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FrancisduBois's avatar
FrancisduBois
Aspirant
May 09, 2022

Can I add Nighthawk extenders to my Orbi Wifi 6 Router used in daisy chain

I have a router here in France from Orange Telecom, but because of conflicts with the Orbi router (RBS850) when playing its Orange IPTV, had to set the Orbi router in daisy chain, together with 3 other satellites. Our house is 600 SQM and several walls are 1m thick. Those 3 satellite Orbi's currently only cover 1 extremity of the building in L shape, on one every floor, while the Orange router and the Orbi router are in the corner of the L on the second floor connected to each other. 

 

The 3 satellites are connected through RJ45 cabling (available all over the building). Of course we could connect some devices with the RJ45 network, but wifi is much more needed for all mobile devices. 

 

Orbi's are quite expensive so I purchased 3 Netgear Extenders (AX1800 Mesh Extender, Model EAX15) to place over the house. 

 

In order to install them I had to download a Nighthawk app. But it is asking me to scan a) a Nighthawk Router (don't have), b) Cable Modem Router (also mentioning to scan a QR code on my Nighthawk base / sticker (don't have), c) Range Extender d) Nighthawk Mesh System (don't have), e) LTE WIFI Router (also mentioning to scan a QR code on my Nighthawk base / sticker (don't have). 

 

Seems like c) is the only option. I tried through wifi but it didnt work. I then now tried with connecting the Extender with cable to RJ45 plug and it seems to be unstable. 

 

So my question: are both the Orbi Router and Nighthawk Extenders incompatible? 

 

Thanks,

 

Francis 

 

 

 

2 Replies

  • plemans's avatar
    plemans
    Guru - Experienced User
    May 09, 2022

    You can add the nighthawk extenders but I wouldn't recommend it. 

    A couple reasons why.

    1. dual band extenders take a 50% throughput reduction in speed for every hop they use if setup using a wireless backhaul

    2. if the extenders are hardwired in, they need to be setup in access point mode. In access point mode, the smart roaming features are disabled. 

    3. if setup in wireless mode, there's nothing controlling the nighthawks as they don't integrate with the orbi. So they might get setup daisy chained, they might get setup connecting to satellites or router. You'd have to set them up with their own ssid to make sure they're setup in the order you want which ruins the point of a mesh system. 

     

    basically, it comes down to if you want a mesh system and for it to function decently, you need to use orbi satellites. Can nighthawk's be made to work? sure. but it isn't going to be as seamless, stable, and fast as you'd want.