Bridging Nighthawk R6900 to Netgear D6400

[NWmac]

My main router/modem is the D6400 due to having CenturyLink/AT&T service.  I bought the Nighhawk to bridge in order to provide better service to a guest house in my yard.  Can I bridge the 2? And if so, how?  I cannot find “bridge” in advanced settings of the D6400.  

Although I am capable with tech, networking is not my forte.

any help is greatly apreciated.

[TheEther]

"Bridge" is an overloaded term in networking. Can you describe what you are trying to do?

[NWmac]

I have the D6400 in the only room in my house that has a cable connection.  The guest house in my yard is using wi-fi only and I am hoping to put the Nighthawk R6900 in there to improve wifi and hopefully be a wired ethernet connection for Moms PC.  The guest house has no internet or phone connections in it. (Poor planning, yes I know). 

I tried a powerline set up which did not work at all.  And have been told that extenders will not do what I want.   If I should return the Nighthawk and spend the $$ on stringing cable across to the guest house I will but am really trying to avoid that.  

A co-worker recommended the nighthawk and he either misunderstood my setup or I misunderstood him... likely the latter... he talks way over my head.

thank you for any suggestions you may have.

[TheEther]

It sounds like you were hoping to connect the Nighthawk wirelessly to the D7000. That is sometimes known as a wireless bridge. The Nighthawk isn't really suitable for that purpose.

Running Ethernet is going to be the most reliable and highest performing solution, but doing it safely outdoors across a yard presents additional challenges. You have to contend with environmental factors and possibly grounding concerns. Putting the cable inside conduit is best, but direct burial Ethernet cable is also available.

If Ethernet is not practical then the next best thing is to run a point to point Wi-Fi bridge and then connect an Access Point to the guest house side of the bridge. Netgear doesn't make point to point bridges. You'll have to look elsewhere.

If the guest house isn't too far from the main house, another possibility might be a range extender with a dedicated Wi-Fi link to the main house. Netgear's EX8000 has such a capability. I've never tried it, so I can't really say how well it will work. The disadvantage with this approach is that you are relying on the non-directional Wi-Fi antennas on both the D7000 and EX8000 to cross the yard with sufficient strength. They may simply not work as well as a point to point Wi-Fi setup with highly directional antennas.

[michaelkenward]

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NWmac wrote:

I tried a powerline set up which did not work at all. 

Is the guest house on a separate mains circuit?

I run Powerline Ethernet between two buildings. It feeds an access point, albeit not at full speed.

[NWmac]

The guest house electrical runs from my main breaker box.  I don't know if it has to do with my house having aluminum siding or what, but I could not get the 2 powerline adapters to pair, and therefore no connectivity.

[michaelkenward]

The nature of the building material won't influence powerline it it will wreck plans to use wifi.

I have powerline running through the same sort of layout that you describe.

If you still have the plugs, one thing to try would be to set them up in the same room, where you know that they are on the same local power loop. If you can get them working there, you can then move the "guest" plug around and see if it will work somewhere else on  the circuit. The plugs will remember their settings regardless of which socket they are plugged into.