I have a three story townhome. On my 2nd floor in the living room I have an RAX120 with gig speed internet. That router has speeds of about 950Mbps running a speed test through the nighthawk app. I can get 700-850Mbps on my Note 20 Ultra with wifi6 on 5ghz network. When I go upstairs to my bedroom the speeds drop to about 450-600Mbps so I bought the EAX80 to help maintain the higher speeds on the third floor. However, whether I've set up the EAX80 to share 2.4ghz and 5ghz or just the 5ghz network I can't get anything other than about 200Mbps on the EAX80. Even during initial setup with the EAX80 and RAX120 in the same room the EAX80 still maxes out at about 200Mbps. Can someone please help? I just bought the extended today and updated the firmware to V1.0.1.64_1.0.1 but no matter how many times I've reset it and tried different setups I don't get any better speeds.
1. The EAX80 is a dual band extender. Dual band extenders suffer from a 50% speed hit based on the signal they're receiving. The reason they do this is they have to use the same chip to go router----extender and then extender-----device and they both can't be running at once.
And that's based off the signal they get.
2. Try hardwiring a pc/laptop into the extender where you have it located. Check its link rate (link rate isn't the same as throughput). Also speedtest it. Try it in different locations. Problems can happen with extenders because you're having to transmit through floors/walls. And those floors/walls contain hvac, wiring, foil lined insulation, etc. And the extender isn't moving. so sometimes, moving it around can help significantly. You can even try the extender in the same room as the router to see what performns it gets close to the router.
3. hardwiring into the extender and testing with the pc/laptop gets rid of the 50% speed hit because it isn't rebroadcasting over 5ghz, its direct connected. So testing this route, lets you find the best possible location/speeds.
4. make sure you're testing over 5ghz for any wireless test. 2.4ghz is slow.
5. not sure if the eax models have fastlane. fastlane lets you dedicate a band for router---extender and then the other band for extender---device. it cuts latency down but because you're relying on 2.4ghz for one of the dedicated links, its slower. So check if you have fastlane enabled/disabled
1. The EAX80 is a dual band extender. Dual band extenders suffer from a 50% speed hit based on the signal they're receiving. The reason they do this is they have to use the same chip to go router----extender and then extender-----device and they both can't be running at once. And that's based off the signal they get.
- 20Mbps is significantly more than a 50% drop from 700-850Mbps
2. Try hardwiring a pc/laptop into the extender where you have it located. Check its link rate (link rate isn't the same as throughput). Also speedtest it. Try it in different locations. Problems can happen with extenders because you're having to transmit through floors/walls. And those floors/walls contain hvac, wiring, foil lined insulation, etc. And the extender isn't moving. so sometimes, moving it around can help significantly. You can even try the extender in the same room as the router to see what performns it gets close to the router.
- As I originally stated "Even during initial setup with the EAX80 and RAX120 in the same room the EAX80 still maxes out at about 200Mbps" So with literally zero interference of walls or anything besides open air it didn't make a difference. I have tried using the ethernet ports as the whole point was to extend my wireless speeds.
3. hardwiring into the extender and testing with the pc/laptop gets rid of the 50% speed hit because it isn't rebroadcasting over 5ghz, its direct connected. So testing this route, lets you find the best possible location/speeds.
- haven't tried the ethernet ports because I wanted my high wireless speeds extended one for up, and literally even being in the same room 10 feet from the router didn't make a difference.
4. make sure you're testing over 5ghz for any wireless test. 2.4ghz is slow.
- Again as stated "However, whether I've set up the EAX80 to share 2.4ghz and 5ghz or just the 5ghz network I can't get anything other than about 200Mbps" So using 5ghz made zero difference. I understand 2.4ghz is low speed high range and 5ghz is high speed low range.
5. not sure if the eax models have fastlane. fastlane lets you dedicate a band for router---extender and then the other band for extender---device. it cuts latency down but because you're relying on 2.4ghz for one of the dedicated links, its slower. So check if you have fastlane enabled/disabled
- I have fastlane disabled since I saw how it works and completely defeats the purpose of trying to extend high speed 5ghz wifi.
With all that said, I guess I'm returning this. It clearly doesn't deliver on being a mesh extender. The claim literally says "Gigabit Speeds for Mobile Devices Combined WiFi 6 speeds of up to 6Gbps are extended throughout your home." but yet it can't deliver anywhere near those speeds even while sitting in the same room. I'm honestly about done with Netgear and how much they over promise on products anymore
Well this forum and contacting support have got me nowhere so I'm returning this tomorrow. I wanted to increase fast speeds not reduce my speed, so this is useless to me. It's slower to connect to this than it is my actual router. So, I'll spend the $250 on something else
