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Forum Discussion
EX8000 - Dropping Internet Connection Moving Around House That Has 3 Extenders
Have a 6100 sq ft house, 2 levels. Equipment: Cable Modem - CM1000 WiFi Router - R9000 Nighthawk X10 AD7200 3 Extenders - Nighthawk X6S EX8000 (all in EXTENDER mode) * All running the late...
I completely reset each extender to the factory defaults, and one by one configured each one and added it to the network. After adding/configuring the 1st one, I'd unplug it and then add/config the 2nd one, unplug it, then add/configure the 3rd one. After unplugging the 3rd one, I then plugged in the 1st one, 2nd one, and 3rd one (spread around the house). Again, strong internet signal everywhere, but when I go to an area that is on the far end of the range (i.e., garage), I have a signal / good internet, but then when I go back into the house (and closer to the router), the internet connection is dropped. I have to turn off wifi, and turn it back on again to get an internet connection. This is extremely frustrating, as the whole reason I purchased 3 extenders was to have seamless coverage throughout the house, and to have a stable / strong connection as I moved around the house. Is there a setting that is not set correctly that is causing this problem? I didn't change much from the default configuration outside of SSID, security, and disabling USB.
Have a support ticket opened up with Netgear on this issue, but they are slow to respond and help has been very generic, i.e., reset extender to factory defaults, reflash firmware, turn everything off and back on again, etc.
I have over $1200 invested in new Netgear cable modem, wifi router, and extenders, all purportedly to be seamless robust solutions. I have spent 40+ hours on this problem troubleshooting and researching, and am at the point I'm going to return the entire set of hardware, never buy/recommend Netgear again, and seek out another vendor's solutions.
I'm an IT guy (software dev, but have also set up networks), and take an engineer's approach to solving problems, so it's not like I'm your clueless Joe Consumer fumbling through this stuff.
UPDATE: After a 4th chat session with tech support (which lasted 3.5 hours, and included 3 dropped chat sessions, and 3 different agents, each of which had to be debriefed on problem domain), I found out why my 3 extenders were not working as expected.
As I just learned, if you want to deploy multiple EX8000 devices, and want to use it in extender mode (wireless connection to router), each device must have it's own unique SSID. Yes, you are correct, this negates the feature of a single seamless SSID for convenient roaming throughout your house. I had 3 EX8000 devices setup all using the same SSID as the router, and this is what caused all my dropped connections - The devices were confused and could not differentiate between the router SSID and each of the other EX8000 SSID's that were being broadcast.
If you want to deploy multiple EX8000 *and* want to use a single seamless SSID, the only way to do this is to deploy each of the EX8000's in Access Point mode, meaning each one has to be hardwired to the router.
Prior to purchasing the EX8000, I had a presales chat session and explained to the agent what I was planning on doing (using 3 EX8000's in extender mode with same SSID), and was told by agent that this would be fine.
Due to timing of purchases, I can only return 2 of the 3 EX8000 devices for a refund. I'm going with a Google Nest WiFi system (using 4 of their router devices for a better wireless mesh system), so also have a nearly new Nighthawk X10 AD7200 wifi router to sell as well.Hey Smitdog266
Sorry for stealing the thread but I'm thinking of trying to extend my R9000 WiFi, and wonder if you recommend me grabbing 1 of the EX8000s?
I read that you using multiple extenders with the same SSID caused an issue, however I'm wondering whether one Extender, with the same SSID as on the R9000 would cause a similar issue?
Cheers in advance
