Can I connect two Ex-3700 Mesh Extenders to each other?

[jbonham11]

Hello NetGear Family!

I have a Netgear modem and Router - (Nighthawk X4S)

My house is Long and Narrow two story. The router and modem are in the only hot outlet in the house (The front upstairs bedroom) I have an EX3700 Extender in the back master bedroom (also upstairs). 

My TV, living room and gaming system are in the back downstairs. Are you able to connect the mesh extender to another extender to boost connection - this would be greatly beneficial for improving gaming speeds as well as give us a network in the back yard at our bar area. 

If it is not possible, if you can throw out some recommendations. 

Thanks! 

[plemans]

Can you do this? sure.

Should you do this? probably not. 

here's why. A standard extender drops throughput by 50% of what it gets in its location. Reason it does this is it has to send a recieve using the same wireless chip and it can't do both at once. And thats based on the speed it gets in its location (drops with distance/obstruction/interference). And that's the 1st device. Add a 2nd device to the end of that and it takes the speed hit off what its getting. 

So its speed is going to be *at best* 25% of what the router is putting out. Plus it has increased latency due to having 2 hops. 

The tribands extenders help prevent that. Also a full mesh system like the triband orbi's (i wouldn't do the dual band) do well with mitigating this.  they both do it because they have a 2nd 5ghz chip that is reserved just for router---extender/satellite communication. 

I wouldn't do the tri-band extenders if you're needing more than 1 extender. I'd go for the orbi setup. 

options for you? 

1. triband mesh setup. 

2. using a powerline or moca (ethernet over coax) setup and hardwiring in the extender/access point. 

3. run an ethernet wire and hardwire in the extenders. This avoids the speed drop.