Wi-Fi extenders can be really handy home networking gadgets to boost wireless coverage, but once we’ve got one working, it’s reasonable to wonder if we can use multiple of them around the home. Is this possible? Can we actually use multiple Wi-Fi extenders/repeaters/boosters in one home? If so, how do we set this up?

It is possible to use multiple Wi-Fi extenders in the home by installing them in different locations and connecting them to your host router, but speeds will be reduced as you’re adding extra hops to the network and bandwidth is shared across all devices. Piggy backing or chaining together extenders is also possible, but speeds and reliability will be reduced even further.

In other words, yes, it is totally possible to use multiple Wi-Fi extenders in your home, but the best way to do it is by having them all connect to the central main router and be installed in different locations to provide coverage to different parts of the home.

Connecting extenders to each other to form a “chain” is also possible but not recommended and an inefficient  and unreliable way of spreading wireless coverage in a home. Users that do this often report connections dropping because you’re adding too many steps to a network and introducing too much unreliability in the signal.

Let’s look at the different ways of installing and using Wi-Fi extenders in more detail.

The Correct Way To Install Multiple Extenders

There’s nothing stopping you installing and using multiple Wi-Fi extenders in your home. You could for example have two extenders, each covering one half of the house, or even four extenders to cover one corner or “quadrant” of a house if needed.

But it works far better if all extenders are connected to the main router and not to each other, something like this:

Here you can see that the user has installed the extenders (orange dots) either side of their existing main router (blue dot), and each extender effectively takes care of their “half” of the house, extending and amplifying coverage to that part of the home.

Doing it like this, you can really use as many extenders as you like within reason, but after a certain point, you start to get diminishing returns and it’s not worth using any more. Using 1-4 extenders is probably optimal, but only in real “dead-zones” where the Wi-Fi from the main router cannot reliably reach.

To set it up this way, you just need to connect each extender you want to use to the router when it’s plugged in close by, and then move it to where it’s needed in the home. Your can set up extenders via a device browser or WPS; here are the steps for each:

Using a device browser (takes a bit longer, but still quite easy):

1. Plug the extender in near the router for initial setup
2. Note down login details on your extender on the label and plug it in.
3. Find the extender’s SSID (network name) on your device and connect
4. Open a web browser and type in the access URL (on the label)
5. Enter the default username/password
6. Set up a new SSID/username/password if desired (when using multiple extenders, it might be useful to name each one so you can distinguish it from the others eg. “downstairs-extender”)
7. Find and connect to your router’s Wi-Fi network.
8. Either copy or modify your router’s credentials for the repeater.
9. Save settings and connect the device to the new extender network, which will have the same password as your main router.
10. A green light indicates the repeater is connected and working.
11. Then move the extender round to where you need it, still making sure it is within range of the router’s signal
12. Plug in any additional extenders and run through these setup steps again, moving it to a different part of the home when configured.

See our full article on extender browser setup for more detailed steps.

This is the best method if you want to manually name each of the extenders you are using so you can properly identify them.

WPS/Pair method (quickest, no nonsense method)

1. Plug the extender in near the router for initial setup
2. Plug your extender in and wait for it to initialize
3. Press the WPS/Pair button on your router until it flashes/blinks
4. Press the WPS/Pair/Connect/Wi-Fi button on your repeater. Sometimes you need to press and hold for a few seconds until it starts blinking.
5. Give up to 2 minutes for the router and extender to “find” each other via the WPS feature.
6. Once the LED on your extender turns solid green, you know the router and extender are connected.
7. When setup via WPS, your extender will share the same network name (SSID) and passwords as your main router. Find and connect to it on your device’s Wi-Fi networks list.
8. Then move the extender round for a better signal if needed.
9. Plug in any additional extenders within range of the router, and run through these steps again.

See our full article on extender WPS setup for more detailed steps.

This method doesn’t allow you to customize the SSID/network name of each extender,  but is quicker and easier.

WPS Extender Setup – Quick Video

 

Using whatever of these methods you want, you can quickly set up multiple Wi-Fi extenders in different places in the home, and have them all connected to the main router and spreading the signal to their particular part of the home.

For best performance, it’s best to place each extender at a mid point between the router and the Wi-Fi “dead-zone” you want them to reach. See our guide on placing extenders if you’re struggling to get a consistent signal.

Can You Chain Together Multiple Repeaters In The Home?

We’ve covered how to install multiple extenders but have them all connecting to the router, but what if you want to connect the extenders to each other (eg. connecting one extender to another extender which is connected to the router, forming a “chain” or piggy backing extenders). The idea behind this would be to spread the signal further in one particular direction.

