TP-Link TL-WA730RE 150MBPS Wireless Lite N Range Extender, Atheros, 1T1R, 2.4GHz

Bought this to extend my parents wireless network. Usual excellent delivery by Amazon. Out of the box the product is useless. The firmware shipped is ancient and doesn't work. Very quickly found the manufacturers website, downloaded latest firmware and reflashed the unit. Now working flawlessly. Such good value. Someone needs to take up the firmware issue with the manufacturer. If you are not comfortable reflashing hardware then think twice!

I fairly technically minded, so you'd think I would be able to setup this up relatively easily right? Wrong. After about 2 hours I gave up and rang the IT Support line from the website. I got through on the 3rd attempt (on a sunday afternoon --> so that is quite good service) and within 25 mins with the help of tech support had it fully working.

Good points:
It works as a range extender.
Phone support is good and 24/7
Very cheap and cheerful
Small and lightweight

Bad points:
Manual is rubbish and does not reflect the actual setup options at times. It does not cover all points necessary to configure.
Setup is not obvious and if you are not willing to spend ages trying to get it to work, OR just contact the support line straight off this would be a nightmare to configure.

For the price, if you are fairly technical and willing to contact tech support (manufacturer website) it is worth the effort
If you have an unsecurred network, then setup is easy, but WHY DO YOU HAVE AN UNSECURRED NETWORK??!!

(Please don't use WEP for your network, too hackable!) USe WPA PSK

What I did to get it to as extender with tech support help: (if you are not technical this will not make sense)

========================================================================================================

Note: this is rough guide only.
0. If you use mac address filtering on router, add mac of tlink in before you start on router!
1. Connect tlink to pc with network cable.
2. Configure LAN TCP/IP connection with static ip of say 192.168.1.100 (or whatever, as long as is NOT .254 )
3. Open command prompt and ping tlink 192.168.254 (ip of tlink), subnet mask 255.255.255.0 (Eth address.)
4. If it responds to pings then happy days proceed to next step
5. Open tlink page by typing in internet explorer 192.168.1.254
6. enter password etc from manual
7. Flash firmware (optional) from manufacture website (I did)
7. Somewhere under LAN (or security) you can specify the LAN ip address.
if your router is (example 192.168.0.1) put in static ip of say 192.168.0.150 as the lan address of the tlink. Note this so called LAN address is ACTUALLY the wireless one as well! Default gateway should be ip of your router. Don't forget this! You may be prompted to reboot tlink at this stage.
8. Change your pc lan connection to be on 192.168.0 subnet. EG. 192.168.0.100 with static ip, Default gateway should be router ip and same for dns server. You should now be able to load the tlink page by entering 192.168.0.150 into internet explorer. Ie tlink should be on same subnet as router!
9. Once back in tlink admin page click Quick setup. Select various options including security type, network key, click SURVEY button to browse for your network, select by SSID and click connect.
It should auto fill most of the rest for you.
10. try using the diagnostic tab under tools to ping from tlink to the router. It should work, if not call tech support.
11. Change admin username and password!!
12. Backup configuration to bin file!
13. Disconnect cable.
14. Turn off/on tlink
15. Ping router from tlink, should work
16. Look at wireless network , strength should be better.

Don't forget to change chanel on router if connectivity ok, but strength of signal from router still no good (then reboot tlink)

ON my network it went from poor/fair to excellent.

I hope this shambolic review helps

I agree with M. Paul - Out of the box, the extender didn't function on my protected network (it may be OK on unprotected ones, but who has those nowadays!!??). I too flashed the new firmware, and I still wan't sure that the thing was working. Came back to it the following day, reset the extender and started from scratch with the new firmware and eventually I can see an improvement.
It was a concern that when I switched off the power to the extender, it lost settings, but it only did that once, so hopefully it was only a minor glitch.
Ignore the blurb about one-button set up - that's only for unprotected networks.
As mentioned, you need to modify your PC's IP address to set the extender up using the CD supplied (tough if you have a netbook with no CD drive!), otherwise your PC won't "see" the extender. You only get to know that if you look at the User Manual on the aforementioned CD. The Quick Start Guide doesn't mention this.
When you do get it set up, you need to go into the web based browser and interrogate the unit to check it has altered the region to UK - mine remained on USA until I manually changed it.

If you're a novice, technophobe or impatient, then don't buy this. I have a little experience in setting up networks, and I was getting to the point of sending this back. Perseverence overcame this, and, for the past couple of hours at least, it has been working well.

Three year warranty too. Hope I don't need it!