Netgear WN2500RP-100NAS N600 Desktop WiFi Range Extender (WN2500RP)

The Answer! Due to a somewhat rural location, a profound lack of desire to dig several hundred feet of trenches, and Verizon's horrid treatment of their loyal customers, the only way I can get internet at my house is to borrow from a neighbor (with their full permission, of course). Trouble is, my neighbor is a couple hundred feet away (line of sight) and the signal from the source router is feeble in most parts of my house. Digging a trench for a cable is not feasible. I've tried to set regular routers, including Netgear routers, as repeaters, which was a wonderfully effective way to waste several hours of your life. Enter the Netgear N600 Dual Band Wi-Fi Range Extender! Since my neighbor is using an old Westell DSL modem, I disabled the wireless on that and installed a Netgear N600 wireless router to connect with the range extender. With a strong password, the extender connected right to the source router with no trouble. It holds the connection well, though the status light often goes from green to yellow, indicating a poor, but still solid, signal. I should note there are two trees and one wall in the 200 feet between the source and the router, so this isn't terrible. In fact, I have never had a noticeable problem with signal degradation, other than the idiot light of course. I'm still pleased, as Plan B was to dig a short trench, run Cat 5 and power to an exterior box, and place the router on the other side of the trees. I'm glad I didn't have to do all that. The extender acts as a router, and is the hub of my network in my house. All of my wired and wireless devices connect to it, and none of them know they're not connected to an actual wired network. This includes my AT&T Microcell, which specifically demands an all wired network. Not with this baby! The only character flaw with this extender is, now and then, it needs to be powered off and on. This only happens about once a month or so, and is not entirely uncommon for wireless routers. I only mention this because you want to place it in a location that is easy to access when you need to power cycle it. Well, it also only has four ports. Even in my tiny place, I need more. (Smart TV, Xbox, Wii, DirectTV, Microcell, file server, future gadgets) This isn't really a minus, as four is standard for home routers, and I do have a geeky setup. Another Netgear router is handing the leftovers, though a switch would do just as well. The ports are only 10/100, however this is plenty fast enough to watch movies on my Xbox media server. It also has no external antenna connector, which is silly on something that is fairly sensitive to location. It functions as it should, even with these somewhat minor flaws. Besides the wired stuff, I have no trouble with wireless connections, which include two Iphones, two Kindles, and at one point four laptops (told you I was a geek). Another nice benefit is you can make anything with a wired port into a wireless device. This is real handy for home entertainment centers, if you don't like running wires through your home. In my old house, it cost several hundred dollars to run CAT 5 cabling. Two of these would have sufficed, with the added benefit of being able to bring them with me when I moved, or move them around the house as my geekiness evolved. If you need a long wired network without the wires, this is what you need to buy. Highly Recommend UPDATE 01/01/2017 Happy New Year! I have since moved from Nowhereville, however I left this extender for the new residents. I'm happy to report it is still working great. I should note that, in this part of Nowhere, utility companies tend to take a casual approach to maintaining power lines and such. As a result, power outages are expected during storms, windy days, and days that end in "day." Brownouts and power surges aren't surprising either. This unit takes all that like a champ. Same goes with static electricity. In the dry, windy high desert, one becomes fairly immune to going through the day where every damn thing you touch gives you a shock. I see the price has dropped to just over half of what I paid for mine. If you're not looking for the latest and greatest, but you want something that will easily stream movies, you can't go wrong with this.

