Is my EX7700 working?

[MoMo43]

All the lights are OK on the EX7700.

When my phone is right by my router I get a single strength of 'Excellent'

When my phone is in the room where I want to position the EX7700 my phone has a signal strength of 'Good'.

When I turn on the EX7700 in the desired location and my phone is right by it, I still get a signal strength of 'Good'.

So the EX7700 is not making any difference to the signal strength and in my book is not working.

Are there any other explanations?

[plemans]

If you set it up as a mesh extender, then your phones own roaming protocol tells it when to switch from the router to the extender. 

Sometimes, a "good" connection is better to stay connected to then an "excellent" one because even though its a bit weaker, it'll have less latency. 

Mesh extenders work great when your trying to cover an area that doesn't have a "good/excellent" signal. Or when you're trying to eliminate dead spots caused by obstructions. 

[MoMo43]

Many thanks for the quick response.

But to get back to my question, when I have an extender which I suspect is defective what steps should I go through to prove it one way or another.

I take your point that the signal strength recorded by my mobile may not be the best diagnostoc tool, but what is the alternative?

[plemans]

you have options. 

1. hardwire a pc/laptop into it. If its working via ethernet, its backhaul works. 

2. disable smart connect. Then you can set a seperates ssid for the 2.4ghz/5ghz. then you can test it that. 

If both those work, the extender is working as expected. 

If you want to talk to support. click on "mynetgear" at the top. register an account and the device. From there, you can talk to support. Keep in mind that if you're out of your 90 window of free support, it does cost $.