NETGEAR EX6410-100UKS AC1900 Mesh Wifi Extender (1.9 Gbps) with UK Plug

Easy set up, placed in an outbuilding to extend WiFi range and works perfectly with our netgear router

The Nighthawk X4S extender is expensive for a Wi-Fi repeater, but it delivers excellent performance. Those distinctions are both down to its tri-band design, which uses not one but two 5GHz radios, along with a 2.4GHz one for older devices. That translates to a big bandwidth boost over the majority of cheaper extenders, which make do with a single 5GHz radio. Physically, the Nighthawk X4S is a chunky unit and it only supports Wi-Fi 5, rather than super-fast Wi-Fi 6. It has little in the way of advanced features, either. For what it is, though, the Netgear Nighthawk X4S is a terrific piece of kit. It delivers excellent Wi-Fi performance while being cheaper and easier to install than a full-blown mesh system.

I've waited a month to give this a review as I wanted to see the performance over a decent amount of time. Context I live in a two storey flat and the router is located downstairs in the living room. The living room is on the bottom floor on one side of the flat and there are two rooms upstairs but on the other side of the flat. Therefore as the signal currently is needed to both go upstairs and to the opposite side of the flat, it really struggles. In fact it struggles so badly that it turns my 200mbs speed downstairs into just 8mbps upstairs. Setup Therefore after reading dozens of reviews on the mesh version, I decided to try it out. The setup seemed easy at first but it didn't work using the wps button. So I had to redo it using my laptop. Overall took about 10mins. My router is dual bandwidth (2.4ghz and 5ghz). Performance In a 4 bedroom flat with several people using the internet simultaneously, this holds up admirably. I've only ever seen a red light once. It's mostly all blue lights with the occasional orange but it works mostly perfectly regardless. The signal can get dodgy but that's only really happened once and it quickly sorted itself out. Streaming Netflix or YouTube in 4k is a breeze. Gaming online is easy. Download speeds are maintained at an average of 170mbps upstairs which is amazing. We've got a Sky Q UHD multiscreen system, 3 smart TVs, a PS4, a PS3, an Xbox, a couple tablets and several smartphones all hooked up to this router and it really copes so well. I've ensured that there is a good balance between which device uses the 2.4ghz channel and the 5ghz channel. Perhaps that is the key to keeping everything running smoothly. I haven't needed to use the tech support but I'm glad about that as I'm told they're not very helpful. All in all I'd recommend this product and if anything changes with the performance I'll be sure to update this review.

I LOVE this little guy. Best extender ever. I useed it to extend the wifi signal from my Apple Airport Extreme, and it worked perfectly, extending both my 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz networks, using the same name, so no need to disconnect and connect to other network everytime i move between rooms. All my devices (macbook pro, iphone, ipad..) switch between the Airport Extreme and the Nighthawk seemlesly, maintaining my full wifi speed in double the distance. Installation is very easy (pairing with the Extreme through WPS was a breeze), and so all you have to do is find a good in between spot to plug the Nighthawk in so your signal can be boosted to reach the ends of the house that had poor signal. Other extenders are a nightmare to setup and when you finally do figure it out, you end up with two wifi network names that you have to manually swith between most of the times, is a hussle. With the Nighthawk you get a premium experience. Absolutely love it.

