Question No Internet Access with Mesh Extender

[ttreyy]

So I’m in an apartment without an Ethernet port in my room, and no modem inside the apartment that I can access. I need a wired connection somehow. I bought a Netgear Ax1800 mesh extender. I got it all setup and could see the new networks created by the router, but both WiFi and ethernet have no internet access. How can I fix this without access to the modem?
I have one idea since we have working ethernet ports up stairs, could I hook the modem up to the ethernet port then another ethernet cord to my computer, to somehow obtain the same IPs to gain internet access? I’m not too familiar with the specifics, so I’m sorry for lack of knowledge. Or is there anything else I could do to gain internet access? It’s hard to find something online about it because they all require having the modem.

 

[bill001g]

What do you mean you need a wired connection. Do you have some device that only has a ethernet port but no wifi and does not have USB or internal slots you can add one.

Using a extender is not going to really be a wired connection. There is still a wifi connection between the extender and the pc. It really isn't much different than a wifi nic on a USB cable except in this case it is ethernet. Now if this is some very old device that does not support wifi nics of any kind then you might get this to work if the extender has the ability to run as a simple client-bridge.

There are multiple issue you have with running a mesh/repeater. First mesh is very proprietary the router generally has to be the same brand and model. You can run most mesh systems using the old repeater method BUT you generally need access to the main router. To work this uses a function called WDS. This many times must be enabled on the main router and in some cases you must put in the mac address of the repeater device you plan to connect. WDS is a security exposure so better routers have it disabled.

You are going to have to be more clear as to what the "ethernet" port is upstairs. If plug a pc directly into that port does it get internet. This would imply that there is some kind of modem/router outside your apartment. Is internet provided with the apartment or do you have to pay a ISP separately.

In general you have 3 common types of internet. DSL which comes in over phone lines, Cable which comes in over a coax cable, and various fiber connections that sometime have fiber all the way into the house.

You need some kind of "modem" for all those types. Part of the reason is ethernet can only go 100 meters and I am sure the ISP office is farther away than that. They have to use other technology to go longer distances. This means you need some kind of modem to convert it from the long distance media to ethernet.

 

[ttreyy]

What do you mean you need a wired connection. Do you have some device that only has a ethernet port but no wifi and does not have USB or internal slots you can add one.

Using a extender is not going to really be a wired connection. There is still a wifi connection between the extender and the pc. It really isn't much different than a wifi nic on a USB cable except in this case it is ethernet. Now if this is some very old device that does not support wifi nics of any kind then you might get this to work if the extender has the ability to run as a simple client-bridge.

There are multiple issue you have with running a mesh/repeater. First mesh is very proprietary the router generally has to be the same brand and model. You can run most mesh systems using the old repeater method BUT you generally need access to the main router. To work this uses a function called WDS. This many times must be enabled on the main router and in some cases you must put in the mac address of the repeater device you plan to connect. WDS is a security exposure so better routers have it disabled.

You are going to have to be more clear as to what the "ethernet" port is upstairs. If plug a pc directly into that port does it get internet. This would imply that there is some kind of modem/router outside your apartment. Is internet provided with the apartment or do you have to pay a ISP separately.

In general you have 3 common types of internet. DSL which comes in over phone lines, Cable which comes in over a coax cable, and various fiber connections that sometime have fiber all the way into the house.

You need some kind of "modem" for all those types. Part of the reason is ethernet can only go 100 meters and I am sure the ISP office is farther away than that. They have to use other technology to go longer distances. This means you need some kind of modem to convert it from the long distance media to ethernet.

I’m on a PC that does not have WiFi, however I need a stable and consistent connection as I’m on an eSports team for the college. The ethernet ports up stairs all work. I got the mesh extender because it claims to provide a much more stable connection through the WiFi provided by the apartment. Being connected to WiFi has hiccups when I play, which I honestly cannot have. The speeds are fast (I do not care about the speeds all that much) and the connection is stable and consistent through the ethernet ports up stairs. I’m trying to accomplish a consistent and stable connection without running a long cord through the apartment. Im acepto al of USB WiFi adapters because in the past I’ve had no luck.

Something else I would like to try Is powerline adapters, but since we don’t have a modem I would have to connect the main one into one of the ethernet ports upstairs. But I’m unsure if that would work.
At the end of the day I just want a stable connection without running a long cord from downstairs.
Thank you for the reply!

 

[bill001g]

That is the reason they always say never play games on wifi. Wifi and games are fundamentally incompatible. Games want very consistent latency between packets. Wifi unlike any other type of network connection does error correction on data by retransmitting it. This take time and causes random delays between packets. The reason wifi does this unlike most other networks it is subject to a lot of interfering signals from other wifi sources. Pretty much for every application other than games these extra delays cause no impact, in fact it tends to slightly increase download speed compared to dropping the data.

So can you go upstairs and plug you pc into some ethernet jack and it would function? You could use powerline networks to do the same thing in effect. It is like running a ethernet cable between the 2 rooms except it uses the power wires. You can also use MoCA if there are coax jacks in both rooms. Moca will give you very stable connection as well as full gigabit speeds if you buy the moca units that are called 2.5

 

[ttreyy]

That is the reason they always say never play games on wifi. Wifi and games are fundamentally incompatible. Games want very consistent latency between packets. Wifi unlike any other type of network connection does error correction on data by retransmitting it. This take time and causes random delays between packets. The reason wifi does this unlike most other networks it is subject to a lot of interfering signals from other wifi sources. Pretty much for every application other than games these extra delays cause no impact, in fact it tends to slightly increase download speed compared to dropping the data.

So can you go upstairs and plug you pc into some ethernet jack and it would function? You could use powerline networks to do the same thing in effect. It is like running a ethernet cable between the 2 rooms except it uses the power wires. You can also use MoCA if there are coax jacks in both rooms. Moca will give you very stable connection as well as full gigabit speeds if you buy the moca units that are called 2.5

I just finished trying powerline adapters, I used the Netgear Powerline 1000, but I had a 190 ping average and 10Mbps down. So unusable there. We do have coax ports in my room and one upstairs, but I’m not even sure if they work. I’m definitely going to try it though because that’s my last option. Thank you for your help and response.