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Forum Discussion
Slow WIFI after adding EX8000
I have a netgear EX8000 extender connected to my router netgear nighthawk X6 R8000. Connected my wifi devices on 5ghz. Speeds are great (500mbps up and down) but a few times a week wifi speed gets rea...
Correct. Like i mentioned FIOS quantum is running the routing function and the R8000 is providing wireless access (Option 1 of the link you sent). I followed exactly the instructions found here: https://kb.netgear.com/23734/How-do-I-set-up-my-NETGEAR-or-Orbi-router-to-work-with-Verizon-Fios
Have you tried setting up a static ip address for the extender in your quantum router?
Something else you could try is to connect the EX8000 to the quantum router and see if it stays stable.
- I have just done that. I setup a static IP for the extender. I also noted that the extender keeps changing which 5ghz channel it is connecting too (I thought the extender would use ONE dedicated band to connect to the router). Weird thing is that i have different SSIDs for both 5ghz bands. However when i check the mywifiext.local i see the 5ghz channel that the extender is connected keeps changing (not sure how often) however it refers to either channel as the same SSID. So i end up naming both 5ghz channels SSIDs the same. So far everything working nicely. Lets see if it will last
- I was able to solve my problem. I made all these changes (not sure exact which one(s) solved my problem):
- I didn’t change firmware on neither router or extender
- i replaced ethernet cables connecting internet -> gateway -> router with CAT 7 cables - i had CAT 5e before (this definitely had a impact i wifi speed)
- i used a static IP address for my extender
- i used the same SSID for both 5ghz bands (smart connect off)
- i changed the channels of all bands after using a wifi analyzer (this alone didn’t fix the problem)
It has been a couple of days with no issues and strong/fast wifi signal in my whole 3000 sqft house - Today wifi was unstable for a few minutes. I checked the connection of the extender and it has switched the 5ghz band it is connected to the router. So this seems to be a problem and not sure why this happens. Thought it would select 1 out of the 2 5ghz channels to connect and stay in that channel but doesn’t look like it
Is there a way to fix the 5ghz channel the extender connects to the router and the 5ghz channel it broadcasts? In theory there is a option in the setup to fix the 5ghz channel it broadcasts but it doesn’t really work what quantum gateway are you connected to?
there's several.
The extender functions off the 5ghz the router is using so if the gateway changes 5ghz channels, then the extender needs to as well.
- I will check which one. But wifi on Fios Quantum is turned off and channels are fixed (not on AUTO)
Try disabling one of the R8000 5ghz bands temporarily. See if it stays stable running off 1. And then if that stay stable, swap to disabling the other 5ghz and using it as backhaul. Maybe one of the 5ghz channels is having issues on the router, the extender, or even just interference
- But if i disable one 5ghz band on the router the extender can only connect to the other band right? Wont this compromise speed since one 5ghz band will be used as both backhaul and broadcasting?
You'd be doing it on the router.
It won't compromise the extender and its for checking stability. Again, its for testing to see if there's issues with the routers 5ghz. Which is what could cause the EX8000 to be switching around.
- Radios are working fine. I have now set both R8000 and EX8000 IPs to static. Lets see if that makes a difference
- 3rd day and EX8000 connection to R8000 remains on the second 5ghz channels as it should be. WIFI speeds as high as 550mbps. Hopefully stays that way
- I think i found out what the problem is. Every time i run ookla speed test using my surface pro it knocks down the 5ghz connection for a few seconds and then the extender connects to the wrong 5ghz radio making wifi slower. Go figure but i have been able to replicate this issue every single time i tried
Good for you. It looks like your issue is with ookla. I wish that was my case. For me I have never been able to use my EX8000 as an EXTENDER; I can only use it as an access point. Last time I tried, two months ago, a NETGEAR guru technician was remoting into my PC trying to configure it as a Wi-Fi extender when at the very end he got error message 400. He became frustrated after several attemps and I never heard from him again. After upgrading to the most recent EX8000 firmware this month I have tested speeds of 880 Mbps on a 1G network. However, still getting error 400 when trying to configure the EX8000 as an extender. It is so sad NETGEAR only offers 3 months manufacturer warranty on this device. You must purchase additional warranty which is becoming a huge part of NETGEAR business. Cha-Chin!