I have used other wireless range extenders that are just repeaters. While these are effective, and offer the convenience of defaulting to the same SSID so as to cut down on confusion for your users, they also have some limitations... That is, by the nature of repeaters, certain functionality is broken. In my case, the issue was multicast. My Xbox 360 associated to the repeater could no longer connect to my UPnP-based media server, since UPnP uses multicast for discovery. Enter this Netgear WiFi range extender... So, for my fellow geeks, this is NOT, technically speaking, a wireless range extender/repeater. It's a wireless bridge with an additional dual-band WAP built in, and it is AWESOME. So here's how it works: 1) You plug it in and turn it on. 2) You associate your laptop or whatever else to it and navigate to a URL. It will capture your request and forcibly redirect it to its internal setup wizard. 3) In the wizard, you associate the range extender to your main access point and pick out TWO new SSIDs for the new 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz networks. In theory, I suppose you could set the same SSID - I didn't try. I decided I'd rather actually subdivide my network into different SSIDs so I'd have control over which WAP my devices connected to. The wizard points out that they recommend doing it as I did it, so I guess that implies you *could* use the same SSID, but I don't know for sure. 4) Profit! I don't think the 2.4 Ghz side supports 40 hz (300 mbps) 802.11n, since the highest connection rate I saw from my laptop was 130 mbps, but the 5 ghz side connects at 300 mbps consistently. According to my main router/WAP (which only supports 2.4 ghz), the range extender is connected at 144 mbps. Again, I don't know if 40 hz is supported. I didn't see any option to choose which channels the new networks transmit on. According to Vistumbler, the 2.4 ghz side is broadcasting on channel 3, which is the same as my main network. Whether it does this because it's what I chose for my main network or because it automatically chose a non-saturated channel, I can't say. Using Speedtest.net, throughput and latency through the extender was virtually indistinguishable from my main router/WAP. Some hardcore geeks might take issue with the lack of fine control I've illustrated, but overall, I really don't miss it. It's simple to set up, it works well (every corner of my house has good wifi coverage now), and it has a four-port switch built in, so I have no complaints.

**Update 2/11/2012 Summary: After initial problems in set up that crashed my router, WN2500RP is working as advertised. Up to four stars and worth a five if it can demonstrate a few months of robust operation. In addition to nearly doubling the range of my network, the WN2500RP provides wireless entry for up to four Ethernet devices, at only $17 more than a dedicated device such as the WNCE2001. If you need a wireless Ethernet adapter, why not spend a little extra and extend your network? BONUS: After my email to NETGEAR, they updated the support site so you can now register your WN2500RP correctly. In the future I will attempt some high loading tests with gaming and DirectTV streaming using the extended signal. This is the potential advantage of using a dual-band router and extender. ------------------- History 2/10/2012 Retried booting up the WN2500RP in Fastlane mode and it works now with no problems. I have it set to connect to the WNDR4000 in the 5GHz band and relay on 2.4GHz. I get 162 Mbs between the extender and router at the range I have set, and this gives me a strong 2.4GHz signal at nearly double the range of the router. I figured it was better to use 5 GHz as the backbone signal under Fastlane since I have fewer devices and load on that band. The WN2500RP has four Ethernet ports and they support Ethernet devices with no problems (I have tested an Ethernet printer and HDTV). WN2500RP works even more seamlessly than the WNCE2001 wireless Ethernet adapter. The latter has no direct way to control the IP address of the device on the LAN side, but the WN2500RP gives you a full interface to control your IP addressing. ------------------- 2/9/2012 I've been awaiting the release of the WN2500RP so that I could do dual-band extension of my existing WNDR4000 NETGEAR router. Hey they are both NETGEAR products, should work like a charm, right? The router has a repeat mode for both Wifi bands (2.4 and 5 GHz) , and a "fastlane" mode where you can hook to your router in one band (say 5GHz) and extend in another (e.g. 2.4GHz). This is claimed to have the best performance. Note that this router actually creates new wifi SSIDs for each band you repeat. In setting it up, I could get it to connect to the router on one band but not both simultaneously. When it connects to the router in one band, it will share the channel, but in the other band it creates a new channel for its SSID. Download a program like inSSIDer and it will help you monitor not only how your bands are assigned, but possible interference too. Well before I could troubleshoot connecting in both bands, I decided to try out the Fastlane. After setting this up, my network crashed completely - at the WNDR4000 router, not the WN2500! I turned off the WN2500RP and then reset the WNDR4000 numerous times, and it finally seems to be working properly again after 2 hours of troubleshooting and many power cycles. I have about 30 printers, computers, ipads, DVRs, iphones, kindle fires, etc all hooked to the network, and the Fastlane mode seems to have corrupted the routing table information in nearly every device.

