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Forum Discussion
no Repeater mode? RAX49 routers (house-to-house wifi)
I'm a lucky man. Got two houses on a street located 500 feet apart. Been shooting a Wi-Fi beam from house #1 downhill to house #2 for many years now; just bought TWO Nighthawks to "upgrade" my system...
Kasey-K wrote:
.... the Brand-New screaming-fast, powerful Nighthawk has only (2) modes ROUTER ~or~ AP.
Wireless bridge (repeater) mode seems to be vanishing from Netgear's range. Maybe other brands too.
There are plenty of RAX models with repeater mode, including the RAX48 and RAX50, but not the RAX49 .
Instead of buying a router and then disabling most of its features, you could have bought a device designed to do what you want. Netgear has a whole range of repeaters.
WiFi Boosters & Extenders | Wifi Range Extenders | NETGEAR
I REALLY am a lucky man. for: RAX49 (unit #2 is still in shipping carton) and I can simply return it to Best Buy. Are you suggesting that all I need at house #2 is a simple Wifi repeater, (not a router with extra features at all?).
I just now, finished a phone call with a Netgear 24/7 tech assistant, who said it is super easy to enable the 2nd RAX49 to operate as a Bridge device. (he also described "repeater" as an old or obsolete mode).
However, if I would be wasting the fancy features of the second router by running it as a bridge device, then your point is well appreciated and I should start shopping for a suitable device.
Because of "Holiday Madness" the return policy for routers at Best Buy has been extended from 14 days to a two month period. Pretty cool, really.
Let's get something understood, for NG routers, "Bridge" mode is a wireless "bridge" mode that makes the router into a wireless client and makes it connect wirelessly to a host wifi signal thus any ethernet devices can connect to this router and get services. No additional wireless or broadcasts are seen in this "Bridge" mode.
"Repeater" mode, when seen on those models that support it, connects to a host wifi signal then re-broadcasts that signal for other wifi devices to connect too and ethernet devices can connect as well in this mode.
If you don't see Repeater mode under Advanced tab/Router Mode section or mentioned in the user manual, then this model doesn't support this mode.
So do I even need a Router (with repeater mode included as a feature), stationed at house # 2. Or do I simply need a good-quality Wifi extender unit?
it seems like those are my two options:
1) router with repeater mode
~ OR ~
2) a Wifi extender
any comment about the pro's and con's of either move?
Kasey-K wrote:
So do I even need a Router (with repeater mode included as a feature), stationed at house # 2. Or do I simply need a good-quality Wifi extender unit?
That could be down to personal preference and budget.
Are you convinced that you can get a wifi signal to travel between the two buildings? 500 feet is a heck of a stretch for wifi. That is about twice the range I have seen quoted for domestic kit.
It may be that you need something a bit fancier than a consumer grade extender.
