Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Just installed the high-gain version of this range extender and it took, literally, 5 minutes. There have been a lot of complaints about the arcane set up and I have to agree that the "quick start" instructions are absolutely horrible. I was nervous about installing the device, but found a very simple way to do it: 1. Connect the antennas 2. Plug in the extender in your desired location. The instructions suggest somewhere halfway between the router and the dead area. 3. Wait for the flashing light on the top of the extender to glow steady. 4. Go to your computer or laptop (or tablet, phone, etc.I did it on my computer) and scan for wi-fi networks. (This is the step they left out of the instructions). In the list of available networks, you should see: Linksys Extender Setup - XXX (where XXX is the last 3 digits of the range extender's MAC address. The MAC address is pretty much irrelevant in the setup. Don't worry about it). Click to connect to Linksys Extender Setup. 5. Once your device tells you that you are connected, open a browser or if you have one already open, refresh the page. The range extender setup screen should appear. If it doesn't, connect to http://extender.linsys.com 6. The setup is pretty trivial. You will either accept the default network names of the 2.4 and 5.0 Mhz bands or change them to something that makes sense to you (just make each name different and different from your router names--the defaults are probably fine). 7. Enter a password for each of the bands. I used the same password as my router. 8. Enter a password for the admin login. Just pick something that you will remember because you will rarely go in there and anything fancy is easily forgotten. 9. Click NEXT (or whatever the prompt is at the bottom of the screen). The page will tell you your extender is set up and it will display the network names for the 2.4 and 5.0 GHz bands along with the passwords you set up, plus the administrative password. I printed that page and put in my reference book that I keep for all my devices. After the extender was set up, I tested the speed and it gets the same speed as my router. And, by the way, the Linksys Range Extender is extending the range of my Amped Wireless router. They seem to be fully compatible. The extender sits one floor below the area that was previously marginal and is very strong. My previous extender, an old Amped Wireless SR150 only got 1/3 the router speed. This is a huge improvement. I have to admit the setup instructions made me nervous since some of the very trivial, simple steps were not written clearly. Whoever wrote it used a lot of IT shorthand to describe the steps. For those of us who have only modest skills, I can see where it's confusing.