This product has been the source of headaches for me practically since I bought it. It does do just about everything it claims. It extends the range of my existing wireless network. I set it up optimized for speed, having it make the connection to my other router on 5ghz while broadcasting to wireless devices on 2.4 ghz. I made sure there were no conflicting transmissions on nearby channels. It is in an ideal location. All the signals are good and in general, things usually work OK. The setup was easy and it led me through the process step by step. So why the poor rating and headaches? It stops working. On a regular basis, this product refuses to allow connections to it. It's sending a signal. Wireless devices can see it. However, when attempts are made to connect, they are refused. I can't find any reason for it. No logs, errors or messages of any sort. A wired connection to it is fine (like a bridge), it even is talking to the other router fine. The only solution is to reboot it. Which I do. Again, and again... It got so bad at one point that I just rebooted the device whenever I walked into that room, because I knew that more likely than not it wasn't going to work anyway, so why frustrate myself trying? Any pattern? Yes. The more often it is used, the more likely it will need to be rebooted. Solution? Don't use it and you won't need to reboot. Not a great solution. MFG has been no help. I have gone to their forums, looked for similar issues (there are folks just like me with the same problem). Never any answer or solution. Tried upgrading to the latest bios (I was already up to date). I've been using this product for over two years and my wife is ready to kick me out of the house because of it. I am now buying a new router that I will wire to that room and get a good signal always. I can understand if a router needs rebooting every 3-6 months. Not every 3-6 days. This product is ready for the trash heap and I keep wondering why I bothered to even keep it this long.

I admit that it was a little bit of overkill to buy this product for my needs, but I figured it's nice to be a little future-proof (hopefully for at least the next couple years the way technology changes so rapidly) to get this Dual Band extender. I own the Netgear WNDR3700 and I have been very happy with it. I figured I'd try this extender because of the good reviews and because it's the same brand as my wireless router. I have my Internet hard-wired into a room that is now being used as a kid's room instead of the home office. My home is not wired with Cat5 so I am doing everything wirelessly (not ideal but it's not bad). Instead of trying to fish wire through the house or pay an electrician to help wire the house for Internet, I decided to just extend my wireless signal using this extender. I have this extender plugged into my desktop computer in our new office and a couple devices plugged in to the ports (like a printer that isn't wireless capable). I use the FastLane settings to further optimize the wireless speed from the wireless router to my computer and attached devices and it works great. I have never disconnected in the past month. The only tricky thing was doing the initial setup since I don't broadcast my signal on the wireless router. After trial and error, I finally got the extender to connect and after a quick firmware update everything was running within a few minutes. My connection speeds on my computer to the router are faster than they were using the computer's wireless card and now my non-wireless enabled devices in the home office can all be connected through this extender (the benefit of having the ports on the back unlike similar wireless extenders). I don't really connect to the wireless signal (also not being broadcasted) from the extender which might seem silly to some people since this is a wireless signal extender after all, but this was a cheaper and easier solution for me than fishing wires throughout the house to create a wired network. UPDATE: 12/18/2012 I have been very satisfied with this product. Unlike other routers and similar technology we've had in the past, this thing has never disconnected in a couple months of continuous use. It was an easy way to turn a non-network printer into a networked printer. And it's nice having the connection directly to my wireless router through the Netgear "FastLane" technology. If you liked this review, please let me know. That's how I know where to improve the quality of my reviews!

I have not had any problems with this product. I have it paired with a Netgear N900 dual band router, and since installing these two devices we now have great connectivity throughout the whole house. When I first got it out of the box I just set it up using the WPS buttons, but later I decided to manually configure it as recommended in the manual. I now have it set to connect to the N900 over 2.4Ghz only, so that it only communicates on 5GHz with the devices that we use around the house. So now we can get 2.4Ghz from the N900 anywhere in the house (since 2.4Ghz has a greater range anyway) and we can get 5Ghz anywhere also - either from the N900 or the WN2500RP, whichever is closer. Having this setup gives you greater connection speed between the 2 devices. When I read this in the manual I was a little alarmed that you had to only have it transmit to your devices in one mode to get maximum speed, but it does make perfect sense and if you do get 2.4Ghz anywhere in the house from your router then there is no need to have the repeater transmit on 2.4Ghz also. That said, it was working just fine in the dual transmit mode before I reconfigured it. I am not necessarily a Netgear fan, but we now have 100% Netgear wifi in our house. I was previously using an older Netgear 2.4Ghz router (wireless g) that would keep crashing. I read about it a little on the internet and it seems that those older units tend to overheat when the data rate gets too high, which seems consistent with my experience. I am pleased to say that we have not had a single dropped connection since installing the N900 and WN2500RP. Sometimes our DVD player refuses to connect to Netflix, but so far that has always been a DVD player issue since getting the new wifi setup. Previously I had to reboot the older router to get Netflix to work again on the DVD player.

