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Forum Discussion
Looking to buy The ORBI OUTDOOR Range Extender but will it work?
I currently use an AC900 Nighthawk R7000 router and it covers my entire home quite well except for one issue. Outside on the patio it works well when the sliding glass doors are open, but when they a...
RAE1973 wrote:As I mentioned previously, the router covers my entire house almost 3,200 sq feet and works fine outside when the sliders are open. Butdoes not work much of the time when the sliding glass doors are closed.
Sorry I neglected to complete my answer. The issue with sliding glass doors with metallic film is that people generally sit in locations where the doors may be between them and the WiFi system. An external WiFi access point would be ideal if it can be located where it gets a good signal from the base WiFi and is also open to the outside area. Depending on how the walls are constructed, the exterior access point could be placed above the patio doors, or on another part of the wall. Another solution is to place another access point next to the wall to one side of the patio doors so that it will radiate through the wall rather than the glass.
The benefit of placing another access point on the interior is running electrical power is simpler and the unit is not exposed to weather. That is why many exterior units (Orbi, Ubiquiti, etc.) power their outdoor units with Power over Ethernet (PoE). One small "low voltage" cable is a lot easier to pass through a wall than it is to install 120v power externally.
This makes sense to me. Looks the way to go. Much appreciated.
"The way to go" is not necessarily an Orbi outdoor rated unit. Since you already own and are happy with the Nighthawk R7000, it is probably worth a few minutes investigating a Nighthawk range extender. My brief search did not turn up one rated for outdoors, but there are a bunch of extenders that could be located indoors against the wall nearest the patio.
There is also an active R7000 user forum. Someone there might have addressed this exact problem.
Theres an EX7000 that would match up to the R7000. However all EX extenders are all indoor use only.
Yes, I have also looked at range extenders associtaed with the Nighthawk router and as you say, none were rated for outdoors. But it may be possible to mount one on the wall closest to the patio. Thanks
Let us know what you end up with.
