How to get gigabit speeds on Netgear AC1750 router with extender - possible?

[policenauts]

I just got Sonic gigabit this week (finally left Xfinity) and have a Netgear AC1750 router and a cheap-o TP Link extender. With line of sight to my router on the 5ghz network, I get around 400mbps up and down. In my office with the extender, I'm getting around 15mbps up and down.

At this point I'm wondering if I should just try to get a better extender (I'm fine with 400mpbs up and down) or bite the bullet on replacing the router itself and trying a mesh setup? The challenge that I read with Eero is that they combine 5ghz and 2.4 into one network, and I have a couple IoT devices that won't play nicely with that in my experience.

Would love to hear from someone who started with my setup and was able to get the most out of it, or ended up switching. Thanks!

[ngufra]

There are many ways for extenders to work, some use wifi from the base and around the extender (on the same band or another band like one on 2.4 GHz the other on %GHz).
You could a mesh system where they use another frequency as the backhaul. Or you could try a powerline system that uses the house electrical wiring. I believe you would get better speed for not a lot of money.

I personally do not use the wifi from the router and use Engenius access points using cat6 wire. (I found quite a few on ebay)
Using POE so only one wire carries power and ethernet to the access points.
They supports radius authentication instead of a shared password for wifi authentication so each user has their own username/password and can get their own vlan ID and I can then adjust traffic shaping per user. More foolproof than trying to do it by mac address.

[policenauts]

Thank you, I forgot about extenders that utilize the power plugs. I'll look into those again.

[dane]

Thank you, I forgot about extenders that utilize the power plugs. I'll look into those again.

They're not very good.

[ngufra]

I would say you have to try.
They have some at amazon with free returns.
I have some friends who have very good results with powerline extenders.
Sometimes they work on one hot wire and the two plugs you are trying to connect are on different circuits on different hot.
If there is a meter in between it also may not work as well.
I tried it install it at a friend between their house and garage and it would not work.

At a cabin where we have an internet satellite connection, I used a pair of Engenius ENH500 to create a link between two buildings that are over 500 yards apart (line of sight). At the remote building I put another wifi router switch.
It works fairly well but in an urban environment, it will probably not be reproducible.