Review: Eliminate Wi-Fi dead zones on all your Apple devices at once

Spotty Wi-Fi be gone!

Before I go into my experience with the rockspace Wi-Fi 6 AX1800 system, let me give you a little background. I live in Colombia, South America, where let's just say the internet technology is not exactly state-of-the-art. It works perfectly well most of the time, but it's not fiber optic. One of the biggest problems I have with my home internet is the terrible range of the Wi-Fi.

In Colombia, many families live in small apartments or homes that are interconnected and built very close together. The result is that many large extended families will share their WiFi with family, friends, and neighbors that live close-by in order to share and reduce the monthly cost of internet. So internet companies, in turn, greatly reduced the range of standard Wi-Fi routers (on purpose) so that it becomes much more difficult to share Wi-Fi from one home to the next. Long story short, my own standard Wi-Fi signal won't stretch from the bedroom/office to the kitchen, and my apartment is not large.

Enter the rockspace Wi-Fi 6 AX1800 Router and Extender, the WiFi system that has made it possible for me to use my Wi-Fi network on all my Apple devices at once, from anywhere in the house. The system is made up of a Wi-Fi router that connects directly to the existing modem and a Wi-Fi extender that amplifies the signal into dead zones (such as my kitchen). Together, the rockspace router and extender have improved W-iFi speeds all over my home and eliminated dead zones.

rockspace Wi-Fi 6 AX1800 Router and Extender

Bottom line: rockspace can put an end to pesky Wi-Fi dead zones and add up to 1,500 square feet to your internet coverage.

The Good

• Strengthens internet throughout the house
• Eliminates dead zones
• Super easy to set up
• Companion app streamlines setup and troubleshooting

The Bad

• Requires manual connection to extender
• Does not adapt to horizontal wall sockets

Router $80 at rockspaceRouter $80 at AmazonExtender $100 at rockspaceExtender $80 at Amazon

rockspace AX1800 Router and Extender: Price and availability

The best place to buy the rockspace AX1800 Router and Extender right now is Amazon. At this moment, Amazon is offering the best deals on these products, with both being $80. You can also get them on the rockspace website, but at a slightly higher price. Right now the pair is not available as a package deal, but since the two devices work so well together, I think it should be.

rockspace AX1800 Router and Extender: Wi-Fi in the kitchen and beyond

The rockspace AX1800 Router and Extender have greatly improved the internet experience in our home. Because of the nature of the standard modem that comes with our internet package, the internet signal begins to degrade significantly over any amount of distance. The AX1800 Router amplifies the Wi-Fi signal from the modem so that it's more powerful throughout the house, providing faster speeds even when I'm in the same room as the modem itself. This signal is more powerful throughout the house, but the range still won't extend all the way to the kitchen.

For that, I have the AX1800 Extender. This WiFi extender can work with any router, but it's especially easy to set up and use with its rockspace router counterpart. By using the RS Home companion app on my best iPhone, I was able to set up and connect both the router and the extender within seconds. This iOS app can also be used to make changes to the network or to troubleshoot, which I find convenient and helpful.

From the moment I plugged in the rockspace AX1800 Extender, my kitchen dead zone was gone.

One snafu I had while setting up the extender was that it does not adapt to horizontal wall sockets, but I'll go into that in the next section. For now, I have the extender plugged in sideways, but this does not appear to affect its functionality. From the moment I plugged in the AX1800 Extender, my kitchen dead zone was gone. In fact, the signal is now quite powerful through every inch of my house. In the screenshot above, you can see the original internet strength in my kitchen on the left — barely usable at 3.2 megabytes. After I set up and plugged in the extender, the signal jumped up to a respectable 67.8 megabytes. This makes a major difference when I need to scour the internet for baking videos on my iPad!

This system supports up to 35 simultaneous device connections, so everyone in my home can enjoy fast Wi-Fi speeds even if we use all of our Apple devices at once, including the best Macs and favorite iPads. Heck, if we wanted to, I bet we could even share it with the neighboring apartment. Just don't tell our internet provider.

rockspace AX1800 Router and Extender: Wait, I gotta switch networks

Although the AX1800 Extender does extend the Wi-Fi to cover up to 1,500 square feet, it does so by creating its own extended network. This means that once you wander outside the coverage of the original router, you have to manually switch to the extended network. Since it's not a mesh system, I have to remember to connect my iPhone 12 Pro Max to the main router in my bedroom and then manually switch to the extended network in the kitchen. This only takes a few seconds to do, but I can see the value of a mesh network that does this automatically.

I was also confused by the detached socket plug that came with the extender. Because of how it's made, I thought it would work with my horizontal wall socket. Unfortunately, although it looks like it should work in both orientations, it does not. The extender only works with standard vertical wall sockets, so I had to plug it in sideways. It still works fine like this, but I'll have to buy an adapter to switch it right-side-up.

rockspace AX1800 Router and Extender: Competition

The only other Wi-Fi extension system I personally have experience with is the Meshforce Mesh WiFi System that I used and reviewed in my parents' giant farmhouse. Although it's intended for much bigger spaces than what I live in now, this also worked to eliminate WiFi dead zones over a much larger area. I like that the mesh system is supposed to automatically reconnect your devices as you move from one zone to another, although it's not perfect. Sometimes it takes awhile to reconnect. While mesh Wi-Fi networks can be more convenient than an extender, they are also more expensive. The Meshforce system costs about $180, more than double the price of the AX1800 Router and Extender.

rockspace AX1800 Router and Extender: Should you buy it?

You should buy this if ...

• You have Wi-Fi dead zones in your home.
• You need a more reliable internet connection over a larger space.
• You plan to connect a lot of devices to the extender at once.

You shouldn't buy this if...

• You're looking for a mesh WiFi network.
• You have horizontal wall sockets.

While my situation dealing with stingy Colombian internet providers is unique, the rockspace system can serve any home that has Wi-Fi dead zones. Just place the AX1800 extender halfway in-between the modem and the dead zone, then voilà! Dead zone gone. Although this isn't a mesh network, reconnecting to the extended network hasn't been overly annoying for me. It just takes a few seconds on my iPhone or iPad when I move into the dead zone. In our house, the pros definitely outweigh the cons.

For a combination of power, speed, and ease-of-use, I suggest using the AX1800 Router and Extender together. The extender can be used on any network, but they work quite seamlessly as a pair. The AX1800 Router even makes the Wi-Fi connection slightly stronger in our home office where the original modem is. The result of installing both units is a stronger, more reliable signal throughout the house without any dead zones for spaces up to 1,500 square feet. In our apartment, this has greatly improved our online experience on all of our Apple devices, especially when trying to connect from the kitchen!

rockspace WiFi 6 AX1800 Router and Extender

Bottom line: Improve the reliability and strength of internet signal throughout the entire home by using the rockspace WiFi 6 AX1800 Router and Extender together. Say goodbye to dead zones!

Router $80 at rockspaceRouter $80 at AmazonExtender $100 at rockspaceExtender $80 at Amazon