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EAX80 - can you connect a second EAX80 extender ?

mattinson
Aspirant

EAX80 - can you connect a second EAX80 extender ?

hi,

 

i have an EX80 extender which works fine downstairs but doesnt quite get to the top of the house.  We have a 500g internet connection and can get around 150mb wireless speeds through the 1 extender in its current position.   Is it possible to daisy chain another EX80 off the existing extender to expand the coverage ?  

 

thanks in advance. 

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plemans
Guru

Re: EAX80 - can you connect a second EAX80 extender ?

Can you? Sure. 

should you? probably not. 

For more than 1 reason. 

1. usually if people are needing more than 1 extender (especially if daisy chaining) I highly recommend moving to an actual mesh system that has a router controlling the system. Not a system based off extenders where nothing is controlling it. Tends to be much more stable

2. single/dual band extenders drop throughput 50% of what they receive for each hop in the chain. This happens because they have to use the same chip to go router---->extender  and then extender--->devices. And thats based off the speed it recieves. So if you're router has 500mbps service but because of distance/interference, the extender is only getting say 350mbps. If thats what the extender picks up, then the max output it'll have is 175mbps. Add another hope and you take a speed hit from distance/interference plus that 50% speed hit. So if the 2nd leg in the chain is picking up 130mbps of the 175 the first extender is sending out, then its only outputting 65mbps. So when you start from a 500mbps, you're speeds drop off quickly when you daisy chain. Plus you have a increased latency because of it. Versus a triband mesh system has a dedicated backhaul that tolerates the daisy chain better (still only 2 hops recommended).

3. with nothing controlling the system, I've seen extenders connecting to each other and not back to the main router. This can happen if they're to close to each other. Or if the router signal isn't great/stable. Because if the routers signal drops, then the extenders pickup each others signal. Again, the reason I recommend an actual mesh system if you're needing more than 1 device. 

4. If you HAVE to do it, I'd highly recommend moving the router to a central location (middle floor) and use the extenders on the top/bottom floors. 

 

so can it work? sure. 

You might have to do a littlel playing around. And if you do have to daisy chain and don't have the most stable router, you might not want to use the mesh feature so you can force the extenders to stay connected to a specific router/extender. 

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