follow up on 3/9/12-I tried over the last few evenings to get my desktop to hook up to the network, but no matter where I moved the extender, it would not find it. It shouldn't be this hard to get this to work. I have officially given up. It is being returned to Amazon for a refund. After some more research, I'll try another brand. I received this over a week ago and have been trying to install it and get it up and running since then. I've put over six total hours into this project so far. So many small problems and issues that are too numerous to list. I finally put in a work ticket on line with Netgear. It was responded to very quickly but didn't help at all. I tried to install it over a dozen times after resetting the factory default settings each time. I'm not a wiz at all with this kind of technology, so maybe being more informed or experienced with a range extender helps. This was my first attempt with this technology. After several emails back and forth, the help desk advised me to call them on their 24 hour help line. On my first call I was connected to a young lady that said a special phone number was set up by Netgear for the device and told me to call that number. I did so, but it was a pay as you go support company that is not connected to Netgear. I hung up and called Netgear back. I was then connected to "Jasper" at Netgear who said that he would assist me no matter how long it would take. Even though my desktop that was located on the other side of the house from my router was the issue, he had me take one of my laptops and set up a set up station only about 25 feet from my router. He was adamant that it not be any closer. He walked me though the entire process of setting up the range extender. It took him and I about 45 minutes to complete the process. He was easy to work with and very patient with me. Finally the laptop connected with no problem through the extender and the new network it set up. After hanging up with him I then moved the extender upstairs closer to the desktop to get that hooked up to the new network. It still fails to work through the new network. I'm at work now, but will try placing the extender at various places in the house closer to my router to see if that is the issue when I get home tonight. Hopefully, this will work. Either way, I will update this review after trying this.

I didn't need my range extended. I had a good signal, but this little jewel solved several problems at once. Living in an RV parks of the year can be a challenge. Free Wi-Fi or even Wi-Fi for a fee which may or may not be offered throughout the RV parks is usually unsecured. Paying bills on the unsecured internet is not my idea of responsible. We normally stay in one area for one or two months at a time and call the cable company and have our own secure connection installed. I have a nice built in DOCSIS 3.0 modem installed, and a NETGEAR 4500 Router which I secured. This allows tablets, smart phones, computers, and a printer all to communicate in a secure LAN. This may be an expensive solution, but it works. We normally tether to smart phones for secure transactions when we are moving along, short stays along the way. Also expensive. Arriving at a new RV Resort, we found free Wi-Fi and no wiring available to have our own connection. A major inconvenience, and the risk factor went in to the unacceptable zone. Solution: This range extended was reviewed as the best of the worst on a Networking website. I ordered from Amazon, received in record time, and opened it up. Didn't even take the tape off the plastic. Plugged it in and it hooked up to the free, park provided Wi-Fi with the user ID. Everything was almost great. Everything we hooking up to the range extender. I looked at the network and we were still unsecure, so I read the documentation again and it was a dud ... which would have resulted in a 2 star review, but NETGEAR customer support care right though ... an Ethernet cable from any one of the four ports connected to the WAN port on the 4500 router. Just like that, everything hooked up to the router and was secure. Almost there ... any in the park could hook up to the extender and reduce my bandwidth. Back to the documentation ... nothing! Brainpower intervened ... reset and go back to set up. Going slowly through the various options, I got to the Secure option, and secured the range extender. Plugged the router back in as before and now we have a secure range extender which is not accessible by anyone else and a secure router. I'm sure some hacker somewhere in the world might try, but that is going to be too hard with too little reward.

Funciona de maravilla!