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Tom asked: “We live in a two floor condo. On the outer areas of it, the Wi-Fi drops off. Do wi-fi range extenders work? If so, where should I place it? Is price a factor and if so, how much can I expect to spend?”
Tom, range extenders do work, and if you buy one you should place it as close as you can to the area you want to extend the network to while still being in an area that gets solid WiFi from the router.
The extender needs something to extend, that means that it absolutely needs to get a good signal, from there it will re-broadcast the network.
As for how much you can expect to spend, a basic device will be very cheap, think around $20, while a complex system that can find and eliminate dead spots on its own by redirecting beams will cost you many hundreds, but those are mainly sold as business devices. You can probably give the less expensive option a try, it’s likely to work for you.