I have a netgear EX8000 extender connected to my router netgear nighthawk X6 R8000. Connected my wifi devices on 5ghz. Speeds are great (500mbps up and down) but a few times a week wifi speed gets really slow and it only gets back to normal after rebooting the router and extender. My internet provider is FIOS and i use R8000 router on AP mode. I downloaded all latest firmwares. Tried factory reset as well.
Any idea what might be going on? Problem started after i added the extender. The problem seems to affect only 5ghz channel (my 2.4ghz is too slow so i dont use)
EX8000 is already is AP mode. Haven’t tried hardwiring the EX but the R8000 ethernet speeds are fine when wifi is slow. I will try and test. Usually problem is only solved if i reboot the router R8000 if i only reboot EX8000 it doesn’t work
EX8000 is already is AP mode. Haven’t tried hardwiring the EX but the R8000 ethernet speeds are fine when wifi is slow. I will try and test. Usually problem is only solved if i reboot the router R8000 if i only reboot EX8000 it doesn’t work
It can't be in AP mode if it isn't hardwired in. The only way AP mode works is if the hardwire is providing the internet access.
So you'd be in extender mode.
Something you can try doing that sounds a bit counter intuitive is to install version 1.0.4.18 to the R8000. The 2 versions after that got netgear armor and not all played nice with it. And with the router being the backbone of the system, its worth a shot.
Try installing that, factory reset the r8000, reinstall it manually, and then disable auto updates.
Apologies. The router is in AP mode not the extender. I will try to do that. I also changed the channels after looking at overlapping channels in my neighborhood. Lets see if that helps too. Tks a lot
Fios Quantum Gateway. I turned off the wifi radio on my Fios Quantum Gateway and connected the R8000 in AP mode to the Fios Quantum Gateway (LAN to WAN). Then the EX8000 is used as an extender for the R8000. Today i am replacing the CAT5e cable that connects modem to internet and modem to router with CAT7 cables. Lets see if that helps a little. After changing the channel for the 5ghz band things seem to have improved but too early to tell.
I have just done that. I setup a static IP for the extender. I also noted that the extender keeps changing which 5ghz channel it is connecting too (I thought the extender would use ONE dedicated band to connect to the router). Weird thing is that i have different SSIDs for both 5ghz bands. However when i check the mywifiext.local i see the 5ghz channel that the extender is connected keeps changing (not sure how often) however it refers to either channel as the same SSID. So i end up naming both 5ghz channels SSIDs the same. So far everything working nicely. Lets see if it will last
I was able to solve my problem. I made all these changes (not sure exact which one(s) solved my problem): - I didn’t change firmware on neither router or extender - i replaced ethernet cables connecting internet -> gateway -> router with CAT 7 cables - i had CAT 5e before (this definitely had a impact i wifi speed) - i used a static IP address for my extender - i used the same SSID for both 5ghz bands (smart connect off) - i changed the channels of all bands after using a wifi analyzer (this alone didn’t fix the problem)
It has been a couple of days with no issues and strong/fast wifi signal in my whole 3000 sqft house
Today wifi was unstable for a few minutes. I checked the connection of the extender and it has switched the 5ghz band it is connected to the router. So this seems to be a problem and not sure why this happens. Thought it would select 1 out of the 2 5ghz channels to connect and stay in that channel but doesn’t look like it Is there a way to fix the 5ghz channel the extender connects to the router and the 5ghz channel it broadcasts? In theory there is a option in the setup to fix the 5ghz channel it broadcasts but it doesn’t really work
Try disabling one of the R8000 5ghz bands temporarily. See if it stays stable running off 1. And then if that stay stable, swap to disabling the other 5ghz and using it as backhaul. Maybe one of the 5ghz channels is having issues on the router, the extender, or even just interference
But if i disable one 5ghz band on the router the extender can only connect to the other band right? Wont this compromise speed since one 5ghz band will be used as both backhaul and broadcasting?
It won't compromise the extender and its for checking stability. Again, its for testing to see if there's issues with the routers 5ghz. Which is what could cause the EX8000 to be switching around.
If I have to spend $300.00 on a NETGEAR EX8000, as I did, and had to go through all these troubleshooting back and forth and yet not obtaining the desirable results, I definitely want my money back. I am in fact a frustrated owner of a EX8000 mesh extender with a internet speed going up to ~250 Mbps with a ISP of 1Gbps downsream and upstream. Did I say frustraded?
Model: EX8000|AC3000 Nighthawk X6S Tri Band WiFi Mesh Extender
I think i found out what the problem is. Every time i run ookla speed test using my surface pro it knocks down the 5ghz connection for a few seconds and then the extender connects to the wrong 5ghz radio making wifi slower. Go figure but i have been able to replicate this issue every single time i tried
Good for you. It looks like your issue is with ookla. I wish that was my case. For me I have never been able to use my EX8000 as an EXTENDER; I can only use it as an access point. Last time I tried, two months ago, a NETGEAR guru technician was remoting into my PC trying to configure it as a Wi-Fi extender when at the very end he got error message 400. He became frustrated after several attemps and I never heard from him again. After upgrading to the most recent EX8000 firmware this month I have tested speeds of 880 Mbps on a 1G network. However, still getting error 400 when trying to configure the EX8000 as an extender. It is so sad NETGEAR only offers 3 months manufacturer warranty on this device. You must purchase additional warranty which is becoming a huge part of NETGEAR business. Cha-Chin!
Model: EX8000|AC3000 Nighthawk X6S Tri Band WiFi Mesh Extender
