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Forum Discussion
Range Extender recommendations for MR1100
Wondering in anyone in community has range extender / mesh network recommendations for use with the Nighthawk MR1100 to broaden it's coverage area? Good results? What to avoid? Netgear tech support s...
"swapping from one access point to another"
traditional wifi + automatic swapping/switching between ap's is hit or miss. your end device (android tablet) is managing the connections. each end device can behave differently (tablet vs phone vs laptop etc). user experience is bad. my recommendation, manually connect to the ap you are near.
if you are serious about automatic swapping/switching between ap's, mesh networks is what you want. in mesh networks the mesh ap's control the connections (NOT the end devices like android tablet). As you move around house/office the mesh network itself moves you from ap to ap. better experience, not perfect, but way more expensive then traditional wifi ap's.
on my nighthawk lte hotspot, i have never had any trouble manually connecting to a nearby traditional wifi ap.
i have nighthawk wifi turned off. overall bad experience. in the nighthawk's defense there is a limit with what you can do with such a tiny device with tiny internal antennas. the nighthawk lte hotspot can not compete with a traditional wifi ap performance/range/experience-wise.
nhantenna: thanks for suggesting a possible cause of the problem I'm having when moving from one access point to another and for introducing mesh networks.
I should have been more explicit in my explanation. I do indeed attempt to connect manually to the second access point by specifically selecting its SSID. At that point I can no longer see the SSID of the first AP because I'm well out of range, and I'm only a couple of feet away from the AP I'm connecting to. More often than not, I get the message "Obtaining IP address" without any subsequent internet connection via the MR1100. That's why I'm thinking that the problem lies between the MR1100, the unmanaged ethernet switch and the access point, with the most likely cause being the MR1100.
Do you have any other thoughts on this?
Big thanks for the responses, dialog and counsel...greatly appreciated! Had actually purchased Anker rapid charger per recommendations in other discussion threads. Hooked it up and removed the battery.
Confess that I'm fairly low level tech savvy and have household/home-office filled with low tech users so whatever will be most "user friendly/tech light" will be the direction I'll ultimately go. Frankly while mesh may be more costly, sounds like it could be simpleist to deploy and least complex for users/devices? Am I reading that correctly?
Any experiences with NETGEAR Nighthawk Mesh X6S Tri-Band WiFi Mesh Extender? Other Mesh tech/models?
thx!
"Other Mesh tech/models?"
There are many consumer oriented mesh solutions. Here are some:
https://www.pcmag.com/roundup/350795/the-best-wi-fi-mesh-network-systems
"Frankly while mesh may be more costly, sounds like it could be simpleist to deploy and least complex for users/devices? Am I reading that correctly?"
Yes you are correct. That is the promise/vision behind mesh solutions. It you want more WI-FI coverage, just add another unit. Could not be more simple.
Another thing to consider is some mesh solutions require a connection to the vendor in order to function. For example, automatic firmware, cloud management, etc. If something goes wrong at a vendor (and it already has happened) it can bring your mesh network down at your house. For example, you may have to setup your mesh network again from scratch. These are growing pains of mesh networks which are fairly new. Additionally there are privacy/security concerns. Buying an ap from a vendor is one thing. Having that vendor connected to your home network 24/7 is quite another thing.
Appreciate the wisdom and counsel relative to the mesh.
Over the weekend, had some time to tinker with repurposing an older Netgear X6 router. Connected it to the M1 via cat-5 to create another AP. So far so good. Was surprised was so simple/easy. Thought there may be some "tech work" needed to make it work such as IP pass-through parameters I had seen referenced. Obviously requires a different login from devises, but does give a much bigger (and adequate) range of coverage to our home/office.
In earlier dialogue, I saw reference made to turning off the M1 Wi-Fi off when a secondary AP is set up.
1. What is the advantage of doing that?
2. How do you do that? (Couldn't find a setting on the app to toggle it off)?
thx again.