Amped Wireless High Power 600mW Compact Wi-Fi Range Extender (REC10)

The Great: The device works superbly throughout a 4,000 square foot home on 3 levels. I had problems installing (see below). Tech Support was very accessible, I called 3 times & they were there for me. In particular, Kudos to Ryan for wonderful bedside manner & getting me over the goal line at long last. Another was very patient; we spoke twice & he stayed past closing time on the first occasion, called me back when the phone connection dropped, spent an hour the 2nd time & was very patient. The third person was not as technically sharp & blamed my iPads & iPhones; perhaps a trainee.The Bad: The installation documentation looked very user friendly, but it was easy to miss key points, like on what device do I do the install, it should clearly state that the device doing the install should disconnect from all wireless networks before accessing the setup website, & should clearly state you do not need to install on wireless devices & PC (just in one place because you are not installing on your gear but setting up the REC 10). This wasn't obvious to me, & my wireless devices didn't connect when I tried them after the install on my laptop was "finished". So I erroneously inferred from the drop down menu supporting windows 7/XP, 8, android, & iPhone/iPad, that I should install on each.The Ugly: I spent a total of 9 hours to get everything right, despite a very successful 40 year career in information technology! While all Tech Support was accessible, the unnamed one was clearly in a hurry to be done with me, & concluded that the problem must be with my wireless devices, all of which worked fine before the drama of this installation started. Another concluded erroneously that the REC10 was defective & should be replaced. Since neither could figure out why none of my devices connected to WIFI, even when we totally uninstalled the thing, I felt forced to call my router manufacturer & set up a tech support arrangement costing as much as the REC10 to work with me to finally bring all my wireless devices back to WIFI life. Then I took a chance & started the install one last time, ran into a silly documentation induced problem, called Tech Support, & Ryan escorted me over the goal line.BOTTOM LINE: Very effective device, Documentation needs upgrading to emphasize/include key points/caveats, & Tech Support is very accessible but some could use more training on network issues & workarounds. The product gets 5 stars, Tech support gets 3.5 (based on a 1, a 3.5, & a 5 for the 3 individuals who helped me), & documentation gets 1. By all means buy it, but read the documentation very carefully, & be aware/beware regarding the dos, don'ts, & warnings I've mentioned above.

Update after years of using this at dozens of campgrounds. I downgraded it 2 stars simply because it is a lengthy setup (3min. countdown) and too unreliable. Sometimes the countdown has a problem and then you have to start all over. Often I have to reset the device (unplug replug) due to it becoming non-responsive or un-joinable. I have communicated with Amped tech support often and they always try to help promptly.For whatever reason there are just no options for plug in extenders with dual band AND detachable antennas. But I tested out a Wavlink outdoor extender and even though it uses PoE rather than a direct plug in, it does have antennas that can be upgraded like my setup below AND the interface is so fast and smooth compared to Amped! Sorry, not sorry!!——————————I connected this extender to a Engenius Outdoor High Gain 8dBi Omni Antenna using a TP-LINK (TL-ANT24PT3) 10ft N Male to RP-SMA Male Cable to create a network in my RV. It definitely was able to pick up a much better signal than my computer could pull in (showing networks that my computer hadn't seen before too). In my particular test with the Engenius antenna added it boosted the signal that the Amped Extender picked up (with its regular 2dBi antenna) from 59% to 77%. The signal was coming from inside a building a good ways away. This Amped Extender can run a new network off a weak signal, even down to 53% (in my tests), although the directions say you need a 70% signal. By adding the external antenna I definitely had better range and didn't have to worry about a weak signal. The Amped extender also broadcasts a new network (both a 2.4 and a 5.0 signal) much farther with the external antenna than it's original antenna could (though I was impressed by how effective it's little 2dBi antenna was). My main purpose was to pick up a stronger signal, not necessarily broadcast further (I didn't test the range of the new signal other than being able to work in my truck parked near the trailer), but this set up can do both.I was concerned about getting a good signal directly below the external antenna as I have it mounted on my retractable TV antenna on the RV roof (13ft high) and the omni antenna is designed to broadcast horizontally, not so much vertically. I was very pleased though as the whole set up preformed exactly as I was hoping. My main reason for buying this Amped Extender model was it's ability to dual band broadcast both a 2.4 & a 5.0. Sometimes the speed of the new signals are the same, but in crowded areas my 5.0 signal often produced much better speeds than the 2.4 (I would not recommend the REC10 model now that this REC15 has the Boostband tecnology). I also like the compact design as it fits inside a cabinet plugged directly into an outlet. It's out of the way then and with the removable antenna I could add the Engenius antenna and not worry about needing to plug the extender in near a window or something.There's only one other dual band extender I found like this Amped wireless REC15A was the Netgear EX6100. From what I could tell the antennas were not removable on the 6100 (and I didn't want to go with the EX6200 as it was not as mobile) so the Amped REC15A was what I chose and I've been very pleased! Never without Wifi anymore!Two further notes:I wish Trendnet had an antenna cable length in between 6.5ft and 19ft. I first bought their 6.5ft low loss cable and it worked well when I tested it. But I soon found (after drilling a hole in my RV roof!) that I needed a 10ft cable to run down into my trailer cabinet outlet so I ended up sending the Trendnet one back and going with the TP-LINK 10ft Cable. Worked just as well as the Trendnet, but was the perfect length!I also first tried the TP-LINK (TL-ANT2408C) 8dBi Indoor Desktop Omni-directional Antenna to see if I could pick up a better signal without mounting an outside antenna. My tests produced no discernible improvement with the indoor antenna, mounted either directly to the extender or on the desktop mount. I do not think the TP-Link antenna is designed to pick up signal better, maybe it broadcasts better. But that's not what I needed so I sent it back.