NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Solved
Seeking Extender Options for RAXE300
I have been using a RAXE300 with auto-firmware updates for one year now, but the Nighthawk app on my phone indicates that the wireless strength of the 5G signal at the opposite end of my home from th...
RainCityBadger wrote:Thanks for your input / question.
The ONT is a Calix 722GE running 200 up / 200 down through ISP Ziply Fiber.
I am inclined to keep the RAXE300 in router configuration as the R7000 seemed like it was being overwhelmed by the number of attached devices (15-20 between tablets, phones, computers, printers, and televisions). I see that Netgear does have some purpose built range extenders in standup profiles like the EAX80 and wall plug profiles like the EAX15. Would I be better off adding one of those at a halfway point between the router and the weak zones instead of trying to repurpose the R7000?
Agree with using your RZXE300 as your router. As near as I can find, your ONT does not provide any router function.
The R7000 is hardware on hand and will work just fine as a wired access point or a bridge if you cannot do the Ethernet cable.
The primary advantage of new hardware would be the addition of the AX and AXE frequency bands that the R7000 is not capable of. These are channels above 161 in the 5 GHz band. In my opinion, not at all necessary with the ISP service you have.
Configuration of the R7000 is not hard, you might want to set it up to test and see if it resolves your coverage problem.
Some good background on Wi-Fi is available here: https://www.wiisfi.com/. A review of the first three sections would get you started. The rest is for reference.
Thanks for your input / question.
The ONT is a Calix 722GE running 200 up / 200 down through ISP Ziply Fiber.
I am inclined to keep the RAXE300 in router configuration as the R7000 seemed like it was being overwhelmed by the number of attached devices (15-20 between tablets, phones, computers, printers, and televisions). I see that Netgear does have some purpose built range extenders in standup profiles like the EAX80 and wall plug profiles like the EAX15. Would I be better off adding one of those at a halfway point between the router and the weak zones instead of trying to repurpose the R7000?
RainCityBadger wrote:Thanks for your input / question.
The ONT is a Calix 722GE running 200 up / 200 down through ISP Ziply Fiber.
I am inclined to keep the RAXE300 in router configuration as the R7000 seemed like it was being overwhelmed by the number of attached devices (15-20 between tablets, phones, computers, printers, and televisions). I see that Netgear does have some purpose built range extenders in standup profiles like the EAX80 and wall plug profiles like the EAX15. Would I be better off adding one of those at a halfway point between the router and the weak zones instead of trying to repurpose the R7000?
Agree with using your RZXE300 as your router. As near as I can find, your ONT does not provide any router function.
The R7000 is hardware on hand and will work just fine as a wired access point or a bridge if you cannot do the Ethernet cable.
The primary advantage of new hardware would be the addition of the AX and AXE frequency bands that the R7000 is not capable of. These are channels above 161 in the 5 GHz band. In my opinion, not at all necessary with the ISP service you have.
Configuration of the R7000 is not hard, you might want to set it up to test and see if it resolves your coverage problem.
Some good background on Wi-Fi is available here: https://www.wiisfi.com/. A review of the first three sections would get you started. The rest is for reference.
Kitsap wrote:
The R7000 is hardware on hand and will work just fine as a wired access point or a bridge if you cannot do the Ethernet cable.
A simple solution could be Powerline Ethernet.
If the main network supports it – not too much electrical noise – Powerline can turn the mains circuit into wired Ethernet so that the remote R7000 becomes an access point. No messing around with a dodgy wifi repeater connection to the router. Easier to set up and a lot faster than wifi. It would even provide a decent switch to plug things into at the remote end .
Probably cheaper than a new router or repeater.
Appreciate the guidance and references. I understand the limitations of going the repeater route but I am willing to take the throughput hit as an alternative to running cable.
I have seen conflicting instructions on whether the base station needs to be configured to recognize the MAC of the repeater station, and I found no option to do so in the RAXE300 Advanced Setup.
So, I tried repurposing the R7000 as follows:
1. Reset R7000 to default settings using recessed button.
2. Disconnected laptop from wireless connection to RAXE300.
2. Connected R7000 to laptop with ethernet cable using one of the four LAN ports.
3. Accessed R7000 with routerlogin.net using default login/password.
4. Manually updated R7000 to latest firmware (V1.0.11.136_10.2.120) using downloaded file from Netgear.
5. From the ADVANCED ribbon, selected Setup/Wireless Setup and:
a. Renamed SSIDs for 2.4 and 5 GHz networks to match RAXE300 SSIDs.
b. Changed R7000 wireless channels to match RAXE300 channels.
c. Set Security on R7000 networks to None.
d. Applied the settings changes.
6. From the ADVANCED ribbon, selected Setup-->LAN Setup and:
a. Deselected Use Router as DHCP server.
b. Applied the settings change.
7. From the ADVANCED ribbon, selected Advanced Setup-->Router / AP / Bridge / Repeating Mode and:
a. Selected the Repeating Mode option button.
b. Selected the toggle to Enable Wireless Repeating Function (5GHz a/n/ac).
c. Selected the Wireless Repeater option button.
d. Set the Wireless Repeater IP Address to a nonreserved number in the same domain (e.g. 192.168.1.10).
e. Set the Base Station MAC Address to match the MAC Address listed for the 5 GHz network in the RAXE300 settings.
f. Left the option to Disable Wireless Client Association unchecked.
g. Applied the settings changes.
The R7000 is no longer accessible via the assigned repeater IP address or routerlogin.net after reboot, and is not recognized as an attached device by the RAXE300. The R7000 open networks show up on the laptop but connect as open / no internet. I suspect that some kind of MAC handshake between the base station and repeater is missing here, but I don't know where in the RAXE300 settings I would be able to establish it. I am considering resetting the R7000, patching it into a LAN port on the RAXE300, and try running the Nighthawk app from my phone to configure it as a repeater, but I welcome any suggestions/corrections to the procedure I tried above.
I do not understand why you chose Wi-Fi repeater mode instead of bridge mode? What were you trying to accomplish?
It could be my own misunderstanding of the different modes. The intended use case here is to eliminate dead zones / weak signal strength at one end of my home opposite of the RAXE300 location. I do not intend to use any of the LAN ports on the R7000 - I am only looking to boost the wireless coverage with no concerns about throughput. My understanding is that bridge mode only permits LAN connections on the secondary router and uses the wireless signals solely as a passthrough of LAN client data to the base station. Is that incorrect? If bridge mode permits wireless clients to connect through the secondary router to the base station, I will definitely try configuring the R7000 for that use case.
Thanks for your patience - this is my first time addressing a situation where buying a "bigger" single router did not solve range/throughput.
