Do those $30 wifi extenders work?

[Thready]

I'd like to have stronger wifi in my small-ish garage. I'd like to pay less than $40 too. I saw some extenders for $30 but I saw some reviews saying they don't work. 

 

When I'm in my car right outside the garage, I have no cell reception and I rely on my wifi, but I only get less than 1 bar. 

[Oshino Shinobu]

Yes, but also no. 

 

The main reason people say they don't work is because they don't use them correctly. Most will put the extender in the area they want to get signal, but the extender doesn't have any signal to pick up there, or a really weak one, so all it can do is boost the same crap signal. 

 

You need to put it somewhere between where you get decent signal and where you want signal. They're still not great though. Running an ethernet cable and installing a dedicated access point (which you can pick up for $30, doesn't need to be amazing) is a much better solution. 

[Bombastinator]

19 minutes ago, Thready said:

I'd like to have stronger wifi in my small-ish garage. I'd like to pay less than $40 too. I saw some extenders for $30 but I saw some reviews saying they don't work. 

 

When I'm in my car right outside the garage, I have no cell reception and I rely on my wifi, but I only get less than 1 bar. 

WiFi extenders are often called WiFi repeaters.  They have to be in WiFi range or be connected by ethernet to work.   If they are in the edge of range they can make that range larger though.

Cheap WiFi extenders will be older tech which means older protocols.  If your WiFi system uses newer protocols they likely won’t have em.

[mariushm]

may want to try a powerline starter kit which comes wifi access point ... so your data goes through the power cables into garage and then you have the actual wireless router/access point in the garage .. signal not obstructed by walls and metal and other crap

 

they're not expensive, they cost 50-60$ for good cheap ones.

[Bombastinator]

Powerline ethernet is great if it works.  The problem is it doesn’t always.  It relies on house electrical wiring which was not put in with an eye to powerline ethernet in mind and as a result doesn’t always work.