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Antenna scheduling on WiFi extenders

Denno
Aspirant

Antenna scheduling on WiFi extenders

Hi, 

 

I'm have a netgear router but I need a range extender. 

Now, I'm very interested in the wall AC plugin wifi extenders, but I feel I'm missing a feature. 

 

In my router I've setup the Wifi antenna to shut down between 1 am and 7 am. Call me silly, but I feel I don't need Wifi during the night. We're bombarded on a daily basis on a staggering increasing rate with all kinds of signals. Can't be totally harmless. So let me have my peace (of mind?) while I switch the signals that I can controll off during the night. Smiley Embarassed

In any case, I can't find this feature in any of the wifi extenders. There is an access schedule, but that doesn't switch off the antenna, does it? Could anyone advise me how I can extend my WiFi signal, but use a time table to switch off the wifi antenna during the night? 
Of course I can use a time clock socket, but thats a bit blunt? Don't think the device likes getting shut off suddenly like that every day either. 

 

Does anyone have any advice regarding this? Should I use another router and set it up as a Wifi extender? Would that be the only way?

 

Thanks! 

 

Message 1 of 8

Accepted Solutions
nhann
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Betreff: Antenna scheduling on WiFi extenders

Hi Denno,

 

Yes, please see the following screenshot (in this example is the NETGEAR R6400 router):

Capture.PNG

 

For more on wireless scheduling:

http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/24102/~/how-do-i-set-up-the-wireless-schedule-on-my-ni...

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Message 7 of 8

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TheEther
Guru

Re: Antenna scheduling on WiFi extenders

 

Using the Wi-Fi scanner in my smartphone app, I measured the signal strength of my R7000 router from about 2 feet to be -26 dBm. That's a little over 2.5 µW (microwatts) or 0.0000025 watts. Compare that to a 1000 watt microwave oven (60 dBm), which is approximately 400,000,000 times more powerful. At about 10 feet away, the R7000 signal strength drops to -46 dBm or 25 nW (nanowatt) or 0.000000025 watts or 1/100th of the power at 2 ft. A cell phone radiates between 1 watt to 2 watts, thousands of times more powerful than Wi-Fi.

 

The upshot? Wi-Fi signals are insignificant. Unless you are living in the middle of nowhere, you are already being bombarded by your neighbor's Wi-Fi signals. One or two more aren't going to make a difference.  Smiley Very Happy

 

Anyway, to address your question, if there is going to anything that would switch off the radio automatically, it would be the access schedule. Unfortunately, I don't own an extender so I can't tell if the radios can be disabled by the access schedule. I do suspect they would be disabled. Hopefully, somebody can confirm.

Message 2 of 8
nhann
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: Antenna scheduling on WiFi extenders

Hi Denno,

 

As mentioned by TheEther, there is a setting called Access Schedule. However, this will not disable the WiFi radios. It will only disable internet access.

You can still access the mywifiext.net page even during these scheduled times.
There are no settings that will automatically shut off the antenna as you'd like.

Capture.PNG

Message 3 of 8
Denno
Aspirant

Re: Antenna scheduling on WiFi extenders

Ok thanks.
And would it be possie if I setup a netgear router in another place in my home as a wireless AP?
Will this AP then also function as an ethernet switch by the way?
Message 4 of 8
TheEther
Guru

Re: Antenna scheduling on WiFi extenders

Wireless AP is known as repeater mode on Netgear routers. Repeater mode is crippled on Netgear routers. There's no support for Wi-Fi security like WPA2, so I would not recommend using a Netgear router as a wireless AP.

 

On the other hand, you can use a Netgear router as a wired AP. That is, a second Netgear router can function as an AP so long as it's connected to the main router via Ethernet. It will also function as a switch.

 

Some Netgear routers also support what they call bridge mode. A router in bridge mode connects to the main router via Wi-Fi but any clients must be attached via Ethernet.

Message 5 of 8
Denno
Aspirant

Betreff: Antenna scheduling on WiFi extenders

Ok, sounds good. I have a decent ethernet network in my home, so the wired AP option would be doable.
Can I also put the radio on a schedule in this mode?
Message 6 of 8
nhann
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Betreff: Antenna scheduling on WiFi extenders

Hi Denno,

 

Yes, please see the following screenshot (in this example is the NETGEAR R6400 router):

Capture.PNG

 

For more on wireless scheduling:

http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/24102/~/how-do-i-set-up-the-wireless-schedule-on-my-ni...

Message 7 of 8
Denno
Aspirant

Betreff: Antenna scheduling on WiFi extenders

Perfect. Thanks all!
Message 8 of 8
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