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Forum Discussion
Can EAX80 Use LAN Backhaul
I'm adding a second EAX-80 to my home to what seems like a dead spot in the WiFi. I notice that there's a lot of latency here, and if I am sitting out on front porch (15 feet from the LAN jack, but on the opposite side of the house from all the Netgear stuff), that video calls are choppy or drop. Sometimes phones don't show the WiFi icon until I manually refresh them. They show a lot of bars but performance fair-to-middling.
Here's my question:
I have a wired network jack, running straight back to my switch in the basement, in that part of the house, currently used by my daughter's laptop. Can the EAX-80 use that backhaul, or does it only fly if it is talking directly to my RAX and other EAX?
I guess what I'm really asking is how the ports on the back of EAX-80 can flex, if at all.
I have a second one upstairs with no wired LAN jack, so it exists and functions solely by joining the WiFi from the RAX. I'd just like to see if I could get this second one a nice, fat connection and have it work more like a bridge. Or maybe I should have ordered some other product to extend WiFi 6?
9 Replies
Was there ever a response to this question. I have a simlar application and would liket to use the ethernet ports on the EAX80 to extend wireless network with wired connection back to the router.
I don't think there was a NetGear response, but I can update you on what I did.
The answer is "yes" but the extender then acts as a bridge, not as a mesh extender. So when I sit on my front porch, I need to select this new WiFi network from this extender.
Zoom / Video performance was almost impossible using the mesh signal from other side of house and upstairs. Now, using this second network in close proximity to where I sit, I can use Zoom / Video without degradation.
The downside is that I am switching between networks. Most of my SmartHome devices are on the original mesh network, so when I go out to front porch and leave that primary network, access or signals to those devices does not reliably work.
And one glaring problem that Netgear does not seem to acknowledge is how their web UI interfaces (or fails to interface) with devices. Their default URL to manage the extender is: http://mywifiext.local/start.htm but I have TWO extenders (one as mesh, one as a bridge), and they have not been able to intelligently explain how I can manage my two extenders. The URL typically will go to one, but not the other.The Nighthawk app is a little better, it shows both extenders. However the app is inconsistent, I believe I can do a firmware update for the router, but it does not offer me an option for a firmware update to the extenders. That is why I am so annoyed the web interface is inconsistent.
I managed to get it to work for my purposes. House is 3 story and is wired with Ethernet at least 1 jack in each room. The Netgear modem/router is in the basement lowest level, but most usage is on the middle floor (primary living space and media and office space. bedrooms predominantly on the third or top floor.
All wired ports are 1Gbe, but wireless speeds from the basement origin and the AP on the third floor provide lower speeds on the main floor. My thought was to use a gigabit port on this main floor connected to one of the Ethernet ports on the EAX80 to extend the higher speed to the wireless on this floor.
My mistake was to try to setup with the default mesh installation. After reading a little more it seems the EAX80 needed to be setup in AP mode and given a separate SSID. Once that was done, the higher wireless speed was achieved in this area.