Review: tp repeater - Hardware 2024

The price is much lower than other alternatives, it is more, it is close to that of the Archer C5 router, but since this router does not have a repeater mode, we imagine that it is not a contender that worries the brand. A router of higher range and price, like the Asus RT-AC68U, performs much better as a repeater, but despite the high price of this RE450 compared to other repeaters, a router like this costs twice as much, is more cumbersome, and consumes more electricity, so few will opt for it.

Without a doubt, for those who have range problems in their 802.11ac wireless network, this is the best option, and the only 3 × 3 that will give us all the (theoretical) speed of the original router (penalized because half the broadcast time is for communicate with the original router).

Thanks to its RJ-45 socket, it is also flexible enough to incorporate an existing wired network into a high-speed wireless network

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ THE BEST PERFORMANCE IN REPEATERS, WITH RED AC 3X3	-THE HIGH PRICE
+ RELATIVELY CONTENT SIZE
+ EXTERNAL ANTENNAS
+ DOUBLE BAND 2.4 / 5GHZ
+ POSSIBILITY TO RENAME THE REPEATED SSID
+ POSSIBILITY TO TURN OFF THE LEDS

For his excellent performance and good disposition despite being the first of its kind, the professional review team awards him the platinum medal:

In a market as saturated as the repeaters of WiFi networks, it is appreciated to see a bit of innovation and finally adopt a technology as developed and widespread as 802.11ac networks.

To this comes the protagonist of our review, to fill a niche that was crying out for a contender. With a simple design, support for simultaneous dual band with 1300 + 450mbps and a Gigabit network port we have a great alternative to the only solution that there was so far: Dedicate an entire router as a repeater.

We thank the TP-LINK team for the assignment of this product to carry out their analysis:

Technical characteristics


HARDWARE FEATURES
Plug Type	EU, UK, US
Standards and Protocols	IEEE802.11ac, IEEE 802.11n, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11b
Interfaces	1 Ethernet port * 10/100 / 1000Mbps (RJ45)
Interfaces	1 * 10/100 / 1000M Ethernet Port (RJ45)
Button	RE (Range Extender) Button, Reset Button, LED Button, Power Button
Dimensions	163 x 76.4 x 66.5mm
Power Consumption	9W （Maximum power consumption）
Antenna	3 * External


Wireless Features
Frequency	2.4GHz & 5GHz (11ac)
Signal Rate	5GHz: Up to 1300Mbps 2.4GHz: Up to 450Mpbs
Receive Sensitivity	5GHz ： 11a 6Mbps: -93dBm @ 10% PER 11a 54Mbps: -76dBm @ 10% PER 11ac HT20 mcs8: -68dBm @ 10% PER 11ac HT40 mcs9: -64dBm @ 10% PER 11ac HT80 mcs9: -61dBm @ 10% PER 2.4GHz 11g 54M: -77dBm @ 10% PER 11n HT20 mcs7: -73dBm @ 10% PER 11n HT40 mcs7: -70dBm @ 10% PER
Wireless mode	Coverage Extender
Wireless Features	Wireless Statistics Boost concurrent mode in both the 2.4GHz / 5GHz WiFi band High Speed Mode for great speed for game and HD video Access control LED control Domain Access Function
Wireless Security	64/128-bit WEP WPA-PSK / WPA2-PSK
Potency of transmission	<20dBm (2.4GHz) <23dBm (5GHz)

TP-LINK RE450

The packaging is attractive and small, with a presentation that reminds us of high-end mobile phones, with the manual first in an envelope and the device underneath

As the device has its own web interface, we will not need drivers or installation disc. The accessories are reduced to a clear and concise quick guide, which explains how to configure it by WPS (we do not recommend it because it is insecure) or manually, a copy of the GNU license on which the software depends and lastly, warranty information.

The device does not differ much from any other repeater, except that it is somewhat more generous in size and the antennas are external and slightly adjustable. As possible improvements, it would have been nice to have fully adjustable SMA connectors and antennas, it sure improved overall performance and shouldn't be much of a problem given the price of this product.

The reset button is appreciated, which we must press with a sharp object to avoid resetting the device by mistake, the button to turn the status LEDs on or off, and the general switch, an extra that we greatly appreciate.

Front with the antennas folded. We note that the plug is small, natural, given the expected low consumption of this device.

In the other side view we see the network port, of course Gigabit, which we can use to attach any existing equipment or cable network to our wireless network.

The device is not complicated to disassemble, although unfortunately the pins of the plug are soldered (protrusions from the upper left of the image), so it will be difficult to carry out any repair by a user, even knowing what is wrong. The antennas use the standard laptop connector, but being on the other hand, we will not be able to access them for the reason just mentioned.

The configuration is very simple and is detailed in the quick start guide, we can configure it either by connecting from a network cable or with the wireless network without a password that this access point creates when it is not configured.

After entering the address tplinkrepeater.net in our browser, we will access the device with the admin / admin credentials, which will subsequently force us to change. If you forget the password, just press the reset button for 10 seconds to restore the factory settings.

The general screen is complete and shows a lot of information at a glance. The firmware is not too extensive but it does more than its job.

The configuration will be done through a wizard, where we will first select the region (since in each country the channels available for 5Ghz networks are different), and then the SSID to repeat and its password. We have hidden the MAC addresses of the devices for security, but we see that the reception range is quite reasonable.

Given the simple configuration, it only remains to perform the actual performance tests to see if, in addition to a beautiful presentation, it also does what it has to do.

Testing equipment

To make the performance measurements we will use the following components:

2 RT-AC68U routers, with firmware 378.55 (RMerlin mod)

Team 1, with AC Broadcom BCM4360 network card (integrated, similar to Asus PCE-AC68) Team 2, with Delock USB3.0Jperf version 2.0.2 network card (a convenient graphical interface in Java for the use of IPerf)

Test of performance

For performance tests we have configured a router as an access point, with one of the computers connected to one of its network ports. Subsequently, we will pass the transmission speed tests in various scenarios.

Since we do not have other repeaters, we will compare this RE450 against the best possible repeater, a second router configured as a repeater-client, and of course also with the unstable direct connection that we obtain if we do not use any repeater.

The arrangement is similar to that used in our router reviews. We omit the short distance tests because they are absurd if we are using a repeater (in case of being next to it, we will be more interested in connecting directly to the original access point)

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