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Forum Discussion
EX8000 Wifi Mesh Extender vs Access Point
Is this correct setup.
I have my cable modem with a lan cord out of it plugged into one of two Nighthawk X6S AC3000 EX8000 devices. This first Nighthawk device operates as a WIFI Access Point t...
MontecitoCDD wrote:
Should this second device be in Extender Mode (as we have it now), even though it has a lan cord plugged into it that is coming from the first Nighthawk that acts as the Access Point mode? I thought I read somewhere that if it's in Extender mode, we can't have anything plugged into the back of it.
If you are in extender mode, then you can extend to ethernet clients using the lan ports.
I'm suspecting that the EX8000 won't use the ethernet connection for it's backhaul in extender mode - but am not sure. Perhaps look in the web ui, and see if there's any evidence that it is. If the distance is long (as it sounds like), then a simple speedtest might tell you.
But I'm thinking that you want it to function as an AP anyway (otherwise why run the cable). If so, perhaps just change the second EX8000 to also run as an access point.
I will check that out. Is I have the 2nd device run as an Access Point also, can it use the same WIFI SSID as the 1st access point so people can move freely between them without having to connect to another one? I bet the issue is though it would show up twice on the list.
You should be able to use the same WiFi SSID/Passphrase. BSSIDs will be different (but that's also true in extender mode).
AFAIK, clients will see the same WiFi advertisements either way. Smart roaming might behave a bit differently, but if your 2nd device isn't near the first, then the clients should switch to the 2nd EX8000 anyway.
After working with Netgear Rep on the phone we ended up leaving the 2nd Nighthawk as an Extender but unpluggin the lan cord from the back of it. Now we haven't had any issues with the wifi service in our clubhouse sense then.