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KnuckleUpPunk's avatar
KnuckleUpPunk
Follower
Mar 06, 2023

RAX50 paired with RAX50 or 75 to act as extender

Hello,

 

I have great connectivity with my current RAX50 router, but some portions of the home are dead zones.  For reference, our system is Frontier 1GIG service. 

 

I attempted to fix the dead zones buy purchasing a few different mesh systems (Eero Pro 6 & Orbi 750), but none had the speed as the RAX50 (even though they're Wifi 6).  With the RAX, my wifi speeds are always around 750+ up/down, but the mesh systems always seems to stall around 600~ Up and 450 down. 

 

My question is that I love the range and the speed of the RAX50, so can I just buy one or two more and use them as "extenders" fairly easily?  If so, I couldn't find much documentation on it.  Wouldn't that be more cost efficient than buying the top of the line Orbi system, since i already own one (1) RAX50?

 

I spoke to support here at Netgear and explained that I thought about trying the eero Pro 6e next instead and he said go for it, which I found odd.  I enjoy my Netgear products and I'm sure they have a solution. 

 

Any thoughts here would be greatly appreciated. 

 

Thanks,

 

Knuc

1 Reply

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  • plemans's avatar
    plemans
    Guru
    Mar 07, 2023

    Mesh systems aren't going to have the same speeds as a stand alone router solution because they also have to dedicate power/bandwidth for the router/satellites. But the benefit is, they have more coverage. 

    So you have to make a choice. Better coverage and slightly lower speeds throughout, faster speeds close in and less coverage, OR spending a large chunk of money for the best of the best mesh systems (like the RBKE963).

     

    No, the RAX isn't a mesh router so you can't just buy more of them to use as extenders. 

     

    If it was me? I'd buy a mesh system (or use one you have) and connect it to the rax. 

    You'd go:

    RAX50--->Mesh router----satellites. 

    Set the mesh system on a different ssid and using different wireless channels to prevent interference. 

    Then you'd have fast speeds by the main router, and good coverage throughout with lower speeds at the peripheral. 

     

    Plus, what are you doing you need more than 450mbps at the peripheral? Even streaming 4k only takes 25-40mbps. So unless you're regularly backing up large amounts of data or moving large data sets, the extra speed doesn't help a ton.