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Re: Help with Extender/Router setup

jpcjguy
Guide

Help with Extender/Router setup

Hi Everyone,

So I have the current setup in my house.  I use Comcast(Xfinity) as my provider and have a Motorola cable modem.  The modem connects to a Netgear AC1750 Smart Wifi Router Model R6400v2 located on the first floor behind the TV.  From there I have 2 Netgear AC1900 Wifi Range Extender Model Ex7000.  One of the extenders is in a detached garage that is 250ft from the house.  It is hard wired to the main router using fiber underground and using the following converters on both ends: Gigabit Ethernet Multi-Mode LC Fiber Media Converter - link here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0716XT1QT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1  The goal for this unit was to be able to seamlessly transition from the house to the garage for internet and alo for the TV and laptop located in the garage to access internet.  
The other extender is upstairs and is hardwired with ethernet cable. This was used to give my wife a hardwired connection in our home office when she was teaching from home and we did not want to rely on wifi when she was on a zoom with 20+ kids all day.  I also had our Sonos Bridge hardwired to that upstairs extender.  

Everything was (or so I thought) working fine and we lost power for 12 hours.  I used a generator until we got it back and everything appeared ok at first - meaning TCL TV and Windows laptops connected fine.  Then the kids said the XBox could not connect and neither could their school Ipads. I tried rebooting everything a bunch of times and nothing.  Then I unplugged the detached garage cable from the router and everything appeared to work. Then I realized I could not see the upstairs extender in the router admin of attached devices.  Wierd. After a bunch of fiddling the upstairs extender is now showing in the router "attached devices"  but what is strange is the IP address of the extender is outside the range I setup on the router(192.168.0.2 - 192.168.0.100). In fact the IP is 169.254.0.153 - what the?!?! How is that possible?
I have attached a pic of my router setup.  Since there is 1 attachment allowed per post I will add 2 more of my attached devices as shown on the router and then attached devices of the garage extender (set up as access point)

Can someone help explain what is going on and if I set this up incorrectly?  Thanks!
Joe

Message 1 of 9
jpcjguy
Guide

Re: Help with Extender/Router setup

Attached Devices pic

Message 2 of 9
jpcjguy
Guide

Re: Help with Extender/Router setup

Garage Extender attached devices.

Message 3 of 9
plemans
Guru

Re: Help with Extender/Router setup

it could be the router lost its config  because the extender isn't the only one outside of the 0.1-0.100 range. 

Is there a reason you set a more narrow range? 

It could be the storm corrupted something (not the first time I've seen that). 

Or it could be the generator was a non-sine wave device and caused issues. 

You might try factory resetting the router and re-doing its setup in case something was corrupt. 

Message 4 of 9
jpcjguy
Guide

Re: Help with Extender/Router setup

Plemans,

 

Great point!  I did not even realize the others were also out of range - duh!  I was so focused on the one.  My generator is a classic older 8000W running one - not a sine wave one - it powers majority of the house (not HVAC and electric water heater).  

As for the range, I figured 100 was plenty.  We have around around 20 devices and when people are over and want to use the wifi - I figured that range was enough...

I will try a factory reset.  The main router is on a surge protector:  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000AI0NC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 

Message 5 of 9
plemans
Guru

Re: Help with Extender/Router setup

Let me know how it goes after the reset/reinstall. 

Message 6 of 9
jpcjguy
Guide

Re: Help with Extender/Router setup

Plemans,

 

I did a factory refresh on the router and the extender in the garage. I set the extender up as an access point since it is "hardwired" to the router through a fiber cable underground.  I believe that is better than setting it up as a wifi extender.

 

Everything looks ok. To make sure I understand this correctly - when I am in the house, my laptop connects to the router and displayed as a wireless connection in "attached devices".  However, when I take my laptop in the detached garage (and my phone), they should connect to the access point out there since it is a stronger signal.  BUT when I am logged into the ROUTER, and look at "attached devices", both the laptop and the phone are showing as "wired" connection, even though they are clearly not.  I assume that is because the laptop and the phone, even though wirelessly connected to the access point, "appear" to the router as wired - since their traffic is coming through the fiber cable to the router.  I have that correct?

I have not messed with the other extender yet.  I moved my Sonos Boost to a hardwired connection on the router, so technically I don't need this extender anymore.  Correction - I have an old HP Laserjet 4P printer (circa 1994) that I love that does not have wifi so I have a parallel port print server (StarTech.com PM1115P2) connected to the printer.  This was connected to the extender upstairs along with the Sonos.  But now I run the ethernet cable right to the printer adapter and bypass the extender. 

Message 7 of 9
plemans
Guru

Re: Help with Extender/Router setup

You're correct in that if a device is wirelessly connected to the Access Point, it'll show in the primary router as wired. The primary router is only going to display those devices that are connected to it over wireless as a wireless connected device. If you logged into the extender (in ap mode), it'd show the devices are connected wireless. Not a big deal. 

 

Sounds like you got it working well from what I can tell 🙂

Message 8 of 9
jpcjguy
Guide

Re: Help with Extender/Router setup

Thanks for the confirmation.  It appears that everything is in order at the moment.  Thanks!

Message 9 of 9
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