Just bought a WA850RE, and in general I am quite pleased with it.

Then i don't understand

with the extender and root AP in the same room

Not a good idea having them in same room you might be over killing the RF radio frequency separate them that is the extender idea to extend
Do you have latest FW installed in your extender here http://www.tp-link.com/resources/software/TL-WA850RE_V1.20_130622.zip
Test channel bandwidth 20 MHz in extender

danymarc wrote

Then i don't understand

Not a good idea having them in same room you might be over killing the RF radio frequency separate them that is the extender idea to extend
Do you have latest FW installed in your extender here http://www.tp-link.com/resources/software/TL-WA850RE_V1.20_130622.zip
Test channel bandwidth 20 MHz in extender

Thanks for your reply. I put them in the same room so that I was making a fair comparison - if one was in a different room, then the difference in speed could be because one was travelling a further distance, or through a different wall type etc. than the other.

I only had them in the same room when I was making the direct speed comparison. I take your point that this test might be flawed. However, I normally do have the extender in a completely different part of the house - and the speed is just as slow when I do that.

I do have the latest FW, but up until now have not forced it to choose 20MHz - it was set to Auto.

I'll see how I get on now I have made that change.

Thanks,
jra505

If no change in wireless settings mode by default is bgn mixed change it to bg mixed

danymarc wrote

If no change in wireless settings mode by default is bgn mixed change it to bg mixed

Do you mean on the extender? I cannot see how you change it - my main router is set to n only, but I cannot see how you change it on the extender.

If your main router is set to N forget that one

but I cannot see how you change it on the extender.

just to let you know see photo

danymarc wrote

If your main router is set to N forget that one

just to let you know see photo

That is how you change the channel width. You had suggested I change the *mode* to bg mixed - that is what I was referring to when I said I could not find the way to do it.

You are right it's in STATUS under channel but not in wireless settings to do the change
Just as a test change your router to G and for sure once you reboot your extender will get the new Widht, and check your 60 Mbps

if no go, im curious on this

AP was 60 Mbps whereas the speed I got from the extender was just 6 Mbps, i.e. a drop of 90% !!!

set back everything as it was before post #1 and take your lap or smartphone get close to your router, once close, disable wireless and enable it, once
associated download a heavy file or stream video, now go to the room or floor where you have the extender and do the same routine,
now compare if your Router was 90% faster than your extender.
Or do the same with this speed test http://www.speedtest.net/

I also have a speed issue. I have some wired network outlets and wifi. On both wired jacks and wifi near my main router I get 10mbs download speed on speedrest.net. On the 850RE I get 1mbs.

What setting could affect this?

Gotta say at this point this thing is more problem then it's worth. I have. Bunch the problems listed in these forums (some with no answers or resolutions)...wifi connection but no internet when connected to the 850 (even when some devices connected are fine, others can't connect to Internet), very slow speed, rebooting required once a week to fix issues.

I'm pretty much done farting around with this thing unless openwrt is a last resort but that looks like a pain to flash it too.

Too bad not within return period. Maybe eBay. I guess I just have to find a way to move my main router to more central location I. The house or upgrade to an AC router with longer range. Sigh.

@beprahst I answered on the other post, how to flash OpenWrt TL-WA850RE

I'm pretty much done farting around with this thing unless openwrt is a last resort but that looks like a pain to flash it too.

OpenWrt it's not a pain to flash, you need to know network, computer basics, and love to read, even if not all you need is to be carefull to flash an /attitude_adjustment/12.09/ar71xx/generic/ so you have Luci (WebUI) as we do in Tp-Link, and you wont have to worry about it Friedzombie prepared updated image read the other post I linked you.
Quote from OpenWrt forum post
TP-link routers have 5dbi antenna, which is above average and I have no problems with coverage. They are cheap, but perform very good. I have about 20 tp-links (all with openwrt) between family, friends and company I work in. Thanks to openwrt they are easily manageable from remote and quite stable. There are some problems in openwrt, but nothing that serious, openwrt is much better than stock firmware. If you have problems, you must have bad hardware piece, but keep in mind, that most problems are between keyboard and chair So I recommend tp-link, cheap and solid, never needed to replace defective piece (exept a few I have bricked myself, when I was new to openwrt).