Setting up two Netgear routers master-slave

[Warthog1001]

Good afternoon - I have a DGND3700 v2 hooked up to my BT socket as master and a Nighthawk X47500 connected (by Cat 5 cable) as slave. The system works after a fashion but range is still disappointing (big house hence this setup, previously had the 3700 on its own) and I have to manaully switch wifi devices from one router to the other as I move around the house  - maybe wrong but I hoped that the master-slave setup would show up just as the master.. 

Have seen various setup guides on this forum and elsewhere but there seems to be a few discrepancies in detail so I would really appreciate an up-to-date "from-scratch" setup guide specific to these devices!

regards

Doug

[DarrenM]

Hello Warthog1001

You should be able to set both Netgear devices to Access point mode and keep the same SSID across the house. Here is a Link on how to do this.

http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/24104

DarrenM

[Warthog1001]

Thanks Darren - I have followed the procedure as written, I now have both the DGND3700 and the R7500 both putting out wifi with the R7500 in AP mode. SSIDs for both devices are still visible and I still have to swap from one SSID (netgear 18 for the 7500) to the other (netgear 71 for the 3700) when I move from one end of the house to another since neither is strong throughout the house.

Your note suggests that both devices should be in AP mode but the procedure only mentions putting the slave machine (7500 in this case) into AP mode. Interestingly, when logged into the 3700 I can't see an option to put it into AP mode. For the 7500 this option is under Advanced-Wireless Settings-Wireless AP but on the 3700 there is no Wireless AP option under Advanced-Wireless Settings. There is, however a "wireless repeating function" menu item - perhaps I should be tinkering with that instead?

The procedure suggests disabling Wifi radio on the master machine to avoid interference - tried that, but all I could see is the 7500 signals on SSID netgear 18 which still fizzle out at one end of the house..

Have also tried turning off 2.5 GHz signals on one device and 5 GHz on the other, no improvement vs leaving both working on both. 

I am a bit disappointed because I have these two devices at each end end of the ground floor c. 18m apart, have "good" wifi signal only in the same rooms, poor but workable signal in the mid-part of ground floor and poor-to-no signal upstairs. Thick walls I guess, but any inspiration to improve signal strength gratefully received

regards

Doug

[TheEther]

AP mode for the DGND3700 should be under Advanced Setup > Wireless Settings.  But enable it only if your BT socket is functioning as a router. If your DGND3700 is the router, then leave AP mode off.  

Make sure the DGND3700 and R7500 are using different Wi-Fi channels for both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands.  You may have to experiment with placement of the DGND3700 and R7500 for best Wi-Fi coverage throughout your house.  If you have a two story house, then try putting the R7500 upstairs.  Ideally, it should be connected back to the main router via Ethernet.  If your house isn't wired for Ethernet, then look into setting up a Powerline network.

Don't bother with the wireless repeating function on the DGND3700.  It's crippled because neither WPA nor WPA2 security can be used.  If you really want to use wireless repeating, then invest in a wireless range extender.  The potential downside with range extenders is that Wi-Fi speeds suffer a minimum 50% drop due to the need to repeat everything.  Newer extenders that use FastLane technology don't suffer this penalty, but they use one band for clients and the other band for connecting back to the main Wi-Fi network, so they only have one Wi-Fi network.