Question WiFi range extenders only letting me access google and YouTube

[Catamarack]

I’m using the dual band router supplied by Spectrum internet, a rac2v1k. All sites work fine when connecting directly to the router’s WiFi, either channel.

When I connect a network extender, (originally tried a Netgear ex6150, currently using a linksys re7000), the setup and configuration appears to work correctly. I can log into the extender and see signal strength, IP the router assigned the extender, etc, but can only access google sites such as google.com and YouTube.

I’ve run new searches to make sure I’m not just pulling a cached page. I’ve even brought the extender to another house and tested on another router (ASUS rt-ac66u) and it’s working just fine. This leads me to believe it is some kind of DNS issue between the router and the extender.

It isn’t a range issue as it’s plugged in within a few feet of the router in both instances for setup purposes. I’ve tried with cell phone, tablet and laptop, same results in all cases.

Any suggestions on what I need to check or change in the rac2v1k router? I really don’t want to have to go buy another router.

 

[HerbK98]

Is it Spectrum in both houses? If not, I suggest you find a friend with the same Spectrum-supplied router as you have and test your extender in his/her house. If your problem exists only with Spectrum-supplied routers, you will have found your answer

 

[Catamarack]

Spectrum internet is at both houses. While I’m pretty sure I’ve already narrowed down the issue to the router, I’m hoping someone can help me figure out what the issue is with that router rather than replacing it. The router is brand new.

 

[bill001g]

I can't see how the router could do this. A repeater is pretty stupid device. It is very close to garbage in garbage out concept. The router basically takes the data packets from the repeater and replaces the mac address in the packet (it will be the mac of the repeater) with the mac in a special field called WDS. After that the packet looks the same as if the end device sent it directly to the router.

This process has no concept of IP addresses and especially no concept of web pages or dns

If you think it is DNS try to hard code the DNS server in your pc to 8.8.8.8.

The other way to test is to ping web sites from the cmd prompt. This will quickly show if it is a network issue or a web browser issue. You should try to ping both by name and by IP address. Some web sites do not respond to ping so you need to try a few.

 

[Catamarack]

I just pinged google.com and Hotmail.com.
With Hotmail, I used a specific IP address and domain name, while google I just used the domain name.

I was able to ping both when connected directly to the wireless router via WiFi connection.

While connected via the extender, I could only ping google. Pinging Hotmail the connection timed out.

 

[bill001g]

I have seen other posts on this before but I don't remember anyone saying what it really was.

It has to be your PC in some way. The router could filter traffic but you would remember configuring firewall rules. A repeater generally has no configuration to change so it can't be that.

Grasping at straws here. Maybe disable IPv6. Disable the firewall. Make sure there is no VPN junk installed.

You could run tracert to the ip for hotmail and see if it even goes to your router.

 

[Catamarack]

It definitely wasn’t the computer as the issue occurred with an iPad and my iPhone with safari, and a windows 10 laptop across IE, Firefox, and chrome. In my research, I found a few people with similar issues but never a solution.

I’ve now swapped the router with a Netgear Orbi WiFi mesh network and it’s working just fine for my needs.

My original issue was that I only needed to expand the network about 20 more feet, which is why I tried the repeater solution in the first place.

Thanks for your help though.

 

[bill001g]

Very strange indeed.

 

[FoodJunkie]

Same issue here. Spectrum just installed a new wireless router yesterday, power failed in our 6 year old router they "rent" us... Wifi works, yet, 3 different extenders, which were working day before yesterday, only allow google, youtube and few other domains. I renamed ssid's, cleared cache, searched endlessly, but the problem remains. If you get a new Spectrum wifi router, they do "something" to prevent wifi extenders from working properly. 7 previously connected machines can't possibly have the same concurrent issue. I am buying a retail router to see if that solves it.