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Forum Discussion

davenicsnr's avatar
davenicsnr
Aspirant
Sep 29, 2020
Solved

Add another N300 extender

Recently changed broadband supplier and in order to ensure better wifi cover I purchased BT Mini Whole Home Wi-Fi - Three Discs. Not a good choice so returned to BT.

I have an N300 extender which gives good coverage upstairs but need more cover downstairs. Earlier this year it was recommended I connect a second N300 in the configuration shown

Extender........router........extender

Can someone explain how this is done?

i would have connected the second extender to the router but is this the correct sequence?

Would an N300 still be the extender of choice?

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • plemans's avatar
    plemans
    Sep 30, 2020

    here's the issue. 

    N300 is a single band 2.4ghz device. 2.4ghz is slow. And suseptible to interference. 

    And I usually recommend people move to a full triband mesh system if their needing more than 1 extender. 

    Reason why is extenders by their very nature drop throughput (speed) 50%. Plus you end up with another ssid name to have to switch to. It gets even worse when you add another extender to the situation with another ssid. And the speeds drop even more if you're connecting an extender to another extender. 

     

    tribands extenders don't suffer from the same speed hit and can use the same ssid as the primary. 

    This tends to make them more stable and easier to use. 

    Its even better with the triband mesh systems like orbi as their designed for it and have the router controlling the system. 

     

3 Replies

  • Its just to ensure that the extenders are connecting back to the router and not to each other. 

    Easiest way is just to power off the other extender when you're setting up the new one. 

     

    • davenicsnr's avatar
      davenicsnr
      Aspirant

      Many thanks for your prompt reply.

      Would you recommend same extender or perhaps one with greater coverage and compatible with the N300?

      • plemans's avatar
        plemans
        Guru

        here's the issue. 

        N300 is a single band 2.4ghz device. 2.4ghz is slow. And suseptible to interference. 

        And I usually recommend people move to a full triband mesh system if their needing more than 1 extender. 

        Reason why is extenders by their very nature drop throughput (speed) 50%. Plus you end up with another ssid name to have to switch to. It gets even worse when you add another extender to the situation with another ssid. And the speeds drop even more if you're connecting an extender to another extender. 

         

        tribands extenders don't suffer from the same speed hit and can use the same ssid as the primary. 

        This tends to make them more stable and easier to use. 

        Its even better with the triband mesh systems like orbi as their designed for it and have the router controlling the system.