How to Use Range Up: From Floor Plan to Extender Spot in 5 Minutes

How to use Range Up is a four-step process: draw the floor plan, place the router where it actually sits, mark the room you want fixed, then compare extender candidates. In about five minutes, that turns “maybe buy an extender” into a placement decision.

Range Up is a floor-plan planner and simulator. It does not read live RSSI, scan Wi-Fi networks or run a speed test. It calculates coverage from the geometry and settings you enter, which is why it can test an outlet before any hardware is there.

Build an honest plan first#

The editor shows Draw 1 of 4, Router 2 of 4, Target 3 of 4 and Extender 4 of 4. You can move back and forth without losing the draft. Start with either Blank plan or Starter layouts.

One cell is about one meter. Blank plans support 12–60 cells wide, 10–50 cells high and up to five floors. Use Wall, Door and Erase to draw the route between router and problem room; a doorway passes far more signal than the wall around it. The floor-plan guide explains pacing, while the multi-floor guide covers stairs and stacked floors.

Choose the global material preset for the construction. At 5 GHz, an ordinary partition is roughly 3–8 dB, brick or cinder block 10–16 dB, and reinforced concrete 15–25 dB. That is why wall-material settings deserve more care than perfectly measuring a room.

Put the router and target where they belong#

On the Router step, tap the actual box — even if it is in a closet, behind a TV or beside an entry door. Do not draw the network you wish you had. The heatmap appears immediately; the heatmap guide explains its Strong through Dead bands.

Before buying anything, try plausible router positions on the plan: a longer Ethernet cable, a higher shelf or a more central room can improve a far room by 6–15 dB and costs less than new hardware. Use the router-placement guide to decide which move is realistic.

Then mark the exact target tile: the desk chair, side of the bed or couch seat. Do not skip this step. With no target, a recommendation favors total green area and can choose a position that helps a hallway rather than your working room. If two far-apart rooms matter, run the plan for each; one position optimized for both can be mediocre for both.

Test the extender position and settings#

In the Extender step, use a candidate tile or the recommended position. The placement search weighs open tiles by two requirements: can the position still hear the router well enough, and does it lift the target? A useful extender position normally receives about -60 to -67 dBm from the router; below roughly -70 dBm, move it toward the router. The placement guide explains why halfway in signal, not halfway in distance, is the rule.

Planner Settings keep the model honest:

• Set the material preset and, if needed, global wall, door and floor loss values.
• Choose the frequency band.
• Use Planned extenders only for a realistic topology; never plan more than two wireless hops from the router.
• Use Prefer wall placement when you need recommendations near real outlets.

Free features include the floor plan, heatmap, router and target placement, 2D/3D views, multi-floor plans, settings and one local saved plan. Range Up Premium adds placing extenders, revealing the recommended extender spot and the Results screen’s Before/After comparison. Floor plans and coverage simulations stay on your device; usage analytics, ad attribution and purchases are handled by separate services.

Read the result as a decision, not a promise#

Results compare Before and After. Coverage is the share of open floor predicted at or above -67 dBm; the Target room figure is the predicted dBm at the spot you marked. Prefer the target’s after value over a big coverage percentage or a big-looking delta.

A change from -85 to -71 dBm gains 14 dB but remains poor. A change from -70 to -58 dBm gains less and is normally comfortable. A credible extender placement often improves the target by 10–20 dB and leaves it at -67 dBm or better. Read the before/after comparison guide for the full interpretation.

Stop shopping when the best candidate gains under about 10 dB, no candidate has a healthy link home, or the room needs consistently high throughput. A single-radio extender typically costs devices behind it about half the direct-link throughput. In those cases, move the router, use a cable or change the network design instead.

The plan is one local draft: Continue Plan reopens it, Start New Plan replaces it and Delete Saved Plan removes it. Once a candidate looks sensible, test it in the real room with the call, stream or game you care about. Download Range Up to make the plan, and use the complete Wi-Fi extender placement guide for hardware choices.

Make one conservative comparison too.

If you are unsure whether a wall is ordinary drywall, brick or concrete, compare the placement under the two closest presets. A candidate that remains useful in both cases is much safer than one that works only under the optimistic setting. Do the same when deciding between an awkward outlet and the nearest practical one: test the location you can actually use, not an ideal point in the middle of a wall.

The model is most valuable when it tells you not to buy. A result that shows no healthy backhaul position or only a tiny target gain is a good outcome; it directs the budget toward a router move, Ethernet, MoCA or a different mesh layout instead of a repeated disappointment.