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Kwenda's avatar
Kwenda
Apprentice
Nov 10, 2017
Solved

EX8000 WiFi Range Extender installation

 

Purchased the new EX8000 range extender and used WiFi and the Netgear Installation Assistant to set it upwith a Netgear R7800 router.  Downloaded the Netgear WiFi Analytics app and the Netgear genie app.

 

Presently the Netgear Router model R7800 has selected channel 44, and I am the only person in my area using this channel. 

The EX8000 range extender chose channel 100, and again I am the only person in my area using this channel.

 

Everything appears to be working with the EX8000 as a range extender.

 

However during the installation I get this information on the screen page:-

 

‘ To get the best WiFi performance, we recommend that you log in to your router or access point and change its 5 GHz WiFi channel setting to a channel between 100 and 140.’

 

Can anyone tell me WHY I should do this..?    And with the R7800 router I would have to force the router to this channel.

 

Any useful tips would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

 

  1. The Netgear WiFi Analytics app and the Netgear Genie app perhaps need some work.

The signal strength meter on one app logs onto the router, and the signal strength meter on the other app will log onto the WiFi range extender.. 

  • Hi Kwenda,

    EX8000 is a tri-band extender and uses one of the bands to exclusively(dedicated) connect to the router. Depending on the router's channel the dedicated band can be a 2x2 or a 4x4. When you change the router to recommended channel (say channel 149), the extender will choose the 4x4 to connect to the router and that way you can place your extender farther away from router within the house. Secondly (this may not apply to your case), to avoid interference on router from other wifi, it's better to keep router's channel to high 5G band. Hope this helps!

2 Replies

  • arunkmony's avatar
    arunkmony
    NETGEAR Employee Retired

    Hi Kwenda,

    EX8000 is a tri-band extender and uses one of the bands to exclusively(dedicated) connect to the router. Depending on the router's channel the dedicated band can be a 2x2 or a 4x4. When you change the router to recommended channel (say channel 149), the extender will choose the 4x4 to connect to the router and that way you can place your extender farther away from router within the house. Secondly (this may not apply to your case), to avoid interference on router from other wifi, it's better to keep router's channel to high 5G band. Hope this helps!

    • Kwenda's avatar
      Kwenda
      Apprentice

      Thanks for this explanation.  I now understand the logic behind the operation of the EX8000, and why the WiFi channel change on the router was recommended.

      Thanks