× Introducing the Orbi 970 Series Mesh System with WiFi 7 technology. For more information visit the NETGEAR Press Room.
Orbi WiFi 7 RBE973
Reply

Nighthawk range extender ac2200 ex7500

Den03
Aspirant

Nighthawk range extender ac2200 ex7500

I would not recommend this product. It doesn't work as stated. I have mine right above my router on the upper floor and it doesn't work. I even purchased a new router and the same issue. I get almost better internet without it. Expensive waste of money. I wish I could return mine.
Message 1 of 5
StephenB
Guru

Re: Nighthawk range extender ac2200 ex7500

What speeds are you getting with it and without it?

 

It's possible that your particular extender was defective. Also, if you are trying to extend coverage to a dead spot, you usually need to put the extender in a location in between the router and the dead spot - so you have a solid connection to both.

Message 2 of 5
Den03
Aspirant

Re: Nighthawk range extender ac2200 ex7500

Im aware how the product works. I have it literally above the router. I get a perfect connection without the extender in this location. The extender is supposed to give me a better signal strength (bubble) on the upper floor. My speeds on the upper floor are 300mbps without it and 300mbps with it. So i'm not even sure it's doing anything. The only difference I see is i get a signal in the one room I didn't but it's like 40mbps at best and drops so it's not stable. Support tells me the 2g and 5g lights need to be on. After 40 minutes on the phone reconfiguring the unit he says it's working don't worry about the lights. Wtf? Why are the light there for? Anyhow, i did manage to get the 2g light to go on. The 5g is off mostly and red at times. Not at all working as advertised. I agree with you I think I got a defective one. But support didn't agree. So i'm sick with an expensive piece of garbage.
Message 3 of 5
StephenB
Guru

Re: Nighthawk range extender ac2200 ex7500


@Den03 wrote:
Im aware how the product works. I have it literally above the router. I get a perfect connection without the extender in this location. The extender is supposed to give me a better signal strength (bubble) on the upper floor. My speeds on the upper floor are 300mbps without it and 300mbps with it.

It sounds to me like you don't really understand how it works.  If you are getting 300 mbps per second without the extender, then you don't need one.   The extender backhaul might get a somewhat higher connection speed than your other devices to the router, but there will be some loss in performance because of the relay (even with fastlane).  And there likely will also be some performance loss due to interference from the router network.

 

In extender mode, you are limited to 2x2 802.11ac performance, no matter how you configure it.  That is about 400 mbps throughput max (and in the real world is generally is closer to 300 mbps).  Most clients now have 2x2 radios, so they can't go faster than that even if the router or extender can. 

 

If you happen to have a client with a faster radio, then you'd need to use the EX7500 as an AP (running ethernet between it and the router). Then connect your client to 5gz band 2, which is 4x4.

 

But what I'd do instead is move the extender closer to your dead spot, and improve coverage there.

 


@Den03 wrote:
Why are the light there for? Anyhow, i did manage to get the 2g light to go on. The 5g is off mostly and red at times. Not at all working as advertised. I agree with you I think I got a defective one. But support didn't agree. So i'm sick with an expensive piece of garbage.

The lights are well described in the documentation: http://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/EX7500/EX7500_UM_EN.pdf

 

The 2.4 ghz and 5 ghz lights are only on when a client is connected to the extender's wifi network.  The router link led should be lit all the time.  The 5 ghz red says there's a client with a poor 5 ghz connection - whether that's a problem depends on how far from the extender that particular client is.

 

If you are using the "one wifi name" feature of the router, then I suspect that in your devices will often connect directly to the router (since it also has excellent signal strengh).  Note that with 802.11 WiFi your clients are free to choose either one.  You can force the issue by using a different WiFi name in the extender, and then manually connecting your clients to it.

Message 4 of 5
Den03
Aspirant

Re: Nighthawk range extender ac2200 ex7500

Again I'm aware of how the product works and I know what the lights are for. I was being sarcastic about the support dude telling me to ignore the lights. My god you are so dry.
As for the product I know why I bought it for too extended my wifi . It's not doing a good job if its red lights right when is place above the router. Oh and i tried it in the same freakin room about 14ft away and the 5g is red. Product is either defective or worthless.

I'll try the manual name change but then that defeats the one feature (mesh)of being able to walk around without having to select diff ssid.
Ps. I'm pretty technical I work for Dell for over 20yrs now, selling to large corporate accounts. Im familiar with routers, extenders, repeaters, networks, servers and so on. Im not an idiot. But i'm not as big a nerd like you (no offense). An extender should do exactly that extend my network. It's not doing that.
I won't be recommending netgear to my customers. Anyways I'm done. Just wanted to say my piece.
Message 5 of 5
Discussion stats
  • 4 replies
  • 971 views
  • 0 kudos
  • 2 in conversation
Announcements

Orbi WiFi 7