NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Can someone explain how fastlane3 works?
So I just picked up the Nighthawk X4S tri-band wifi extender (EX7500) to add to my existing Asus RT-AC88U, which is a dual-band router. Before I got the extender I only used the 2.4 ghz band beca...
T369 wrote:So I just picked up the Nighthawk X4S tri-band wifi extender (EX7500) to add to my existing Asus RT-AC88U, which is a dual-band router.
Before I got the extender I only used the 2.4 ghz band because I needed more range than speed. The 5 ghz radio was turned off.
When I heard about fastlane, I was under the impression that I could link the extender to the router via the 5 ghz band and leave the 2.4 ghz band solely to my devices.
So I turned on the 5 ghz radio on my router and set up the extender. During the setup, it asked if I wanted to extend both the 2.4 ghz and 5 ghz bands.
I don't necessary want to extend the 5 ghz band. I just want to use it for the dedicated link to the router. It appears that fastlane3 (which requires no configuration on the user's part) is different than fastlane.
>> During installation, if you choose to extend only 5ghz band, it is going to use the 5ghz as a dedicated link between extender and router. This also creates an opportunity to use this 5ghz ssid for your devices.
So how can I be sure that I get the full bandwidth on my 2.4 ghz band, which is what I really wanted to extend?
>> Even if backhaul/dedicated link is 5ghz, you can extend your 2.4ghz fronthaul with same ssid as your router's 2.4ghz by manually configuring on the extender gui. This will ensure that you get a dedicated backhaul on 5ghz and continue to use extender's 2.4ghz for coverage.
On a related note: I have two locations where I'm thinking of putting the extender. When the extender is on the third floor (router is in the basement), the extender configuration screen shows the 5 ghz speed between 500-600 mbps. when it's on the second floor the 5 ghz speed increased to 866 mbps. Assuming that fastlane3 uses the 5 ghz band, how will the speed affect the extender?
>> this speed is a function of what mbps is available for the dedicated connection. The farther away you go, the speed will be lower. 866mbps is the maximum speed you can get for the dedicated connection. For best results, please run speed test on your device where you want the coverage or follow the led and GUI signal strength.
Feel free to reach out to us in case you have more questions!