If you’ve ever sat in the far corner of your house staring at a buffering screen, you’ve probably thought about grabbing one of those little Wi-Fi extender gadgets. I’ve tried a bunch over the years—some good, some absolute junk. The one I’ve been messing with lately is the Brostrend Wi-Fi Extender, and honestly, I’ll give you the straight truth about it here.
First off, Wi-Fi extenders aren’t magic. If your internet sucks at the source, no extender is going to make it better. That’s rule number one. I’ve had people ask me why their extender doesn’t fix their 10 Mbps DSL connection—it’s because you can’t polish a turd. But if you’ve got decent internet and just have dead zones, then yeah, an extender can help.
So here’s the deal with the Brostrend Wi-Fi Extender. Setup wasn’t too bad. I plugged it in, pressed the WPS button on my router, then pressed the one on the extender. Took maybe a minute to connect. Lights blinked, then locked in. Done. I tested it by walking to the far end of the house where my signal always drops to one bar. Boom—full bars. Not as fast as being next to the router, but way better than nothing. Netflix actually streamed without stopping, which is all I really cared about.
Now, let’s be real. Extenders cut your bandwidth. That’s just how they work. They grab the signal, then repeat it. So if your router is blasting 200 Mbps, you might see 70–100 Mbps on the extender side. Not terrible, but not full speed either. With the Brostrend Wi-Fi Extender, I was pulling around 80 Mbps in the far corner, compared to like 10 Mbps without it. I’ll take that trade.
One thing I noticed—it matters where you place it. If you plug it into an outlet in the dead zone, you’re wasting your time. The extender needs to catch a decent signal from the router before it can rebroadcast it. I ended up moving it halfway between my router and the dead spot. Once I did that, it worked way better. That’s a rookie mistake a lot of people make—don’t blame the extender if you stick it too far away.
Build quality feels fine. It’s just a little box with antennas sticking out. Doesn’t get hot, doesn’t buzz, nothing weird. Been running for a couple months straight now without needing to reset it. Some extenders I’ve used in the past constantly dropped the connection, and I’d have to unplug and replug them. That hasn’t been the case here, so that’s a win in my book.
Would I recommend the Brostrend Wi-Fi Extender to everyone? Depends. If you just want a quick and cheap way to get signal in the garage, basement, or upstairs bedroom, it’ll do the job. But if you’re trying to cover a whole big house or run a ton of smart home devices, you’re probably better off with a mesh system like Orbi or Eero. Extenders are like Band-Aids—they fix the immediate problem, but they’re not the perfect solution for everything.
Price-wise, it’s fair. Way cheaper than buying a whole new mesh system. And setup doesn’t need you to be some kind of IT wizard. I didn’t even open the manual, which is saying something. Just hit a button or two and it was up. That’s the kind of gear I like—simple, does what it says.
Couple tips if you do grab one:
- Put it in a spot where it still gets at least two bars from your router.
- Change the SSID (the network name) if you want, but I left mine as default. Phones switch over automatically once they recognize it.
- Don’t expect wired-speeds over Wi-Fi, especially if you’re gaming. It’s fine for streaming and web browsing though.
Final Words
The Brostrend Wi-Fi Extender isn’t magic, but it works. If you’ve got dead spots and don’t want to spend hundreds on a new system, this little box will make life easier. I wouldn’t rely on it for super-heavy stuff like competitive online gaming, but for watching YouTube in bed or getting Wi-Fi out in the garage, it does exactly what you want it to.
So yeah, if your Wi-Fi drops the second you leave the living room, this thing might be the cheap fix you’re looking for. Just remember—it won’t turn bad internet into good internet. But it will stretch decent Wi-Fi into the places your router couldn’t reach. And honestly, for the price, that’s good enough.
