Orbi as extender?

[richards10]

I have a modem/router provided by my ISP. I bought the orbi in order to provide coverage to parts of my house that have poor Wi-Fi. I'm not sure how to set the orbi up to work in this manner. I hope that I haven't purchased the orbi, which will only function as a router but not also as an extender.

How do I set up the orbi so do that connects to the existing router and can be placed in a different part of my home to add WI fi coverage?

[FURRYe38]

Please post this here in the main Orbi forum:

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/bd-p/Orbi

This forum is for the cable Orbi system

[randomousity]

You can't use the Orbi to extend an existing network. It's not a repeater. You could put your modem/router in bridge mode (modem only, disabling the router functions, which will also disable the wifi on the mode/router) and then use the Orbi as the router, and then the Orbi satellite would extend the range of the wifi network.

Alternatively, you could keep your modem/router as-is, and then put the Orbi in AP (access point) mode. This way, your existing modem/router would handle the routing functions, and the Orbi would only be for wifi access, and the Orbi satellite would extend the range of the wifi network. But you would probably want to disable the wifi on the modem/router. If you leave the modem/router's wifi on, and use the Orbi for wifi, they will not hand off easily even if you give them the same SSID name, and if you give them different names, your devices will have to connect to one or the other, and you'll lose some of the benefit of the wifi mesh setup. You will end up with two separate wifi networks that happen to have the same name.

Either way, you need to use the Orbi router (whether in router or AP mode), and one or more Orbi satellites to extend the range of the setup. You cannot extend a wifi network from a non-Orbi router with an Orbi unit (router or satellite). You will also need a wired connection between the Orbi router and the modem/router. The Orbi satellite(s) can connect to the Orbi router either over ethernet or wirelessly.

[michaelkenward]

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@randomousity wrote:

You can't use the Orbi to extend an existing network.

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That's not strictly true, as the rest of your message says. Perhaps you mean that you can't do it as a wifi repeater. But that isn't what @richards10 asked about.

You have explained how to do it:

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@randomousity wrote:

Alternatively, you could keep your modem/router as-is, and then put the Orbi in AP (access point) mode. This way, your existing modem/router would handle the routing functions, and the Orbi would only be for wifi access, and the Orbi satellite would extend the range of the wifi network.

The Orbi works fine in this configuration. That's how I do it. Mine is on the end of a Powerline network from an R7800.

I'm not sure about the bit "the Orbi would only be for wifi access". The LAN ports might work too. They do when other routers are in AP mode, but I haven't tried it with the Orbi.