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Netgear nighthawk R7000P router and netgear EX7500 Triband range extender poor combination
Hi all. I installed a range extender last year to carry WiFi signal to my office at the other end of the house. Maybe halfway along a 30m journey. Range extender keeps dropping signal to my Mac even though Mac says it’s connected and the 2.4 and 5 ghz lights are on. This happens once or twice a day. Nighthawk app won’t let me log into range extender but at least it shows it as present now. App shows my Mac as having a wired connection not WiFi. Has ANYONE had any success with stabilizing this combination? Another hour wasted tonight rebooting router once and extender twice before it finally worked. Is the problem the Mac WiFi ???? Or is Netgear wasting my time and money. Would be delighted to hear that there is a supplementary setup step to make the range extender work properly. Thus far it looks like a **bleep**eful system.
mesdad The R7000 isn't the same as the R7000P
they have different hardware and firmware. And there hasn't been the same issues with the R7000P as the R7000.
Telling someone to put the worng firmware on a device can end up bricking it if they even get it to install.
If I was recommending a firmware for the R7000P, it'd be the 1.3.0.20 firmware. It was the version prior to netgear armor and was a solid firmware.
If you choose to go this route, make sure to do it over a hardwired connection and reset the router after words. Followed by a manual install (not from backup)
9 Replies
So the question is if its the extender or router. And its challenging.
You're saying the extender led's are lit up for 2.4ghz and 5ghz. And your mac is showing connected to the extender.
but it doesn't have internet access.
This could be the backhaul. The EX7500 is a triband extender. It reserves 1 of the 5ghz channels just for router---extender communication. If that backhaul isn't working for some reason, the other 2 bands won't work
A couple things it could be.
1. hardware failure on the extender
2. The router. If the router's lease to the extender expired and it isn't auto-renewing, it won't work.
3. Interference. If the 5ghz channel the extender is connecting to from the router has issues, it could be part of the problem.
4. firmware. maybe it has issues with the firmware. Either on the extender or the router. I've seen more issues on that router than on that extender with firmware.
A couple things to try.
1. Try changing which channel the router uses for the 5ghz. You miight need to rerun setup on the extender in some instances.
2. Try setting a static ip address in the router for the extender.
3. Try reloading the firmware on the extender.
4. Try a different firmware on the router. The R7000P got the netgear armor update. And it didn't always play nicely with all routers. Some have downgraded to the version prior to armor. Some have simply factory reset the r7000p and its ran better/been more stable
Again, its a bit more challenging when it comes to router---extender communcation because many things can cause issues. 1 step I usually have people take is try hardwiring in the extender and using it for a bit. But the EX7500 doesn't have an ethernet port to do so.
What firmware is on the router?
What firmware is on the extender?
Hi plemans,
Thanks for your thoughtful reply.
I've done a factory reset on the router, and have been monitoring the router and the extender for the last couple of weeks.
I an now pretty sure that the router is dropping out of its own accord. spmetimes twice per day.
Zoom sessions seem to invite trouble but that is by no means the only time it drops out.
The TV is hard wired so it is not guilty.
I'm using the Smart Connect setting and QoS option on the router. But there is no setting called stable connect. And there is no Quality of Service.
I've tried a few other things which do not seem to have helped. Another 2 hours today with no result.
I've decided to use a hammer on this modem and purchase another - maybe a mesh system, or maybe another router to match the range extender.
The problem is, I would probably have to choose another Netgear router to go with the Netgear range extender - and I'm a bit gun-shy about that.
Again, thanks for your assistance.
I bought an EX7500 about 3 weeks ago and was experiencing exactly the same issue with the same combination of hardware (well, I had the R7000, minus the "P").
Search the Netgear forum for "R7000 drops signal" or "R7000 drops 5G" or similar phrases. You *should* find multiple posts discussing this, and the frequent suggestion is to roll back the firmware to 1.0.9.42. This is 2-year-old firmware, so you might be inviting a security risk, but many posters remarked that problems like what you describe started with the firmware versions that followed this one. And even before I added the extender, there were other clues in our house about this as well - we would often get prompted to supply a password for a wifi signal that we had used many times before, or the signal would just go away temporarily. Our problems were worse with 5.0GHz than with 2.4GHz.
I never got to fully test this on my end (I was just working on this last night) because I remembered that I had an unused R7800 and replaced the R7000 with that. I haven't lost my extender signal yet, but it's only been 12 hours. If I get through another day or two, I will conclude that the problem all along was the router and not the extender.