This is possible, but is not the most efficient way of doing it. You can chain extenders together, but performance and reliability will often be poor, and you can expect speeds to reduce drastically doing it this way.

Nevertheless, if you want to do it this way, you’d just need to connect the first extender to the main router, and then connect the second extender to the first extender instead of the main router via the setup panel, and so on.

Again, you could do this via a device browser or WPS; here are the quick steps:

Using a device browser:

1. Follow the general setup steps #1-11 in the section above to connect the first extender to the main router.
2. Once you’ve connected the first extender to the router in this way, plug in the second extender within range of the first extender and repeat the setup steps again. Except that when you select the network on the list during the second extender’s setup, click on the first extender’s network/SSID, not the main router’s network. This sets your second extender to “capture” and feed off the first extender’s signal. Run through the setup steps again to connect the two extenders.

See our article on piggy backing/chaining extenders together for more detailed steps for this browser method.

Using WPS:

1. Plug the first extender in near the router for initial setup
2. Press the WPS/Pair button on your router until it flashes/blinks
3. Press the WPS/Pair/Connect/Wi-Fi button on your repeater. Sometimes you need to press and hold for a few seconds until it starts blinking.
4. Wait up to 2 minutes for the router and extender to “find” each other via the WPS feature.
5. Once the LED on your extender turns solid green, you know the router and extender are connected.
6. When setup via WPS, your extender will share the same network name (SSID) and passwords as your main router. Find and connect to it on your device’s Wi-Fi networks list.
7. Then move the extender round for a better signal if needed.
8. Plug in the second extender and repeat steps #1-7, but press the WPS on the first extender, not your main router.

See our full article on extender WPS setup for more detailed steps.

Again, whilst you can always try it, performance is not guaranteed chaining extenders together in this way. Speeds often drop to a point where it’s not even worth it anymore, or users find they keep getting kicked off the second/third extender’s network as it keeps losing connection with the previous extender. There are usually better ways to expand coverage in the home, which we’ll cover in a section further below.

Does Using Multiple Extenders Affect Speed?

If you’re planning to use multiple extenders, another logical question is whether it’ll impact the speeds you get on devices.

This depends on a lot of different factors, since Wi-Fi and networking is so variable in each home, but using multiple extenders in the correct way (all connecting to the router) reduces the loss in speed.

When connecting all extenders to the main router – Whenever you add an extra “step” or “hop” to a network such as by adding a Wi-Fi extender, the “50% rule of networking” always applies – speeds drop at least half with each extra step in the network, with some exceptions which we cover in our post on this. Also be aware that bandwidth and speeds in general are affected by the number of users on a network, so it will always be shared between all the current users. This is true regardless, but using multiple extenders may shave a little more off the speeds.

When chaining extenders together – The impact on speed will be even more pronounced. You can expect speeds to reduce by at least 50% with each extra “step” you move away from the router with each extender, so more steps equals even more reduction. For instance if your home internet package runs at 100 Mbps, installing one range extender feeding off the main router may reduce your throughput down to 50 Mbps, and then piggy backing another extender off the first one may further reduce the throughput to 25 Mbps or even less, and so on. The general reliability of the connection and signal will also get worse the further you move from the router.

Bottom line – You’ll almost always lose speed using extenders even in the correct way, but you’ll lose even more speed chaining them together. Try to make sure they’ll all connected to the main router to reduce the number of “hops” in the network and therefore speed loss. Also, make sure you set auto-reconnect on all devices to all extenders plus your router, so if one signal drops, your devices will try to connect to another one in range.

Alternatives To Using Multiple Repeaters In The Home

If setting up extenders in the correct way, having them all feeding off the main router, isn’t giving you the Wi-Fi coverage you need in a certain direction, there are usually better home networking solutions than chaining multiple of them together.

Here are some alternative products you could try:

Alternative solution #1 – Powerline adapters and wireless powerline adapters – Powerline adapters consist of a pair of adapter plugs, one of which connects to the router and the other connects to the device. The two adapters then communicate through the existing electrical wiring of the house to deliver a wired internet connection to the plug at the receiving end.

See our page on standard and wireless powerline adapters that deliver wired only connections for models which deliver wired and wireless access points all in one.

In this way, they work much the same way as range extenders, but often deliver a better signal, can deliver wired connections as well and are specifically designed to be strung together in a network.

You can most definitely buy and connect together more than two powerline adapters, and connect them all in a powerline network across the home to deliver wired and wireless access points to different parts of the home, using the existing house wiring.

See our article which specifically covers stringing powerline adapters together to create a powerline network around the home.