Yesterday I setup a WiFi Extender so that I could use my laptop when I'm outside in my work shed. Today I noticed that a device was connected to my extender. I checked my laptop and it was off. I found out that my desktop is connected to the extender and not directly to the router. I never setup a connection on my desktop. Is this because the router and extender have the same passphrase and would it be better to connect directly to the router?
I used an extender once. It is best to give the extender a different SSID, so this issue does not occur. For example if you have HomeWifi as your main SSID, give the extender something of the nature like HomeWifiExt or HomeWifi2 etc. This way your devices cannot auto connect to one you do not wish too. I hope this helps.
I experienced the same thing nearly. My IP camera was connecting to the weaker main signal instead of the extender in my case.
My router is Netgear30-5G and the extender is Neatgear30-5G_5EXT. I'm surprised and confused that my desktop auto connected. I just wanted it for my laptop when I'm not in my house.
That is weird.... if you never connected the desktop to the EXT SSID. I have never used wifi on my desktop, is there a way you can "forget" the EXT SSID on your desktop, like I am able to do on my Android? This will make it ask for a password before connecting to it again... or rather "should" do this
I connected to the routers 5G and had the desktop forget the extender. I'm still confused as to how and why my desktop connected to the extender.
This is my first experience with a extender. I only bought it because I wanted something cheap and easy to get a strong enough signal to my work shed. I was getting disconnect every few minutes with just the router. I've seen a lot of negatives about extenders. I'll only use it on rare occasions so I just needed something easy and cheap.
I've had fabulous luck with my Linksys RE6500 WiFi extender. In my old house the router was in the basement. The extender was on the second floor. I just set both to the same SSID and password and let the computers and devices decide for themselves what they wanted to connect to. I never noticed any slowdown in WiFi speed no matter where I was in the house or on the back deck. The RE6500 has a "sweet spot" meter that shows if it is too close or too far from the router and mine showed that it was in the far end of the sweet spot.
I just noticed something else that to me is strange. On my other laptop the 5G signal from the extender only had 1 bar and the 2G had full signal. On my new laptop the extender is full strength on both the 2G and the 5G.
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