Netgear Extender wn3000rp: connected but no access to internet (link rate icon off)

[FranzNicoli]

Good afternoon, 

I recently attempted to reactivate my old wifi extender after having moved in a new apartment. It's a model bought in early 2014 (wn3000rp v1 h2). I reset it to connect to the reuter of the new apartment. Everything goes fine in the online setup. However, internet connection remains unavailable, even if I do the setup just by the reuter. In fact, the link rate icon remains completely grey/off. The user manual is quite detailed in indicating the meaning of the different colors (green, orange, red) but remains silent about the meaning of the icon remaining completely grey. 
I must add that the reuter of this apartment seems extremely old- I therefore wonder whether it's a problem of the reuter itself. 

Any suggestion?

Thanks!!

[plemans]

What router are you connecting it to? 

Firmware on the extender? 

how big is the apartments? 

Extenders by their very nature aren't designed for speed. They have to recieve and then retransmit using the same wireless chip. And they can't do both at once. So their throughput is half of what the router is putting out. Most apartments would do better to have the router centrally located to cover the whole apartment versus adding an extender.