Best way to connect an X10 R9000 and an AX8 RAX80 in router/access point configuration?

Jon,

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volvofan wrote:

QUESTION 1 - I have not done link aggregation before.  Is it as simple as it seems?  Find the right settings in both the AX8 and the X10, and simply use two lan cables to join the respective pairs of ports together?

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Set teh same aggregation or LAG mode on both sides - static LAG, or dynamic LACP. Now you cna connect both (resp. the second) link. If the network does rendered useless (due to a network loop), disconnect on link and do troubleshooting.

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volvofan wrote:

QUESTION 2 - A Netgear Support article (disabled features on the router when set to AP mode) indicates that, when the AX8 is set up in AP mode, items like guest network, parental controls, and such are not available.  Does that mean that they cannot be configured SEPARATELY, or that they are still available but are controlled by the X10 to which the AP is connected?  

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Guest network is misleading, it's not a network - this is just a L2 filter trick on the wireless network. Any consumer router Guest network is limited to the wireless of that singe router in router mode.

Parental control - I wonder what you are using today on the R9000, considering there is nothing that really works or can be fully managed anymore....

Multiple routers are never a good advise for extending networks.

Similar, consumer routers rarely make good wireless access points.

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volvofan wrote:

QUESTION 3 - Somewhat related to Q2... am I "hamstringing" the capabilities of the newer wi-fi router (i.e. Wifi 6) by having it serve as an AP for the older one?  I could swap the two, but I'm concerned about what would happen if the Plex server was part of the AP instead of part of the router.  Maybe it wouldn't matter... but it would primarily be streaming to the XBoxes (which I would leave connected to whichever one served as the router, regardless).  

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If you use Plex Internet access, it must remain the router with one leg on the Internet side of things. Otherwise, it does not really matter (I think - lack of R9000 in AP mode experience).