Hi there, i have a TP-Link ADSL/Router combo and a TP-Link Range extender, they are 5 meters away and yet i’m having trouble with the connection, when i log into the RE it’s showing that the signal received from the main router is very strong at above 80% but the wireless rate to main router fluctuates a lot dropping to the 1MBPS then going up to 100 then dropping to 10 then going up to 300MBPS etc, I sometimes have problem just logging into the RE gateway. Sometimes the signal would be 80% but the wireless rate would be 1.

I’ve tried different channels and auto, using duplicate or different SSID, different channel width ( 20MHZ then 40 then auto) but nothing works.

Any ideas in what’s the issue?

Thank you
That's because the extender is utilizing the 2.4GHz single band channel on your modem. Since Multiple User - Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO) is only supported on 802.11ac standard and the 5 GHz frequency and both devices should support the feature, then you are going to be left with the modem actually providing data basically in turn with some latency between devices connected directly to it and the extender.

Which models are your Modem and extender?
Thanks for the replies , my ADSL router combo is TP-Link TD-W8961 ND and the range extender is TP Link TL-WA850RE v1.26.

The ADSL router is on 802.11b+g+n, the range extender is not showing the mode.

Any ideas or options changes that can resolve the issues?
If both router and range extender have the "wds bridge" feature you can give it a try. It might perform better than universal repeater. You need to give the router and repeater a fixed channel number.

https://www.tp-link.com/ae/support/faq/327/

The best scenario is to have 2 identical routers but its still worth a try. I have tried it with two TL-WR941ND V6 routers and it works perfectly fine.

https://www.tp-link.com/us/home-networking/wifi-router/tl-wr941nd/
I brought home my Technicolor router from the office and set it up, the Range Extender is on a steady connection with the Technicolor at 130MBPS now is which is more than enough for us in Lebanon.

I will set up the TP-Link combo at my office, I don’t have a range extender in the office so it will work out for me.

Thank you all.