Digisol DG-WR3001NE wireless repeater review

WiFi is like the core of any house when it comes to connectivity from the outside world. If you have a complex home with too many walls or if the router is not having good coverage, then you won’t get the network in all the rooms. This is a common problem for many homes and people use a device called repeater to extend the WiFi range. One such device from Digisol is the DG-WR3001NE wireless repeater. It’s a universal repeater which means you can plug it anywhere and repeat wireless signals which the device is in range of. Also, it has AP mode which lets you extend the wired network to a wireless medium. Let us check out the Digisol DG-WR3001NE wireless repeater review to find out if it is worth buying. I have used this repeater for 3 weeks and I am sharing my views through this review.

Digisol DG-WR3001NE wireless repeater review:

Design

The design of DG-WR3001NE is very basic with a cuboid like casing. What is noticeable are the two external antennas to provide better range of the extended network. The adapter is fit inside the repeater so that the whole thing gets plugged in any wall socket you want. On the bottom of the repeater, you will find the LAN port and USB charging port. On the left is the reset button and the WPS/power led with WiFi range meter, LAN led, WPS button on the front. The color for the repeater is plain white and has some grills on the left & right for heat dissipation. Overall the build and design are decent for the repeater.

Performance and features

The repeater DG-WR3001NE can work as a wifi Universal repeater which can repeat any wifi signal within its range. Also it has a feature of AP mode where you can plug a LAN wire which is a wired network and make it go wireless. It has a LED light to notify of LAN connection. You can also know the original wifi router signal strength using the LED bars. One can easily connect the repeater to a Wifi router using the WPS button. There is a USB charging port below the repeater to charge your smartphones in case of need. So it will work both as a charger and repeater if it is occupying the socket. But the current rating for the USB port is just 1A which is less as compared to fast chargers out there.

Position of repeater explained

It is said that there should be some distance between the router and the repeater for it to work properly. If they are too close then there might problem while switching between router and repeater wifi. But if it is too far such that the original router wifi has a very weak signal then also it will not work properly. So you need to decide such a spot where the repeater gets some good signal from the original router like two bars are enough and it is not too close to the router to cause interference in switching.

Configuring DG-WR3001NE

1. Plug the repeater into wall socket by keeping in mind the position explained in the last point.
2. Connect to the repeater hotspot which will be open by default with the SSID as DIGISOL.
3. Next go to browser and type 192.168.2.1 and enter admin as username and 1234 as password. These are the default settings.
4. Now the web panel opens up and it will ask you to setup SSID and password for the repeater. I would suggest you to choose clone the router settings option as it will not create any confusion with two wifi networks in one single home.
5. Next you will see a table with all the Wifi networks in range to the repeater. You can choose the one which is your router wifi name/ssid and type the password.
6. As soon as you do this, press finish and the repeater will restart and connect to the router. Once it connects successfully it will start extending the Wifi and you will have a connection.

The speed at which DG-WR3001NE was able to repeat were great. Hardly any loss in speed. But if there are walls or obstruction in between the repeater and our device then the speed drops. So in terms of penetration, it gets you the connection but the speed will drop so bear that in mind. I did connect like 4-6 devices to the repeater and it worked smoothly. Again there is no need of unnecessary restarting of the repeater as it works without any lag or hang. The only issue I faced was, it takes a bit of time to switch from router to repeater sometimes. In best case when you change the zone from router to repeater just toggle the wifi off and on once so that it connects to the repeater one. Same is applicable for the reverse case while moving from repeater zone to router. Apart from that the repeater is pretty easy to configure and works in a decent manner.

Price

The Digisol DG-WR3001NE repeater will cost you around 2,999 INR but it is available on Amazon for 1,949 INR. Now this is where I feel that there are other repeaters like TP-LINK which will cost you bit on the lower side. Digisol should have kept the price a bit competitive so that people could go with their products as performance wise it was good.