Linksys RE7000W Wireless Range Extender

My home network is a combo of WRT1900AC + RE4000W + RE1000W. The RE1000W died a few days ago, though — sparks the moment you powered it on, so it went straight in the trash.

So I looked it up, and the repeater line has already reached the RE7000W, so I picked one up to replace the dead RE1000W.

Since it’s a Linksys product matching a Linksys router, compatibility isn’t an issue. The problem is that the RE7000W’s setup is genuinely schizophrenic. First off, it has a wizard, and the wizard comes in Simplified Chinese. In that wizard, it suggests I give the extender’s wireless signal a different name. But if I’m gonna use a different name, what the hell do I even need a Linksys extender for? Any random router would do the job. And the dumbest part is that one of the RE7000W’s headline features is seamless roaming without dropping the connection — which requires the same name. So are you recommending it or not?

Then the setup turned out even more stupid. The RE7000W you configure with the wizard is wildly unstable. I eventually logged in and picked manual mode, only to find there’s no Chinese UI, English only. Reconfigured the extender in English, and everything was stable…

So what the hell is that wizard even for? A joke?