Delivered 23 March. Installed successfully, after 2 false starts, and worked beautifully until two days ago using WPS. Suddenly connection between (new) Virgin Hub 3 and extender went from blue to red (connection). Despite endless retries, reboots of Hub, reset of extender, cannot get the communication between Hub & extender to hold. Even when within the same room the signal falls off. Have tried manual install and this takes me straight to the login page which requires a user name & password. As I did not use manual install I DO NOT HAVE a username & password. Afraid I am with the “this is crap” brigade. Was on the point of sending it back & the decided to persist. One final reset of extender; left 24hrs & then (ignoring manual) proceeded on the let’s see what happens set up. Success. Access & control of hub via net; access & control of extender via net. Extender located where strong signal from hub & excellent coverage removing black spots. WiFi scanner monitoring both 2.4 & 5g channels. Can see local channel usage, RSSI measure, & mbps measure. For 4 months everything went well. Then found that connection dropped-off, crashed etc. Virgin V6 box wouldn’t connect via extender. Virgin engineer spent time with me & replicated my steps. We finally agreed that best to connect it direct to V6 box- so turned off extender, connected V6 & smart TV; despite distance & “weak” signal, high RSSI measure, stable & no buffering. Persisted with extender to eliminate black spots, but finding that all WiFi connected devices struggle with both finding & maintaining connection. Now have to re-boot extender each morning; when any of the items has to reconnect (phone on returning home), & sometimes also in evening. Maintained Channel selection on manual. Ensure that nearby routers etc not using these channels; interesting exercise, I’ve learnt so much about setting-up & managing WiFi network!

Where to start? Setup was slow, the plug boots up sluggishly. However once booted and setup works better than having no extender in our house at least. The good: * Works better than without any wifi extension as we have zero wifi in kitchen and office, having a large farm house with thick brick walls. * the roaming feature works really well. We can walk around the house and be transferred from main hub signal to the extender and not notice any buffering or loss of signal - when the device is working correctly that is. * speeds are great compared with using a powerline to wifi extender along our Victorian style electric wiring and multiple trip switch board circuits to get through (when the electric network was extended over the years). The bad: * like many of these extender sockets, this one suffers from signal drop out from time to time. I considered as it was a "mesh" style system adding another plug somewhere would solve the problem, by allowing the two devices to connect to each other and choose the best path. That made the issue worse and seemed to confuse all nearby electronic devices that tried to connect to our network. * there's usually at least always 1 red led lit. Either the connection with the router (other side of the wall next to the plug) or to a connected device receiving signal from this extender. That may just be our signal travels poorly within this house, I've tried different extender options and to this day have to find one without problems. * sometimes devices just refuse to connect to any internet signal (connects to a wifi device but says no internet available or quality of signal low even though signal shows as full strength), this is normally resolved by switching this plug extender off and on again after a few mins. It's almost like the plug gets its knickers in a tangled mesh and cant decide which antenna or device to connect where so gives up. Overall: Good when it works, although the verdict is out whether or not this has been pushed to its limitations in our large farm house. Conclusion: This is sadly being returned and another "mesh" disc style product will be put to the test, hopefully with better results.

Not often the description of a product gets excelled by its use but this booster is a beast! My Virgin cable broadband is the second fastest they offer but it simply didn’t cover our bungalow and gave out a very poor signal and trying to get Virgin to help is just a joke. So read a few reviews about a few boosters/extenders and choose this Netgear product, not the cheapest nor the dearest but it is an amazing fantastic product and I would recommend it to anyone on Virgin WiFi should they be struggling and would imagine it work’s fantastic on any WiFi. I can now watch Prime movies at the far end of the garden seamlessly. For those who reviewed the product saying it was difficult to install, I would suggest you read the instructions the right way up! This simply plugged in next to the Virgin box powered up went green and I pressed both WPS buttons and it connected within 60seconds, and that was not using any instructions. Moved the extender and have not had any problems since.

Just took delivery of this product and it took literally 2 mins to install using the WPS connection utility. We have a 3 storey house and, with the router being on the Gnd floor, the signal on the top floor was almost non-existent. We had a cheaper booster installed but the WiFi name is different for the boosted signal meaning you have to switch between wifi connections as you move from room to room. This unit provides the MESH facility and broadcasts the one WiFi identifier around the entire house moving around the house doesn't impact the connection and no need to switch. Having installed this product there is already a notable improvement in the signal strength. This is particularly notable as 3 of us are working from home during the lockdown period including video calls and without interruption. I would highly recommend this product. We are a sky broadband subscriber.