5/23/2023 0 Comments Verizon wireless signal extenderThis is our favorite Wi-Fi extender because it provides excellent performance and coverage for a decent price, and it isn’t too difficult to set up. If you’re happy with the overall performance of your router and just want better Wi-Fi coverage, the Netgear Nighthawk X4 will get the job done. Read more about anti-malware in Network World's Anti-malware section.Netgear Nighthawk X4 Wi-Fi Mesh Extender Review But anyone with a network of, say, 10 or more computers to administer needs a far more robust Internet cellphone product. It is suitable for use in home offices and other small offices. This makes troubleshooting a virtual impossibility, and complicates matters when a Range Extender is several rooms away or on another floor.ĭespite its shortcomings, the Verizon Range Extender solves the cellphone dead zone problem, and it is better than nothing at all. And, of course, it does not provide any Web browser access to its settings and status, so you have no idea what is going on except for the idiot-light LEDs on the front and a blinking Ethernet pulse on the back. Worse yet, its IP address may duplicate that of a computer or network printer, causing network chaos. It does not respond to a network ping, so you have no idea what its IP address is. The Range Extender is also a closed system. Of course, when a Range Extender is powered up for the very first time out of the box, it must find a GPS satellite to get its own coordinates. A further refinement would be to put a "Sense GPS" button on the front, to be used only when the Range Extender gets moved to a new location. After that, it could keep the GPS coordinates in memory and never have to search for the GPS satellite until it is powered off/on again. Unlike a cellphone, however, the Range Extender tends to stay in one place, so it could have been designed to get a GPS signal once, just after being plugged in. The recovery procedure is to unplug and replug the Range Extender repeatedly until it finally gets a GPS signal, definitely hit or miss. Here in New England, that means the phone link could be out for a long time. A heavily overcast sky causes the device to lose the GPS satellite signal, the GPS LED goes red, and all cellphones stop working. Once, after three days out of service and numerous calls to Verizon, our Range Extender magically started working again, and Verizon gave us full credit for a month of service on all our cellphones.Īnother shortcoming has to do with cloudy and foggy weather, a common occurrence in my New England area, especially in the winter. Next, they might tell you that your Range Extender is faulty and needs to be replaced. First, they may try to lay the blame on your ISP. ![]() ![]() Not much to do about that, except to wait for your ISP or your electric company to get back up and running.īut, if you are suddenly without cellphone service when Verizon's Internet-based cellphone system goes down, be prepared for long hours on the phone with Verizon techs to troubleshoot. So where does the Range Extender concept break down? The obvious time is when your broadband link is out of service. If you have several Verizon phones, you can probably negotiate a discount of about half. The Range Extender list price of $250 is a bit steep given the device offloads Verizon's heavily loaded cell towers and using it adds billable cellphone minutes, both of which work in Verizon's favor.
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