Kasa AC1200 Wi-Fi Range Extender Smart Plug by TP-Link - Fast AC1200 Wi-Fi Extender/Repeater with Built-In Smart Plug, No Hub Required, Works With Alexa and Google Assistant (RE370K)

Pros:Was setup and running within 5 minutes of getting it out of the box!Easy setup via wifiIt is auto-discovered on the KASA app, shows signal strength, client lists, signal strength for clients, etcEasy to schedule Plug / Outlet operationCan easily be moved to wherever you need itStronger than I expected. NiceCons:Kind of takes up both outlets due to size. My solution is to put in a power strip.It takes a few seconds to reboot, and during the reboot time it looks very dead.

The TP-Link AC1200 Wi-Fi Range Extender/Repeater works very well. However, it was very difficult to set-up. The application on my phone kept locking-up at odd times, like when naming the device or entering passwords. I was forced to close the application and start-over. Also, the instructions are confusing when directing the entry of passwords, for example it does not distinguish which password to enter, the TP-Link product's password or the existing WiFi network's password ? It took an hour to get it to work. I finally had to use the provided Ethernet cable and connect to my computer to get it to work.Then, when I tried to connect my separate TP-Link SmartPlug to this extender, that too took an hour due the application on my phone locking-up.In the end, they both work well with Alexa !

Had to use an old phone to setup the extender smart plug with the kasa app. Does extend my network signal; however, none of my devices will automatically switch to the extender. Also, the extender seems to lose internet so not good for streaming on my TV. Works okay for the price but not the same as a mesh network. I'll invest in another router that's compatible with my Asus for the mesh network. Using this as a smart plug

The biggest problem that makes it unusable is that the extender frequently looses connection even though it has a very good WIFI strength to the original network. This obiously sucks if you want to call someone etc. Featurewise it does not allow extending the original WIFI, but creates a second WIFI network, that your devices have to remember. The automatic switching of devices does not work very well (may not be KASAs fault, but sucks anyway).

If you just wanted a Wi-Fi repeater, Then this product is fine but there are cheaper options. I wanted Alexa integration. To do that, you need to turn on remote control, however that just didn't work. Nothing I or customer service could do could get remote control to turn on permanently. I once got it to turn on for 2 weeks by updating the firmware but then it randomly stopped working again. It seems to be a software issue so I wouldn't be surprised if most of these have the same problem. And no matter what I did it would never link to my TP-Link cloud account. I contacted customer service on the phone and went through all their steps to try to get it to work. Eventually the person had to bump me up to engineering support. Engineering support seems to be in China, And there was about a week in between emails. Of course the first few emails were asking me stupid questions that I had already answered. Eventually I just had to return the product since engineering support was only responding with stupid questions and suggestions that the original customer service lady already made that didn't work. I think this experience was bad enough that I don't think I'll ever purchase another TP-Link product. Their cloud service, this product, and their customer service are junk.

For those of you wondering if this will work on your Spectrum router and the answer is: YES IT DOES since I do hear people saying this won't work with Spectrum routers (I have the Sagecom RAC2V1S) . I installed this halfway from the router to my room which is the midway point. The signal strength is stronger on both my smartphone and laptop, however the speeds are noticeably slower when connected with the wifi extender. I did multiple speed tests comparing the two networks (with and without wifi extender) and even though I have a weaker signal without the wifi extender, the speeds are still tremendously faster. I'll gladly sacrifice signal strength for faster internet speeds of course. I see this being a common theme with wifi extenders so I will be returning this.

The jury is still out. Set up was pretty simple but now the trick is finding the optimal spot in my house. I get about 75% of my main router's speed through the range extender. I have not used to smart plug and don't really intend to at this point.UPDATE 08/06/2018: I downgraded the rating because I don't think this range extender is actually extending the range of my wifi. My devices do not automatically switch between the range extender and the main router like the instructions suggest. Even when I switch to the extender manually, I still don't notice any improvement. This experience has kind of ruined the whole concept of range extenders for me, my next move would be to try the Google WiFi mesh system, but I am not even sure about those.

I use TP-Links for home automation, but had several occurrences where Alexa just would not control the smartplugs correctly. After some investigation, it turned out that the plugs were only received weak wifi and therefore did not always respond.I got this wifi extender and had it up and running in less than 5 minutes. Voila, I haven't had any communication issues with Alexa and the rest of my TP-Link home automation network.Long story short, I'm quite pleased with this item. It helped to fix my wifi deadspots and is a smartplug to boot