Netgear Ac1200 Wifi Range Extender Firmware Update
More than and more than consumer
wireless
range extenders coming to market are small, wall-mountable devices that plug correct into an electric outlet and sit flush to a wall. Netgear’due south AC1200 WiFi Range Extender (EX6200) ($129.99) bucks this trend. The AC1200 is a relatively large, standalone piece of networking hardware that looks like an access signal. All that size translates to power, however. In fact, this is 1 of the well-nigh powerful wireless extenders I’ve tested. Add in extra goodies such as a USB 3.0 port (for connecting USB external drives and printers) and five Gigabit Ethernet ports to span networking gadgets, and you lot have a winning Wi-Fi range extender.
Specs
The EX6200($85.78 at Amazon)
looks similar to Netgear’s
Nighthawk
($159.99 at All-time Buy)
except it’s smaller than the Nighthawk and doesn’t have a sloping chassis. Still, it’s large for an extender, measuring ix.92 past 6.85 by 1.22 inches (HWD). What’due south unique is its ruby-and-black blueprint—it’s really rather hit. Furthermore, the EX6200 tin operate horizontally or vertically on a red stand that is included in the packaging.
As well unique to the EX6200 are its premium hardware specs, which are far better than what’s institute in most Wi-Fi extenders. The EX6200 has an 800MHz dual-core processor, for starters. In addition to its 700mW high-ability amplifiers, the device besides has two 5dBi loftier-gain external antennas.
Of course, the EX6200 is pricier than smaller, wall-mountable extenders, such equally the $50
D-Link Wireless N300 Range Extender DAP-1320
($nineteen.99 at Amazon), or the $30 TP-Link 300Mbps Universal WiFi Range Extender (TL-WA850RE). Yet, for more than double those prices, the EX6200 is not only a dual-band extender (the DAP-1320 is only single-band), simply it can likewise operate equally a bridge with five Gigabit ports. It’s too got a USB three.0 port, which allows it to operate every bit a print or media server. And then there are those powerful components nether the hood. Take all that into account, and the price seems more than than reasonable.
Setup
Netgear’due south extender ships with a Getting Started guide, a one-page manual in workflow format. The guide begins by request y’all if your router has a WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) button. If the answer is “Yes,” you follow the instructions on the left side of the guide. If “No,” follow the steps on the right side. The instructions are clear, piece of cake-to-follow, and elementary, thanks to this workflow logic.
In a nutshell, there are 2 ways to set up the EX6200: using WPS or using the extender’s Netgear Genie software wizard. I went through both setup processes testing the extender with Netgear’southward Nighthawk router. Both setup methods worked well.
When using WPS, you want to place the extender close to the router, preferably within line of sight (you can relocate the extender afterward configuration). The side by side steps include powering up the extender, pressing the WPS push button on the extender, and then activating WPS on the router. The Nighthawk does not accept a physical WPS button; instead, you initiate a WPS connectedness via its direction interface. Even with software-based WPS, the WPS pairing between the EX6200 and Nighthawk worked well (as it should for whatsoever WPS-supported router, not only Netgear’s). I was able to connect the two devices via WPS even with the router in a separate room behind a glass divider.
At that place is a “Device to Extender” LED on the EX6200 that lights solid green when the extender is successfully paired with the router. Using the WPS method extends the 2.4GHz band on dual-band networks. To extend the 5GHz betoken on the same router using WPS, you have to printing the WPS buttons on the EX6200 and the router a second time.
Although all of my LEDs indicated I had the two devices connected successfully, I went into the client tabular array in the admin interface of the Nighthawk and confirmed that the extender was listed along with its DHCP-assigned IP address.
For those who want full command over extending a wireless network, the second setup method is the option for you. From a laptop, yous connect to the extender’south pre-configured wireless network (the SSID and login credentials are provided in the guide). In one case connected, I opened upwards a browser and was automatically re-directed to the extender’south Web-based interface. This interface is the aforementioned
Genie
app UI that is included across Netgear’s latest line of networking products.
A wizard walks you through selecting the existing network you want to extend. I opted to extend the 2.4 GHz signal of my router and was pleased to see that the extender interface detected that I too had the 5GHz band configured and asked if wanted to extend that network equally well.
Features and Interface
Features and Interface
You tin can use the extender’s Genie user interface for mail service-setup management. As soon as I re-accessed the UI subsequently install, I received notification that a new firmware update was available.
The software chop-chop and adroitly handled the update while automatically refreshing the UI during the process. I complaint: Subsequently updating, I logged out of the UI and went back in. I notwithstanding saw the alert “A [sic] extender firmware upgrade is available.”
I re-clicked on the alert and received the on-screen bulletin that at that place was no new firmware available. Of grade—I had just updated it. This is a minor complaint, but once the firmware is updated to the latest version, the update should be canned.
That said, I did feel two inexplicable disconnects of my extender from my network, subsequently the upgrade. I had the extender running a full 60 minutes prior to the update, and information technology wasn’t until I updated the firmware that I experienced two flaky disconnects. I rebooted the extender and I didn’t take some other disconnect afterwards. This isn’t a deal-billow for what truly is a fine piece of consumer hardware, but it is something to watch out for when upgrading.
Performance
Nosotros test wireless range extenders in an excruciatingly RF-heavy office environment. That traffic really puts an extender to the examination. Without the extender, with virtually 75 feet between my wireless customer and my router, Windows showed my wireless point strength at 3 confined. That bumped upwardly to five bars when I connected the extender.
The EX6200 delivered the best functioning of whatever extender at a distance of 75 feet from the router. On the other hand, the
BearExtender PC
and DAP-1320 extenders delivered the aforementioned or meliorate performance (although not significantly so) at 100 to 150 feet.
I was impressed that at a distance of 100-125 anxiety from the router, I was withal able to slowly scan the Internet even though our testing software, Ixia’south IxChariot, could no longer register throughput. The fact that I withal had a network connection wirelessly, in our crowded testing environment, is impressive, and it gives me conviction in deeming this a powerful extender.
An Excellent Extender
The EX6200 is an excellent piece of consumer networking hardware (and could also work for smaller business wireless networks), even with the software hiccups encountered after a firmware update. With its extra capabilities as a five-port Gigabit Ethernet bridge, and as a impress or media device server via the USB 3.0 port, yous become a lot of features for the price. The Netgear AC1200 WiFi Range Extender (EX6200) is our Editors’ Choice for Wi-Fi extenders.
