On my iMac when I show available netwrorks, the TP-Link RE220 I have in the garage is showing up as an unsecured network. I'm new to network wifi extenders and not a network geek at all. I plugged it in 10 feet from my Netgear router, pushed the button and I think that was supposed to "connect" the extender to the router? OK, so I then moved it to my garage and plugged it in the wall, connected an ethernet cable that is wired to a gigabit switch. I turned on my laptop in the garage and did a speed test and I think it was around 35 Mbps which was a decent change from no wifi extender at 9 Mbps.  I don't know if its optimized or whether I should expect any better. On my iMac which is hardwired to the router... I can pull 948 Mbps (Xfinity 1.2 Gig Plan) download speeds.

So back to the TP-Link... should it be showing up as an unsecured network? Can anybody jump onto that open network without a password? And should there be a password to keep unauthorized people out of my network?  Lastly, if it _HAS_ to be listed how do I secure it?

TIA for the help/advice.

Mike