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bigmaho's avatar
bigmaho
Follower
Apr 21, 2020

Can I use multiple EX8000 Mesh routers?

So I have a Nighthawk R6400 Router and an EX8000 Mesh Extender. The system has been working well, but It misses one room of my house (I have thick adobe walls that eat RF).  So I called Netgear and asked if I can add a 2nd MESH extender and they said yes.  It arrived today, but for the life of me I can't get it to 'mesh'.  I can hook it to the router but I can't get it to play with the original extender.  The router, by necessity, is at one end of the house.  The Mesh extender is in the middle and I'm trying to install the new extender at the far end (but in easy range of the 1st extender).  The new extender just wants to connect to the router, which it cannot do, it's too far away.  So question, Is it a true mesh system, if so, how do I set it up.  There is no mention of multiple extenders in the on-line manual.  Or do I have to return it and switch to Orbi or Google Nest wifi?

Thanks,

Billy

1 Reply

  • plemans's avatar
    plemans
    Guru - Experienced User
    Apr 21, 2020

    Is it a true mesh in that there's a controlling running the mesh system? no.  It doesn't have anything controlling it. 

    Will it work? Yes. But it might take some fine tuning/playing.

     

    During setup, I'd shut off the other EX8000. to get it setup. 

    they're not designed to daisy chain. And here's why. In a full mesh system, there's something controlling the system and managing devices and make sure the satellites/ap's are connected properly. The mesh extenders are designed to get around this by simply using the same ssid as the router and having the roaming standards built in. But the problem is that when you're running more than 1 extender, they can connect to each other's ssid (the extenders) because nothings controlling them and then they loop.

    It doesn't always happen but if they're in range of each other, its a possibility. Some have it setup running multiple ones and don't have a problem. 

    the way around it? Set one of the extenders with its own unique ssid. the prevents that. 

    the otherway? Do you best to seperate out the extenders and not daisy chain them.

    What I mean is try to set it up this router:

    Extender<-----------Router------------>Extender

     

    Try not to go:

    Router---------->Extender------------>Extender.

    This is a recipe for problems.