Optus Mobile Review ALDI Mobile Review Amaysim Mobile Review Belong Mobile Review Circles.Life Review Vodafone Mobile Review Woolworths Mobile Review Felix Mobile Review Best iPhone Plans Best Family Mobile Plans Best Budget Smartphones Best Prepaid Plans Best SIM-Only Plans Best Plans For Kids And Teens Best Cheap Mobile Plans Telstra vs Optus Mobile Optus NBN Review Belong NBN Review Vodafone NBN Review Superloop NBN Review Aussie BB NBN Review iiNet NBN Review MyRepublic NBN Review TPG NBN Review Best NBN Satellite Plans Best NBN Alternatives Best NBN Providers Best Home Wireless Plans What is a Good NBN Speed? Test NBN Speed How to speed up your internet Optus vs Telstra Broadband ExpressVPN Review CyberGhost VPN Review NordVPN Review PureVPN Review Norton Secure VPN Review IPVanish VPN Review Windscribe VPN Review Hotspot Shield VPN Review Best cheap VPN services Best VPN for streaming Best VPNs for gaming What is a VPN? VPNs for ad-blocking NBN 50 is the most popular speed tier in Australia right now and with good reason: it’s a great mix of reasonable monthly pricing and a good balance of upload and download speeds. If you have an NBN 25 or NBN 12 plan, consider investing in an NBN 50 plan. For comparison, below is a daily updating list of popular NBN 50 plans with unlimited data. If you’re in a larger home or an abode with signal-dampening hurdles (thick walls, cordless phones, microwaves, other wireless devices, mirrors and your neighbours’ WiFi networks), you may be tempted to place a WiFi extender at the edge of your WiFi network’s reach. Resist this urge. WiFi extenders are only capable of boosting the signal at the strength they receive it. Translation: if you place a WiFi extender at the very edge of your WiFi network, where one-bar speeds are slowest, all your extender can do is repeat those slow speeds. Your best bet is to find a happy medium between distance from the router and an acceptable speed that you’d like to be more accessible in slower parts of the home. In general, work in or out from halfway between your router and where you want the signal boosted. Remember, WiFi networks aren’t flat areas of signal, meaning WiFi extenders can also be used to boost a signal above or below where your router or modem-router is placed. Just bear in mind that thick floors, walls or ceilings (and other forms of interference) can neuter a WiFi extender that’s placed on the other side of these interfering things. This means you may have to configure all of your wireless devices to connect to both main WiFi network and WiFi extender network. You’re at the mercy of the device automatically switching between the two networks, which may be at a weak-signal point of one network. Compared to a farther-reaching WiFi router, a WiFi extender is also another device that needs to be powered on; the more devices you add, the more devices need to be powered on for consistent and seamless internet signal throughout your home. Ultimately, a WiFi network is only as strong as its weakest link, which applies to the router or modem-router as much as it does to an extender or an ageing wireless device. If any one of these points in your network aren’t up to snuff, expect WiFi to feel slower. The other main alternative is to consider a mesh WiFi system. These are effectively the speedier, farther-reaching younger siblings to the WiFi extender and they’re better in every way except they tend to cost more. For pros, mesh WiFi systems prioritise both form and function, so they tend to have more discrete designs than WiFi extenders. They also use a single WiFi network throughout the home, no matter how many extender satellites you add, and some models have future-focused perks like WiFi 6. Best of all, mesh WiFi systems are usually incredibly easy to configure. Check out our recommendations for the best mesh WiFi systems here.
