Hi, Hope everyone is well. I have a nighthawk r7000 router in my office and my wifi does not reach my living room - about 30-40 feet away. I purchased the ex8000 to extend my wifi and to also assist with keeping my nest hello connected to wifi. I set up the extender today and moved it outside of the office about 15 feet away. I did not see any difference in wifi with or without it. I used a wifi analyzer and I get 866 mbps speed in the office, it drops to about 500 where the extender is (15 feet away). if I measure to my front door, another 20 feet, the link speed is 35. If I turn off the extender, I get about the same readings 480 - 500 mbps and the door has the same measurement. I moved the extender closer to my front door (further away from the router), about 10 feet away and I was getting poor wifi around the extender - about 35 mbps. I don't believe that this is working. I tried calling support, and was number 80 in line, I used the chat and got through. We did a factory reset and reconnected - same results. the lights on the front are all white - I used a browser and connected to the extender and everything was green. I don't know if I should just return it or if I am missing a setting or something else, anything. all suggestions are welcome.

What materials is your home interior walls made of? Certain materials block wifi extremely well. These include adobe, plaster lathe, brick, concrete, foil lined insultion, metal hvacReason I ask is a standard wood/sheetrock home shouldn't have issues broadcasting wifi 40ft. In fact, for a system like orbi, it requires at least 30 ft between router/satellites. So 40ft shouldn't be a problem which makes me suspect the home might be the issue.

So lets first get the router working decent. 40ft shouldn't be so far that you need an extender. And the EX8000 is a pretty darned good extender. Probably better than the R7000 you're using for a router. What firmware is on the R7000?What modem is it connected to? What speeds do you get in this location off the R7000? Over 5ghz?Whatt speeds do you pay for?What speed do you get hardwired into the router?

SoCaloc wrote:Hi, thank you for the reply. My Router Firmware is v1.0.9.88_10.2.88. My Modem is an Arris SB8200. I have Cox Inter Premier that has 200 Mbps Download and 10 MBps Upload. Cox Speed Test shows 194.1 download and 9.8 upload over wired connection. Using the Nighthawk app speed test in my office reads 193.5 d and 9.6 u. The nighthawk signal strenght reads around -35dbm for 5G. The Nighthawk app Home Testing feature gives a reading of 866 Mbps for 5G.I think you're talking link speed. Link speed and throughput speed are 2 different things. And testing wifi is challenging because so many things influence wireless. Try using the speedtest app for speed testing. Even within the app, it doesn't always choose the best server to test with so sometimes you have to change which server it tests off.another through is the EX8000 uses the single ssid function. If you're devices are on 2.4ghz, its significantly slower than 5ghz speeds. It can penetrate further and through more materials but its a lot slower. and the EX8000 in single ssid function, band steers. meaning it'll move devices between 2.4ghz and 5ghz bands as needed based on rssi strength and bandwidth needs. so which band are you speedtesting on?How big is your home? Another thought is moving the extender. Sometimes lateral movement is more benefical than closer further away if something like hvac in the walls is blocking signals.Or changing wifi channels to optimize wifi channel connection.Many times, people get more benefit from centrally locating a router versus adding in an extender. Extenders work great to extend distance or cover a deadspot but if the primary router provides decent speed, a extender can actually slow speeds and increase latency because the data has to go router-----extender-----device and not just directly to the device.

Rssi isn't the best way to measure. Reason why is how fast it drops off even based off line of site. the best way? using the speedtest app on a phone/laptop. Check your actual speed in locations. And you might not see a whole lot of benefit because a 1700sq ft home can probably be covered with a single router. You might only see a benefit at the furthest reaches of the home to using the EX8000. And again, in regards to the "connection suddenly full" isn't an accurage measure either. Actual speedtesting is what counts. For instance, my home has great coverage in 2.4ghz but due to interference, I stuggle to pull 30mbps over 2.4ghz. At my relatives home, where they live in the country, they can pull 100+mbps over 2.4ghz even at distance with "lower" signal.

Again, what app are you testing with? the netgear app? if so, don't use this. It hosts the test off the router or extender. Use the actual speedtest.com app.

EX8000 Does not appear to sustain or boost wifi

17 Replies

plemans
Guru - Experienced User
May 06, 2020
What materials is your home interior walls made of?
Certain materials block wifi extremely well. These include adobe, plaster lathe, brick, concrete, foil lined insultion, metal hvac
Reason I ask is a standard wood/sheetrock home shouldn't have issues broadcasting wifi 40ft. In fact, for a system like orbi, it requires at least 30 ft between router/satellites. So 40ft shouldn't be a problem which makes me suspect the home might be the issue.
- SoCaloc
  Aspirant
  May 06, 2020
  Hi,
  
  Thank you for the reply. I live in a standard wood stud / sheetrock home build in 2000ish.
  
  The extender, has most of the white lights lit up (if you count the lights, there are 8 of them, numbering from 1 to 8 - left to right, all lights are solid white except lights 5,6 and 8 which are not illuminated). I just do not see any difference in the signal strength with the extender - I don't think it is doing anything. thanks again.
  - SoCaloc
    Aspirant
    May 06, 2020
    I just used my tape measurer and the extender is 18 ft and 3 inches from the router - a straight line. I can see it through the doorway - which is always open.

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EX8000 Does not appear to sustain or boost wifi