I've a C7800 provisioned by xfinity and an EX8000 extender (firmware v1.0.1.240) extender. They are (almost) line-of-sign through a doorway. The EX8000 disconnects from the C7800 at least once daily, and often more frequently. By disconnect I mean that devices connected to the EX8000, either by wire or wifi, are no longer connected to the network through the C7800. The C7800 doesn't show them as devices, and doesn't show the EX8000 as a device. BUT, I can generally connect via web browser from my desktop, wired to the C7800, to the EX8000 and restart it remotely, after which it connects again to the C7800 and the devices connected to it come on-line.
This has been going on for quite some time: over a year. It started happening maybe once a month. Over time that became once a week, then close to daily, and now daily or more often.
If so, factory reset the ex8000. Using the installation assistant to reinstall. during the install process, uncheck the "extend 2.4ghz" network. You'll still be able to use the 2.4ghz but it won't act as failover for the backhaul. You can also try changing which channel t he C7800 uses for the 5ghz in case theres issues/interference on it.
Reason I say uncheck that is the EX can use the 2.4ghz as failover for the 5ghz. So if there's issues with the 5ghz, it'll use the 2.4ghz. Problem is that the 2.4ghz is incredibly slow and significantly increases ping times. In my experience, its better to disable the 2.4ghz failover and find a stable 5ghz channel for the backhaul and just stick with that.
Regrettably I'm still getting the disconnects. There doesn't seem to be any change in frequency of occurrence or any other symptomology. Nothing is apparent in the router log files. (If there are log files on the extender I don't know how to access them.)
I've not had any router problems. Currently I have the extender set to provide its own network, and leave the router to provide its own wifi network. When the extender drops out I can still access the wifi provided by the router.
Not sure whether it is relevant here, but - as mentioned earlier - when the extender "disconnects" its status lights don't reflect any problems: i.e., they are all bright white. The only way I've found to get the extender to reconnect to the router is to reboot/power-cycle the extender.
When it happens, are you able to log into the router and "see" the ex8000 still connected? And access it using its ip address? Just curious if its still connected but not getting its lease renewed by the c7800
Yes - most (but not all) of the time it still shows-up as a connected device on the router's admin page. In those cases I can ping and log-in to the extender from my (wired to the router) desktop, and command it to restart (as opposed to walking over to it and power-cycling it).
I've been operating since day-one with a reserved IP set on the router. I will add the same as a static IP on the extender. [If, however, I can ping the extender after it has ceased extending, doesn't that mean it knows its IP?] Will report back.
