NETGEAR WN3000RP Universal WiFi Range Extender

I disliked the fact that it didn’t work.

I ordered this as my BT Homehub 3 is located in a room which means I cannot get a reliable wifi signal in some upstairs rooms. I’ve tried Homeplugs (ethernet through power sockets), but for some reason I can only connect 2 Homeplugs to my router (ie 2 receiving a signal and 1 sending it), and of course that’s no use for phones/tablets anyway.

The instructions are clear and there are two options to set up – WPS and via browser. The WPS option simply didn’t work (no idea why – there’s no reason it shouldn’t), so I went for option 2 – which is a manual selection of the wifi network to extend, plus inputting your wifi password. That worked first time, and the instructions were very clear and simple to follow.

The way it works is that I now have two wifi networks – “BTHub3-XXXX” (XXXX being a random series of numbers and letters unique to your router) and “BTHub3-XXXX_EXT”, both with the same password (although you can if you wish specify two passwords) and both set up on my phone and tablet to connect. It seems the phone (an iPhone 5) chooses the stronger upstairs (ie the extended network) and either downstairs, as the extended seems to have a wider range than the Homehub 3. Generally this doesn’t matter, but the extended network works more slightly more slowly, albeit this is imperceptible usually. However, I will take the minor inconvenience of occasionally changing networks downstairs to have a rock solid connection upstairs. I guess I had anticipated there would only be one network (ie like the wifi extenders in the office) but perhaps if I’d researched it better I would have known that there would be two, and it’s not really a problem anyway.

So all in all, 4 stars. If WPS had worked, it would have been 5, plus the minor inconvenience of having two networks rather than one – but really these aren’t big deals. For the price (£39.00 in Sep 2013), this is a good piece of equipment offering great value for money (there was nothing else that I could see at this price point and which was a recognisable brand when I looked around) and it reliably delivers what it promised. I’d recommend it.

Others have documented problems with disconnection (at least 3 times a day in my case). This was never a problem with my previous range extender, an Engenius.
I have not been able to access the Netgear helpline because I am unable to register ( I am continually told that my serial number is incorrect). To complain or ask for help to register, I have to register before I can register to describe this & other problems.
The retailer refers me to the Netgear website (I live in the country)..
I am trapped in a circular argument with no way out.
Buy this if you are a masochist. When it works it’s OK, but the disconnections and associated nonsense from the makers are too much.
I’ve awarded one star, but I tried to make it zero.

24 hours later: I have registered with a valid serial number! The problem was difficulty in spotting the difference between a letter O and number 0 on the baseplate. Having done so, no comment from support yet on disconnection problems.
So: now a 2-star award.

I bought it “new.” It was clearly old. It was dirty, oily and didn’t come with directions.

We have an extension at the back of our house which has the main telephone socket and router (BT Home Hub) installed in it. Our bedroom is as far from there as possible and we get a very poor signal there.
I bought an Edimax EW-7416APN a couple of years back to extend the range thus improving the signal in the bedroom. Setting it up was beyond me and my son-in-law (who works in computer support) spent a lot of time getting it configured. The signal strength was good but it dropped out constantly and needed a router reboot or an Edimax reboot or a PC reboot to get it going again (for maybe 10 mins!). It eventually got dumped in a drawer and forgotten about.
We now have a conservatory beyond the bedroom and thus even further out of range. I felt it wasn’t being used enough – mainly because of the no-WiFi cover.
I decided to see what else I could do and found this beauty and took the chance of purchasing it.
On taking it from the box, my first impression was that there wasn’t much to it and it’d probably be another waste of time and money but not at all. I plugged it in to a socket close to the bedroom and while waiting on the lights to settle down, pressed the button on the Home Hub (the curved hub – I think its the HH3?). They ‘paired’ seamlessly if that’s the right expression. I fired up the laptop in the conservatory and found the ‘hub’ now called *****_EXT and tried to connect. I entered the same key as required for the hub and hey presto it worked great. Comes up as (Signal Excellent). I’ve had it for about a month now and it hasn’t missed a beat (touch wood). As it was so easy to set up, I played around a bit by repositioning around the house – the indicator lights letting me know when it was in a bad position in relation to the main router. I must’ve been lucky first time as I couldn’t improve anything and returned it its first location.
A resounding 5 stars and recommendation from me.

previously my wifi signal soon gets weak a room or 2 away from the router.
bought this.
plug in.
press a button on the router.
press a button on the extender, and wait a minute or so (be patient).
job done.
it seems to cover a much wider aread than my original router, there is no dropout anywhere over a large area (probably up to 100m, through lots of walls). it has never once let me down since plugging in.
quick, easy and reliable. FAB bit of kit.

EDIT. now been using for 10 months. Remains as reliable as day 1.
EDIT2. now been using for 21 months. Still no issues whatsoever.
EDIT3! (22nd October 2014). 3 years in, remains as good as day one.

UPDATE Dec 14. I have now tried the higher-spec Netgear EX6100 (see above comparison chart), it works just as well as this model. If you’re wondering about the 5 GHz band and whether you need it, in my general day-to-day use it adds little benefit, and only newer devices are compatible with 5 GHz. IMO most people won’t need or benefit from 5 GHz devices, and the cheaper/more basic models such as the WN3000RP remain perfectly adequate.