SpeedefyWiFi Router for Home, AC1200 Gigabit Dual Band Computer Routers for Wireless Internet, Long Range Coverage, MU-MIMO, IPV6, Beamforming, AP Mode, Guest WiFi and Parental Control (Model K4)

We have a condo which already offers WIFI to all the owners and guests. However, since this is COVID-time and we've been working from home (or our home away from home in this case), I didn't like the idea of connecting to the shared WIFI for work purposes. So, I started researching and searching for a router that would work as an extender, but still with it's own firewall and DHCP.I liked the look of this Speedefy K4, with it's large / high-gain antennas. I hate losing signal when I go sit on the patio. I wasn't sure how/if I would get it to work as I wanted, and available documentation was lacking, but the price was right so I took a chance.I set it up at home first, as a regular WIFI extender off of my existing WIFI network. That worked just fine. The app is very easy to use to get things initially setup. I did have to use the web-based interface to change the operating mode to Universal Repeater, but again it was very straight forward. This mode worked, but didn't give me the firewall and disabled DHCP.Then I tried the WISP mode. I didn't try it first, because the one-line description of WISP mode says "In this mode, the router extends the WIFI signals of ISPs like Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile". That wasn't my scenario, but I tried it anyway. It so happens WISP mode does EXACTLY what I was looking for! It prompts you to select the "outer" WIFI network you want to connect to, like it does for Universal Repeater mode. The difference is, it keeps the firewall function active, and provides DHCP to the "inner" WIFI network devices. So, the outer WIFI only sees my router as a client, not all of my devices.I set it up to connect to the 5 GHz outer network, and can still use 5 GHz on the inner network. Now of course, by using a single band in this way, it basically cuts bandwidth in half. With the 5 GHz band offering 867 Mbps, that is more than double what the ISP is delivering (200 Mbps). I have added screenshots of the speed when my phone is connected to the router. The first screenshot is right next to it where I set it up in the basement, where I'm getting full speeds. The second screenshot is on the first floor, where I'm getting roughly half. The third screenshot is on the second floor, where I'm getting roughly a third of that. Plenty still for streaming, and not bad for a single router two floors away that's already sharing half it's available bandwidth!

The media could not be loaded. I ordered this on a whim because I am tired of the usual Linksys, Netgear, etc. They all seemed like they were built using outdated technology and a limited user interface. So I took a chance on an off brand router and I am quite surprised. First I have to say the setup was super easy. Just plug it in and download the app to your phone then connect to the WIFI SSID that's on the bottom of the router and it sets up the rest asking you what you want to change the SSID to and the new password. Once it goes through its configuration you will connect to your new SSID using the password you just created and its ready to go.Now this is where the excitement comes in. Once you get it all setup you can go into the app and configure more settings. There is even a WIFI analyzer built right in that will help speed up the connection by looking at the other WIFI signals nearby and finding a less congested WIFI channel. Its automatic. My old one you would have to login to the web interface and manually select the WIFI channels you wanted after doing your own analysis using a separate app and hope you got it right. This is automatic and super simple. Now on top of that you can do a security check and it will check for open ports, back doors and other things that it can optimize automatically. The only notice I got was that my SSID and admin password were the same at the time of setup. I changed that and its now super secured.The app also tells you what devices are currently connected and how much they are using in bandwidth which is perfect for a family so if you have a kid that is downloading something while your watching a show you can boot him off. Or is your roommate hogging all the bandwidth boom they are booted hahaha.There are so many features in the app and web portal I a just surprised. The one last thing I will write about is the WIFI signal strength setting. Not that I am going to change this in my house because there is no one super close to me but if you live in an apartment or super close to another house you can changed the distance the signal transmits. This is helpful if you want to be super cautious about people trying to hack your signal. Honestly I am pretty amazed at this "off brand" routers capabilities built in and the speed at which the portal operates and how fast the signal is.For the sake of being picky and trying to find a negative or something I would like I would say it would be nice if there was a speedtest built into the app or web portal. This way you could test the speed at which the router is getting internet from the modem to diagnose and resolve any WIFI issues or distances from the router. As most people might know the 5Ghz frequency is the fastest but doesn't transmit as far so you have to take into consideration if you are really far away from the router your speeds might not be as fast as you hope. Having a built in speed test would tell you what your speed is at the source and then you can either troubleshoot or figure out if your connected device is having WIFI issues or just has an outdate not AC WIFI card.

The router works fine, very basic in terms of functionality but does have a few nice to have features. For instance, speed limiting per client, web filtering (parental control) based on domain name, separate guest wifi network, and can even be setup to repeat already existing wireless networks to extend the signal.The web interface is very clean and easy to use. I'd say this router is decent.In terms of security, it does keep a session open to a server in California. And when i first plugged it up, it reached out to several global addresses. Mostly in the US, but also saw it hit France and a few others. This is probably just the registry service and the router checking for upgrades, but if you're particularly security minded you may want to double check where it's opening sessions to, or block the router itself from getting to the internet.