Quick access is enabled to various features of the device firmware like parental controls, network map, WiFi Connection, Router Settings, etc. The user interface of NETGEAR Genie is simple to understand with its large buttons. Other tools included are the options to manage your wireless WiFi network, network auditing tools and the display of upload and download speeds. The program is able to complete many different tasks, an important one being the option of providing streaming on a home network to users of Windows, Mac, Android and iOS. It provides additional functionality on a Windows system. NETGEAR Genie is an official program developed by Netgear for owners of certain routers produced by the company. The RE315 also handily beat the RE605X, our former upgrade pick, in this round of testing.Official tool offering router owners access to filesharing, streaming, configuration, parental controls and other NETGEAR settings. Our top pick, the TP-Link RE315, finished in the middle of the pack this time around but surpassed similarly priced extenders in our tests for a previous iteration of this guide. The Deco S4 takes fewer steps to set up than the RP-AX56 and is more expandable, so replacing your router with a mesh setup is an easier option if you need improvement everywhere. The TP-Link Deco S4 mesh network improved latency across the board and performed a bit better than the RP-AX56. The Asus RP-AX56 was almost as quick to respond as our budget mesh system on these tests, prompting us to name it our upgrade pick. Each color bar represents someone waiting for something to happen after clicking a link, and longer bars mean more time staring at a spinning circle or pinwheel. Our stacked median latency chart above shows the typical latency for every computer on our test network at once, giving some idea of the whole network’s general performance when multiple devices are making requests at the same time. Similar to the test involving the download laptop, this test presents a real challenge to the rest of the network. If these laptops can’t get at least 20 to 25 Mbps, that likely means a real video would be pausing, buffering, or reducing the video quality to HD or worse. They tried to download data at up to 30 Mbps, but we were satisfied if they could average 25 Mbps or better, which is more than what Netflix recommends for 4K. Video streamers: Two laptops each simulated a 4K video streaming session to a streaming box or smart TV.This test is a big challenge for the rest of the network-if this laptop gets all of the available airtime, the other tests suffer. We wanted to see an overall throughput of 100 megabits per second or better, to simulate the experience of an impatient person waiting for a device to complete an update. Downloader: One laptop downloaded a large file.This is the most important test-it accurately represents the thing that frustrates real users most (slow and inconsistent web browsing)-and it usually fails before any of the other tests do. Each “web page” consisted of 16 separate 128 KB files, all requested simultaneously, and we measured latency from the time the requests went out to the time all 16 requests were fulfilled. Browsers: Three laptops simulated real-human web browsing by loading a “web page” once every 20 seconds.The cost of an extender plus a good router should be less than that of a mesh system-otherwise, you should probably get a mesh system instead. We didn’t test any of the more-expensive extenders (up to $300). Moderate price: We didn’t consider many options over $150, and we paid special attention to extenders that cost $50 or less.Mesh compatibility: Whether the mesh-networking features are compatible only with routers from the same manufacturer (TP-Link, Asus) or with all routers (Netgear), they can simplify setup and ensure that your devices are connected to the router or extender with the stronger signal, improving the stability of your network. In the past, we’ve accepted extenders without Ethernet support, but this time we’ve made the feature mandatory.
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