorious for heavily customizing the firmware of all of their internet gateways. And yes AirTies provides standard firmware but ISP's can modify however they want. So it was no surprise to me when I got this AirTies extender from AT&T about 4 months ago and saw that the GUI is extremely stripped back and basic compared to the screenshots of the Frontier version. You can't really change any settings at all on it, you sync it with the gateway by press the WPS button on the gateway and then the Airties and thats it. But that must have been for the better because I have seen plenty of people in the Frontier forums on dslreports complaining of problems like you described. But there is a 6 or 7 page thread in the AT&T forums and only 1 or 2 people that have had any problem at all with the extender.

I personally was not expecting much at all for 35 buck and only grabbed it cause it was so cheap. However I haven't touched the thing since I synced it with my BGW-210 gateway and moved it to the opposite corner of the house. It's been 100 percent up time ever since Hand off between gateway and extender is flawless. I watch live streams on my phone quite a bit and can't tell at all when there is a hand off from gateway to extender or vice versa, no pause, buffering or anything. I also stay connected to 5 Ghz anywhere in the house now. Heck now I even get great 2.4 Ghz wi-fi all the way down at the pool. I was half expecting the thing to be a piece of crap but I'm shocked at how flawlessly the damn thing works. Anyways just my experience with it. Either you got really unlucky and got two lemons or Frontier needs to seriously work on improving their customized version of the firmware.

 

[dfs]

I'm a Unifi convert myself but I think most people just don't have the time or experience to setup one of these. For most people, I just say they should go get a mesh network like Eero and be done with it although I know they'd do better with Unifi but asking them to buy a USG, Switch and 2-3 APs and set them up is just too much for people.


My setup is great. I can go 4 houses down to a neighbor's BBQ and still have full coverage with my AC LR network.

You obvious.ly don't own a EERO rig yourself, since you have no idea how ridiculously easy it is to set one up. Price may be a valid objection to this system, ease of use most definitely is not.

 

[palmerc]

1000 square feet isn't even 100 square meters, my Uniquiti Unifi AC Pro has a lot more coverage and can probably have many more clients on one single device.
Price seems to be good though.

AirTies is a mesh device and as such provides a better experience than a classic WiFi router and/or dumb repeater, but will never match up to a properly deployed system based on Ubiquiti's Unifi line of products.

If you care about consistent performance throughout the house and getting the best performance you can from WiFi, you'll want to do a bit of planning and use an Ethernet backbone, look for .11ac, .11r, pushing devices to wider (80MHz) 5GHz channels, planning out your 2.4GHz channels (1, 6, 11). The future is products like AC SHD that have real-time continuous spectrum monitoring.

So, the current mesh networking fad is an improvement for most people over the single router model, but it still leaves a lot to be desired.

 

[adamjackson]

You obvious.ly don't own a EERO rig yourself, since you have no idea how ridiculously easy it is to set one up. Price may be a valid objection to this system, ease of use most definitely is not.

It's not worth quoting this but you mis-read my post. I'm saying most people would like a Unifi setup OVER Eero but the time to setup a Unifi is so challenging that people should just get an Eero instead as it's much easier.

 

[Sproctor61]

AT&T sells it for $49.00 not $35.00

 

[craigmak]

It did sell for 35

 

[Litgensnyder]

How are att mesh WiFi treating you. I also have Att service and 2 old airports. Not getting past brick chimney. Would like to know how it’s working and it timed access available like on airport.

I’m going to try out 2 of them. We have 2,700 sq ft with our router at the far end (I know bad planning). I currently use an airport express and a time capsule and have spotty service at the far end of the house. I blame the 2 brick walls the signal has to go through. I will set these up a little different and see if they help. Then sell my Apple products if this works better.

 

[craigmak]

Much better than the airports. We now have WiFi in places we did not before. The only issue is when we roam around the house and it is stuck between 2 where the signal is weaker on the extender we are moving away from. So if I go from the kitchen to the basement I may have to disconnect and reconnect. Not perfect but definitely better. I would recommend especially if the price is still low.