You don’t really need (or want) a “router” for this job. 👍

Here’s a couple of suggestions of some fairly cheap (relatively) wireless access points off Amazon (other retailers are available) that will do the job:

Zyxel Cloud WiFi6 AX1800 Wireless Access Point - £64 on Prime

NETGEAR Wireless Access Point WAX210 - £68 on Prime

TP-Link Wireless AX3000 WiFi-6 - £86 on Prime

The above is just illustrative, a starter for ten and by no means definitive. You can probably spend less (and get less) or it’s easy to spend double or even triple on high-end WiFi 7 access points, but not necessary really given your wanted throughput (and a bit extra for future proofing)

Lot on Black Friday / Cyber Monday deals on or coming up too.

In reply to a post by Michael_Chare:

You would need to stop the DHCP server and set the LAN IP address to a value outside the range of the DHCP server in your current router. There used to be instructions about how to do this on this website but alas they have gone.

they are still there. Theres two sets of instructions - one for older tplinks and you wire it via the lan port and the newer ones where you can use the wan port.

https://www.tp-link.com/us/support/faq/1384/

one of the above will work for your tplink......

Thanks all - brilliant response - sorry I missed you all.

My existing routers's a TP-Link TL-WDR4900 - it's pretty old and has no "AP mode" setting - as you note, requires disabling DHCP and putting it on a different domain/subnet mask etc which seems to be beyond me, as Taras perhaps appreciates . As I understand it, more modern routers have this AP mode setting, so I knd of thought of picking one up for £20 new (or even cheaper if I buy one of the Ebay Zyxel's Michael's suggested) and enable that setting, but that's not what I'm hearing here so I may well be wrong. I'll have a squiz at the other helpful stuff above though.

Edited by Robroadband (Thu 21-Nov-24 12:47:25)

For the avoidance of doubt, Michael's TP-Link instructions say:

After successful login, select Access Point mode and follow the Quick Setup to complete the configuration.


and Lifewire's say this:

Once logged in, locate the router’s wireless settings and select AP Mode. This will turn your router into an access point for your internet connection, essentially extending the Wi-Fi beyond the main router’s range.

It sounds simple, if you have a router built in the last 10 years , but will look at APs as well - I agree, it's the most "elegant" way of doing it.

Thanks all again!

Edited by Robroadband (Thu 21-Nov-24 12:48:31)

Would one described as this:

TP-Link N300 Mbps WiFi Router, Wireless Extender - 2 x 5dBi High Power Antennas, Supports Access Point, WISP (TL-WR841N)

do the trick? Says it "supports access point", <£15...

that one will struggle to give you 150mbits

can you give us a budget and places you are happy to buy from ?

Personally, I would go for a router with AP mode.

Most AP units only have one ethernet port for the uplink whereas a router in AP mode will have one port (typically the WAN port) for the uplink and four ports for local ethernet.

I believe the OP said they require a local ethernet connection.

In reply to a post by Taras:

that one will struggle to give you 150mbits

can you give us a budget and places you are happy to buy from ?

Yes, looks like it's only 10/100 ethernet as well, which will be a step back from the old TP-Link and presumably limit my 150mbps paid-for to 100 max to my NAS, even over wired?

Budget-wise, I was trying to repurpose a Wifi4(n) dual band 2x450mbps router for free, so I'm just after something at a minimum of that but with a more up-to-date UI which allows a simple mode change to AP. I'd prefer additional ethernet ports as I may work in that part of the house one day, so sounds like a router's the best bet rather than a dedicated AP (I hadn't realised they didn't have ports)

So I guess that's a router which gets me a good level of wired throughput (Gigabit I suppose) and can throw out a decent % of my paid-for 150 by Wifi. I've no prefernce good or bad re who to buy from.

Edited by Robroadband (Thu 21-Nov-24 23:17:46)

if you are happy to go second hand, get an asus router as that during setup will allow you to set as an access point.. Just a note, that some of the asus routers on ebay are now end of life and will not get security updates.

As long as you are on wpa2/3 with a strong password you should be ok.