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Wi-Fi deadzones are a problem more common than I’d like to admit. No matter how fast your router is or how many features it comes with, it can’t escape deadzones unless it’s got massive antennas, and most consumer routers don’t. The fix is often a commercial Wi-Fi extender, except that they can cost anywhere from $20 to $60, and the cheap ones often introduce more problems than they solve.
You could fix Wi-Fi deadspots with an old router if you’ve got one lying around, but not everyone has a spare router at hand. Thankfully, a $5 ESP32 board is all you need. At least as long as you’re not expecting to replace an entire mesh system.
You don’t need to spend loads of cash to get faster internet.
The ESP32 is a tiny microcontroller made by Espressif systems. It’s designed for IoT projects like smart home appliances or connected gadgets, and it comes with built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. You can pick one up for as low as $2, depending on the variant, and they’re widely available at just about any electronics store or site.
For the purpose of extending our Wi-Fi range, we’re interested in the ESP32’s Wi-Fi capabilities. Once again, they’re good enough for you to replace an entire router or mesh system with a single board, but for as simple as a faraway smart home camera or sensor that needs Wi-Fi coverage, it gets the job done.
The ESP32 can run in two Wi-Fi modes simultaneously: Station mode (STA), where it connects to an existing router like a normal device, and Access Point mode (AP), where it turns into its own Wi-Fi network. All you need is a NAT (Network Address Translation) firmware on it, and the device starts forwarding the traffic between the two exactly the way a range extender does.
ESP32 is a low-cost microcontroller with built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, widely used for IoT projects and DIY electronics.
The firmware I ended up using is called esp32_nat_router_extended by dchristl which is based on the simpler esp32_nat_router firmware made by Martin Ger. The extended variant comes with extra features like a better web interface and more configurable options. Remember, you don’t need to write a single line of code either. All you need to do is flash the pre-compiled firmware binaries on the board and you’re good to go.
Start by downloading the binaries from the official GitHub download page. You’re looking for a file named esp32nat_extended_full_vX.X.X.zip where X is the latest version number (7.2 at the time of writing). You’ll find a single Bin file inside the ZIP archive which you need to extract. Once done, download either Espressif’s free Flash Download Tool for Windows or the command-line based esptool.py on any OS. Connect your ESP32 via USB, select the correct COM port, assign the right memory address (0x0), click Start and wait for the process to finish.
Once the firmware has successfully flashed and the board reboots, it’ll start broadcasting a Wi-Fi network called ESP32_NAT_Router. Connect your PC or smartphone to the Wi-Fi, open a browser, and head to 192.168.4.1. You should see a configuration page appear.
Under the AP Settings section, type in the SSID and password of the extended Wi-Fi network—the one you’ll connect your devices to. Under STA Settings, type in the SSID and password of the Wi-Fi network you want to extend and click Apply changes. Wait for the board to restart again and it’ll automatically start extended the Wi-Fi signals from your main router.
The entire process, including flashing the firmware and configuring the Wi-Fi network shouldn’t take you longer than 10 to 15 minutes. Even if you’ve never touched an ESP32 before.
As mentioned before, this isn’t going to replace an old router or a dedicated mesh system when it comes to extending range while maintaining bandwidth. The ESP32’s Wi-Fi radio is rated at up to 72 Mbps theoretically, but real-world bandwidth as a NAS router can land anywhere between 5 and 15 Mbps. In my testing, I was able to get anywhere between 7 and 12 Mbps download speeds compared to over 100 Mbps when connected to the router directly on full signal from both the ESP32 and the router.
Those numbers might not be very impressive, but they’ll work just fine for smart home devices, browsing, light video streaming, and casual internet use. The ESP32 operates on 2.4 GHz only, which gives it better range than 5 GHz so you shouldn’t have any concerns with range unless you’re in a particularly large space—in which case a dedicated range extending solution might be the better option.
This setup works best for extending coverage to IoT devices such as sensors, smart plugs, cameras on light duty, or giving guests a separate Wi-Fi network with its own SSID and password, completely isolated from your main network. It’s also great if you’ve got an old ESP32 collecting dust in a drawer. With the right placement, it’s a great way to map your Wi-Fi deadzones and fix them.
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However, I wouldn’t recommend it for anything that requires high bandwidth and low latency like gaming, 4K streaming, or pushing large file transfers. It also doesn’t support the 5 GHz band, so devices that need that band won’t benefit at all. Thankfully, most IoT devices run exclusively on 2.4 GHz, so you shouldn’t have any problems on the connectivity front.
As long as you remember that it’s a targeted fix for specific dead zones rather than a whole home solution and keep your expectations in check, you won’t be disappointed. For a few bucks and less than 15 minutes of your time, it’s a handy little trick. Add to that the fact that you’re running open-source firmware you can inspect and modify to match your needs, making it much more transparent than most of the cheap extenders you can buy today.