NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Mesh Extender not connecting to network
I have a Netgear Nighthawk® CM 3000 DOCSIS® 3.1 High Speed Internet Cable Modem connected to a Nighthawk® RS280S WiFi 7 Tri-Band Router. I have added two AX1800 4-Stream WiFi 6 Mesh Extender Model EAX14.
Question: The two mesh extenders led lights indicate they are connected to the network but when checking the connected devices tool they both indicate that they are offline.
On the Nighthawk app I do not have a network map display.
I am able to log into the router, but I am unable to log into the mesh extenders.
I have been very frustrated with the mesh extenders, is there a solution to being able to see the advertised improved connectivity.
1 Reply
- I never recommend using more than 1 extender. If you're needing more than 1, you should upgrade to a full mesh network. (you can make multiple extenders work but it takes some effort that I can go into). Reason I don't recommend using more than 1 mesh extender is that they don't have anything controlling them. So they can end up connecting to the router, to each other, or even make a loop and only connect to each other. Thats the issue with more than 1 mesh extender, they don't have a defined connection back to the router, its just to an ssid.
- Especially don't daisy chain them (that's going router---->extender---->extender). The reason for that is each extender (single and dual band) cuts throughput 50% of what it receives. That happens because the signal it picks up, it goes router---extender and then extender---devices it can't send/receive at the same time. So if you're pay for 300mbps service that the router is putting out, and the 1st extender is far enough away that its only getting 200mbps, its only putting out 100mbps because of the 50% drop. The second one in the line, its going to be half to what it gets. So if its only getting 75mbps of the first extender because of distance/obstruction, its only putting out around 35-40mbps. See why daisy chaining extenders is bad? Its why we recommend mesh systems with the dedicated backhaul when needing more than 1. That dedicated backhaul greatly reduces that 50% speed hit because one of its bands is just for communication between router/extender.
- You say the connected device tool. You mean their connected devices page on the extender? How are you logging into that? Are you using the app? The browser? What does it actually show (take a screensnip)?
- What are the led's on the extenders showing?
