NETGEAR (WN3000RP) Universal Wi-Fi Range Extender (Renewed)

I bought the first one from EMBIZ; delivered on time, in filthy, 'refurb' internal package, a broken antenna and not one word of install docs, a non-pro box sealing. I suspect that it was a prior return that they did not even open to inspect. I returned it to Amazon instantly; No Way! ($37.45)Interim reading elsewhere convinced me that the basic product was ideal for my needs, so re-ordered from Amazon using Deal-Fisher and bought TWO ($37.95 each). What a difference! Pristine, production line boxing, More than enough docs to install properly, No broken parts, and a brief warranty statement from Netgear - all as expected. (At a whopping $2.37, I also bought a two year warranty, but I'm not worried.)What I think: EMBIZ just reshipped a return without looking at the contents. DealFisher sold "New" Refurbished product, complete with 'factory' inclusions. Take your pick, but $0.50 is worth a lot, here.The NetGear WN3000RP itself: If properly installed, this products works well and exactly as advertised. I am pleased and BOTH units work just fine. The installation process is NOT intuitive and a little guidance is necessary, especially if using TWO+ extenders from the same base router. That said, if the naming procedures are changed, Two or even more extenders CAN be used without problems. Yes, there is a speed penalty for using a range extender. However, when the basic ISP's rate is about 5.5 MB/sec and the home network's rate is about 300 Mb/sec, cutting it by half is a drop that most users will never see. The WN3000RP gizmo works just fine, for me, both in the house and even shooting and 'excellent' signal, through thick walls and 150+ yards away. After installing two of these, I have to believe that the majority of the returns - those that become "Factory Refurbished" units sold at ~half price, are the result of users who did not read the Installation Guide. Duh! For the most part, one can skip the much longer and redundant User's Manual, just read and understand the Installation Guide.The Questions section on this site poses several questions about using more than one WN3000RP on a single network - and the answers are all over the place. The short answer is YES, If course you can! Some simple Name Changes are necessary, but no more. This gizmo likes to name the extended connection either Netgear(nn)_EXT or (ExistingNetworkName(nn)_EXT, where (nn) is a number to count the extensions. Whatever you name yours, it will appear on your list of available connections. [My suggestion is to use (ExistingNetworkName(nn)_EXT to make it easier to recognize that you are on your home network. Obviously, dense urban areas are different from isolated, rural networks just looking for some distance and having little need for security and encryption. The fewer used, the faster the service - and the great your exposure. Copying the existing configuration - an install option is a good place to begin; If you can, eliminating all encryption makes it even easier. (Depending upon where your network is located, talk to your ISP's tech folks. (At ~ten miles from a neighbor and >1 mile from a pass-by road that I can see, do I care about eavesdroppers? Unless it is the N.S.A., I'll see them before they can connect.) In the end, the is an excellent product. When used per the instructions it will provide greatly extended range for your private network. If security is necessary, it will also reproduce the common encryption types, link-to-link, though at some theoretical speed loss. Different security applications for each link may be possible, but that is above my pay-grade and, in the even of a power failure, could be cumbersome to reload. For the user with modest skills, but who can read and follow directions, this refurbished (essentially virgin) unit and at the price is a legitimate steal. If you have a large home, thick walls, or need to cover distance between buildings, this unit - properly installed, MAY be a far better deal than an expensive set on antennae and/or a new router. It works well for me. My only regret was the first vendor, EMBIZ, and I think they just had a bad day. Amazon it looking after the details - if they do not, you'll here about it here.

I've never written a review before, b/c I usually don't have anything to contribute that someone hasn't already said. This is an exception!If you're like me, this thing works great - when it's working. But the connection often drops, and seems to get worse with time. It has nothing to do with being too far from the router - when the right-most ("Link Rate") light is on, it's green. But the problem is that it often turns off intermittently (i.e. the connection breaks). As far as I can tell, that's the reason why the ratings from some are low on Amazon.You may also notice that the left-most (WPS) light flashes. This is actually what causes the problem. I have searched long and hard, and finally found a solution (buried in some forum, not here on Amazon). Now for 2 weeks I have not had a dropped connection once - all 4 lights are always solid green.Follow these steps. If you're like me, you're a tech idiot. This solution seemed to be too complicated and I actually didn't try it for a couple weeks because of that. But once I decided to do it, it took me less than 15 minutes, and it was the only thing that I found that worked consistently. I can tell you I spent a whole lot more time on other possibilities.1. Write down the "MAC" numbers/addresses for all the devices you want to be able to connect to the extender. I didn't have a clue what this number was, but I Google'd it and was able to find out how to get them for all my devices (iPhones, laptops, desktops). See step 6 below for another way to get them, too. It should actually be pretty easy. It is always the same for a particular device, like a digital serial number. Here's an example: B4:C2:5F:1C:08:712. Go into the extender's wireless settings website: (...)mywifiext.net. I believe(...)mywifiext.com also works. NOTE: You have to be successfully connected to the extender on the device you are trying to use first. Otherwise it will redirect you to the Netgear website. This caused me many headaches, because at that point I was hardly ever able to get it to stay connected long enough to work in the settings website, because the connection was so bad or kept dropping so frequently. It may help if you try to access it with another device, or to reset the connector and set it up again from scratch.3. Once you are in the settings website, go to "Advanced Wireless Settings".4. Click the "Setup Access List" button.5. Click the "Turn Access Control On" checkbox.6. Enter each of the MAC addresses that you wrote down earlier. If you had trouble finding them, you can actually go to the "Maintenance" tab of the settings website, and look for "Attached Devices" or "Network Devices". It will give you a list of MAC addresses that are currently connected to the extender - at minimum, the one your working on will show up.7. Save, and you should be good to go! I didn't even need to reset the extender or anything. It immediately worked, and has ever since.I don't believe you have to upgrade your firmware first to do this, but it might help. I upgraded first, hoping that alone would fix my problems. It did not, but the above steps did. It took me a long time to figure out how to upgrade the firmware, and to be able to stay connected long enough to do it. By God's grace my connection didn't drop while I was upgrading it. If I had to do it again, I would have done the above steps first.The drawback of this solution is that if you want another device to be able to use the extender, you have to add its MAC address to the list on the settings website. Once you do it once though, it is pretty easy to do. You will be solidly connected, so it's easy to work in the settings website once it's set up this way. This is another reason I hesitated to do this, but it's not too inconvenient and it's much less of a headache than dealing with dropped connections. The benefit is that (I assume) there is better security, since others can't possible use the extender unless their device is on the MAC list.I really hope this helps you out! It is my way of paying it forward because of all the wonderful solutions the internet has provided me over the years. I wish you didn't have to do this to get it to work well, so for that it gets 4 stars. Other than that, I believe it's a 5-star product.For those who care, I believe (from the source I read - I know nothing about this technical stuff) that this problem is due to interferences with other wireless signals in your area, particularly those with WPS security.