How does a Wi-Fi extender work? Let’s say if a certain location has a signal of -50dBm, how does adding an extender at that exact location boost the signal around it?
In: Technology
The equipment in the extender is better quality than a standard device. It might have a more sensitive receiver and/or powerful broadcaster. While a phone might have trouble receiving signal to the router and broadcasting back, the extender can. The extender then broadcasts a network with the same SSID as the router. This identifies it as the same network as the router. Your phone then connects and transmits to the extender, which relays those packets through its link to the router.
If you move closer to the router or a different extender so much that your original link weakens, your device will swap over and send to whichever endpoint with the same SSID can receive. This gives you a seamless experience as you move around as if it were one big signal.
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