NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Solved
Extending the network in my house.
Hello,
I want to extend our network in the house (5000 sq ft two story) and would like some guideance. I have looked on youtube etc. and found a few videos on extending WPS.
So the equipment: R8500, R8000, & R7000.
I have an R8500 stationed in an office at the front part of the house. The R8500 is connected to a Time Warner modem (the modem is set to bridge mode). I have an R8000 that I want to station upstairs in the gameroom - no ethernet wall port available. I have a R7000 I want to setup in a home theater and an ethernet port is available at that location.
It is important to maintain security through the devices.
Thanks in advance for the info.
fastroads wrote:Thanks for the link. It really helped out with settings ext. on both R7000 & R8000. So not to change too many directions here: To extend wireless coverage in the house with the help of the R8000; knowing I do not have a ethernet connection at the location where the R8000 would be sitting and I would like to have the XBox and PS4 connected to the R8000 in some way either wireless or wired. What would be the best setup: AP Mode, Repeater?
AP Mode requires a wired connection back to the router, so repeater is your own choice. You should wire the XBox and PS4 to the R8000 in order to reduce the load on Wi-Fi.
Not sure this is a viable option for me as crawl space is limited between floors.
If I were to run a cat5/6 line to the location of the R8000; this line would have to connect to the main router via a switch or an OnQ panel.
A wired connection back to the router is ideal. If you end up doing this, then switch from repeater mode to AP Mode.
17 Replies
The hometheater is the easy one. Use the Ethernet connection and set up a router as an Access Point. There is an AP Mode setting under ADVANCED > Advanced Setup > Wireless AP that you can turn on, though if your Internet service is 400 Mbps or faster, then there is a different, better way to set it up. The AP Mode setting is far easier.
The gameroom is more difficult. Netgear routers with stock firmware are terrible as range extenders because they do not support wireless security. Fortunately for you, the R7000 and the R8000 both support 3rd party firmware which have good support. You have to be willing take the risk of installing and learning how to use 3rd party firmware. There is a low, but non-zero, risk of bricking your router if done improperly but the results can be gratifying.
If you only have wired clients in the gameroom, then another option is to use the R7000 as a wireless bridge (think of it as a Wi-Fi adapter for one or more Ethernet devices). You can read about it on page 138 in the manual. If you go this route, then the R8000 would go into the hometheater.
OTOH, if you need Wi-Fi in the gameroom but you are not interested in using 3rd party firmware to convert one of your routers to a range extender, then you'll need to buy a real range extender.
Alrighty then! Nothing is every easy.:smileyfrustrated: I had watched a few videos and this is one - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2wN4wJ2uMw
So extending the WDS is a forgone thing. Flashing the routers to a new firmware doesn't bother me since the R8000 & the R7000 are out of warranty. It certainly can't be harder than reflashing a motherboard from let's say Dell to EVGA.
Where can I find the firmware? I you have any more idea's please post.
Thank's again!
Netgear's implementation of WDS on their routers is very poor. Forgoing it is the correct choice.
I use Asuswrt-Merlin on my R7000. I am very happy with it. You will have to search the forums on dd-wrt.com for the recommended version. Tomato, AdvancedTomato and OpenWRT. You should be able to find R8000 images for some of them.
- Did you mean "media bridge" mode? If so, it's equivalent to Netgear's wireless bridge mode. When enabled, the R7000 supports only wired clients. Wi-Fi is exclusively used to connect back to the main router.
Yes Media Bridge Mode. I like this setup because of the security options not available in AP mode.
I flashed the R8000 to DD-WRT. So far everything works. What a different user interface!
- What security options are not available in AP mode?
AP mode requires a wired connection back to the router. Unless you can do that, AP mode is not what you want to use.
The choice should be between repeater mode and media bridge mode. The main difference is that the former mode supports both wired and wireless clients, albeit at some cost to speed because Wi-Fi needs to split its duties between servicing clients and communicating with the router.Maybe I miss read. I thought I had read that in AP Mode security options were disabled. The Media Bridge Mode seems to work pretty well. My ROKU and Blueray player connnected easy. Seems to be faster; we will see.
As for the R8000, the DD-WRT firmware is consideralby different. I didn't have time to play in the options last night. So over the next few days I will try and set this up as well.
I really want it to be another bridge for the gameroom. Not sure if this is an option with the DD-WRT firmware or if the Tomato by Shibby is the better way to go.
Where did you read that security options are disabled in AP Mode? It would be highly unlikely for this to be true.
Anyway, it all boils down to whether you want the R7000 to handle wireless devices in addition to your Roku and Blu-ray player. If the answer is yes, then use AP Mode. Otherwise, stick with media bridge mode.
DD-WRT is the Swiss Army knife of 3rd party firmware. It can definitely be set up in bridge mode, but it's not as straightforward. Tomato or Shibby will likely be much easier to set up.
