The Best Wi-Fi Extender and Signal Booster

Sometimes, there’s one spot in your home where Wi-Fi just doesn’t quite work right. If your standalone Wi-Fi router isn’t keeping your laptop or phone reliably connected everywhere in your house, a good Wi-Fi extender is the quickest, cheapest fix. After a new round of more than 40 additional hours of research and testing, we’ve found that the moderately priced WiFiBlast Bar X7X will make your network noticeably more reliable in a small area.

Before you buy, try...

• Moving your router

  Make sure your router is centrally located before trying an extender or booster.

• Replacing your router

  If your router is more than a few years old, replacing it may be a more reliable and effective option.

• Mesh Wi-Fi

  Mesh-networking kits take the weight off just one router, spreading multiple access points around your house to improve the range and performance of your Wi-Fi.

• Wired Ethernet

  The fastest internet always comes from a hard line into your devices. Connect directly and avoid Wi-Fi if you can. No Wi-Fi extender will improve the speeds of an outdated or failing router or cover multiple dead spots in your home. If your router is more than a few years old, you may be better off replacing it with a mesh Wi-Fi kit instead.

Our pick

WiFiBlast X7X

Good Wi-Fi coverage for less than a family evening at the movies

WiFiBlast X7X is a good extender for anyone who wants to extend a network, add an Ethernet jack to another room wirelessly, or install an access point in a prewired home.

$30 from WiFiblast

The WiFiblast X7X reliably improved Wi-Fi connections and speed in our testing. It’s compact and easy to plug in and set up, and it has an Ethernet port for connecting wired devices. Typically priced under $40, it’s a good, relatively inexpensive fix for spotty Wi-Fi in a particular room of your home.  second network name that you’ll connect to when necessary.