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Forum Discussion
X6 8000 and EX7000 ac1900 extenders stability issues and temperamental
HI all! I have nightmares about my network... i feel like Alice, trapped, help hostage by my devices... I am trying to cover a mid-sized home with my network which has grown over the years. It s...
gingerangles wrote:
I have 2 wifi ssids on the router... one just if i want wifi access to the router direct and a guest network. no specific radio settings. On the extenders i have the same ssid name to create an expanded network... each extender is setup as an access point and has a static IP. Both extenders have 2.4 & 5 GHz turned on but have been given different radio channels to avoid interferrence.
You seem to have created a bit of a "wifi spaghetti".
I fear that you may be confusing things with the idea that you can use "the same ssid name to create an expanded network".
The only way to create a single, seamless wifi network is to use a Mesh system. (That's the whole idea of Mesh technology.) This relies on communication and cooperation between the individual wifi sources to create the single network that seems to be your ambition.
Using the same SSID on multiple devices is a recipe for problems. As you move around the place, the wifi clients still have to negotiate a fresh link with the nearest wifi source. If everything has the same SSID, wifi clients can get confused. Using different SSIDs shouldn't cause connection problems, after all the clients still have to negotiate a fresh connection. Connecting to different SSIDs could even be quicker.
That might also make it easier to add IoT toys to the network. Most IoT stuff works on 2.4 GHz. The problem there is that the routines that their makers create for connecting will throw a wobbly if you are using a device connected to 5GHz. Temporarily disabling 5 GHz can help.
BT Openreach modem
Which BT modem is that? The last tome I looked, BT supplied only modem/router boxes and that do not allow users to put them into modem only (bridge) mode. So you must have dome something else to get the R8000 (the correct model number) to play nicely with BT's box. If not your are likely end up in double NAT territory:
What is Double NAT? | Answer | NETGEAR Support
and
How to fix issues with Double NAT | Answer | NETGEAR Support
- Hi... many thanks for the detailed reply!
I have one of the old HG612 BT modems that I've installed new firmware on to allow it to work with the router. Quite a common hack I believe.
So you would recommend I simply have a different SSID on all 3 wifi devices then and give up with the single?
As long as devices will 'let go' of the one they are connected to in favour of a better signal I suppose that would be fine.
The only thing is the IoT devices... at the moment I set those up all to access the same SSID... not sure how they'll like being connected to different WiFi.
I had just assumed this is how things are done... I've been responsible for (although by no means knowledgeable) IT in my last couple of jobs and both places have various access points all kicking out the same SSID? FUrthermore... will having several ssid's with various devices connected to each not cause issues managing them... smart plugs for instance maybe connected to different networks and the device i'm accessing them on connected to another different one?
gingerangles wrote:
FUrthermore... will having several ssid's with various devices connected to each not cause issues managing them... smart plugs for instance maybe connected to different networks and the device i'm accessing them on connected to another different one?
See above:
Using the same SSID on multiple devices is a recipe for problems. As you move around the place, the wifi clients still have to negotiate a fresh link with the nearest wifi source. If everything has the same SSID, wifi clients can get confused. Using different SSIDs shouldn't cause connection problems, after all the clients still have to negotiate a fresh connection. Connecting to different SSIDs could even be quicker.
The best way to find out is to try it.