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Forum Discussion

NickMunz's avatar
Feb 12, 2018

Wifi Extender connectivity issues

I recently purchased an AC1200 Range Extender to play some online xbox one games with. Due to my main router being in the other room and the lagginess I suffered using just the original connection, I figured this would be the best and most efficient way to lose the lag and still have good connectivity (without running cables through the house). I've come to notice that in extender mode, even if I hook up the ethernet cord directly to my xbox, I lose connection on multiplayer games almost all the time. Does this mean I set up my extender wrong? I don't lag so the internet speed is great, but I do disconnect about every 10-20 minutes. I'm curious if this means I should set the extender up into access point mode or if it's just faulty and should be returned for a new one? I've contacted the game creators and microsoft and all their troubleshooting hasn't fixed the issue so I narrowed it down to be an issue of the extender's connectivity. Any help would be appreciated, thanks. 

 

TLDR; Extender drops connection while gaming on Xbox in extender mode, how can I fix it? 

7 Replies

  • DexterJB's avatar
    DexterJB
    NETGEAR Moderator

    Hi NickMunz,

     

    1. What is the firmware version of the extender?

    2. Please indicate the troubleshooting that you have done as advised by the game developers and Microsoft (i.e.port forwarding on the main router, etc.)?

    3. Does the connection drop on specific games only or on all games?

    4. Does the issue persist if you have the XBOX connected directly to the main router via Ethernet (this is to isolate whether it is a game connection issue or the connectivity issue between your devices)?

    5. What speed are you getting when connected to the extender (including ping)?

    6. What speed are you getting when connected to the router (including ping)?

     

    Regards,

     

    Dexter

    Community Team

    • NickMunz's avatar
      NickMunz
      Tutor

      1. The firmware of the device is completely up to date with whatever the newest one is 

      2. I've done looking glass tests which came back fine, resetting the extender to factory settings, clearing my saved game data on my entire xbox, power cycling the router and the xbox, as well as some other data clearing things.

      3. It drops pretty much everywhere, at first I thought it was just one specific game but I realized it would drop on my computer and other games would lag a little when it happens. Most noticeable for multiplayer games as it will kick me out of the game.

      4. The main router is in my roommates room but when using my regular wifi (sans the extender) I never drop connection. 

      5/6. Not exactly sure how to check these but microsoft said my router speed was fine

    • DexterJB's avatar
      DexterJB
      NETGEAR Moderator

      Hi NickMunz,

       

      1. When connected to the extender, does the Internet connection also drop when browsing or streaming?

      2. You can also try changing the wireless channel of the main router to a less congested one and check if there are improvements.

       

      Regards,

       

      Dexter

      Community Team

      • Stevegd50's avatar
        Stevegd50
        Aspirant

        I bought the EX6120 Extender last week to give Ubuntu an ethernet connection (5G wifi is such a problem in Linux for a newbie!). I connected to the 5G WLAN and got speeds up to 100Mbs. Then the signal started dropping and auto-reconnecting. I thought it must be my set up actions, so I reset the extender and tried again with the same results.

        The signal was strong, especially as the router was only 10 feet away (I didn't want to trail a cable acroos the room). I have used an Android Wifi analyser to see that the channels weren't crowded, and 2G wifi has not dropped connections either. So I figured it was something other than hardware.

        I have set up our other devices with a static WLAN address Manually, rather than Automatically. So I set the local address of the 5GEXT in the extender manually so as to be static.

        Since then the extender-ethernet connection has not dropped once.

        Give it a try. It can be set manually in WIN 10 as well.

        How to do this? Google it, there are plenty of vids/descriptions!

        Happy searching

  • I hope you have solved your problem by now, but here is another possibility that I came across. On my Android phone I have an app called Wifi Analyser, and I noticed that even standing just a few feet  away from the router that every now and then the 5G signal from the router would drop and then return automatically. So that would explain why the extender would fail also.

    Since then we have had a new and better router and the problem has not arisen in 6 days full time. Hope this helps!