You have finally installed Netgear extender. However, you are still not getting a blast performance. Most likely, your router is doing a perfect job. The problem could be with the placement of your Netgear extender. In short, you might have chosen the worst location to place your Netgear extender.
So, we are here to assist you with that. From helping you how to choose the right place to do little adjustments, this article will be your go to guide. Without wasting any time, let’s get through the following points. Keep reading.
Table of Contents
Tips to Choose Best Place for Extender Placement
Center of Attraction
The direction of signals broadcasted from the Netgear WiFi extender is not uniform. Just like the ripples in the water, the WiFi signals radiate in every direction from the source. Therefore, placing the extender in a corner won’t cover the majority of the area in your house.
To have the best area coverage, you need to move the extender to the central location. It could be easier if you have a smaller area to cover. However, for larger irregular locations, moving the extender from the outer edge to the middle of the house can help you a lot.
Choose a Higher Place
The omnidirectional antennas, the extender radiate signals that create a network bubble. So, placing the extender on the floor means most of the coverage will go into the foundation of your house. Thus, if you want to access Nighthawk extender setup page on the first floor, you won’t get any WiFi coverage.
To have the maximum WiFi coverage, get the Netgear off the floor. In case you have two floors, you have two options. You can either place the extender on the ceiling of the ground floor or the floor of the first floor. To cover three floors, set up the device in the middle floor.
Avoid Obstacles
Have you ever checked the WiFi range without any obstacles nearby? No? You should. A few obstacles could be a brick wall, ceilings, wall cabinets, heavy electrical appliances, etc. You can easily avoid a few obstacles, whereas, you can’t do much about others.
Some surface even bounce off the WiFi signals. Thus, your devices won’t catch or able to connect to the extender’s WiFi networks. Get the device as far from the obstacles that have the worst impact on the extender signals.
Get Rid of Interference
Different electronic devices operate at different electromagnetic spectrum. It could be the same as your Netgear extender’s WiFi frequency. That could hamper with electromagnetic field emitted by your extender. In short, devices can’t connect to your Netgear WiFi repeater.
A few examples are baby monitors, cordless phones, microwaves, and other smart home devices. In this case, changing the frequency of your device might help you. You can do that with the Nighthawk app. Just do the login and switch from one channel to the other.
Reposition Antennas
Does your extender have adjustable antennas? Yes? Great! You can experiment with them by changing their positions and angle of deviation. Adjusting the extender antennas can boost the quality of your WiFi signals.
If you can afford, you should install larger antennas to have better signal strength. So, you need to get antennas with better RP-SMA connectors. Just get custom antennas and attach them to your WiFi extender.
Bonus Tip: A Netgear WiFi repeater might seem a simple device. But, it has a CPU and integrated system. So, if you want to have the best performance, you must keep the upgraded. For that matter, you should upgrade the firmware of your WiFi repeater.
Conclusion
Having the best placement ensures you get the best extender performance. Make sure you don’t forget the router as well. So, get access to the Nighthawk router setup wizard and sync the settings with the extender. When the extender works along with the router, you are going to have the best network coverage as well as the best WiFi strength.
