Connect NetGear N300 range extender to Airport Time Capsule.

I'm having trouble getting my NetGear N300 range extender reconnected to my Airport Time Capsule after switching over to cable from DSL.

Airport Time Capsule 802.11ac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6), connect to NetGear N300 extender

Posted on Oct 19, 2016 1:12 PM

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6 replies

Oct 19, 2016 1:28 PM in response to richardmcgonagle

What trouble are you having? We can help with settings on the Time Capsule, but we can't provide support for a Netgear product on an Apple forum.


What is the make and model number of the new "modem" that you are now using?


If you turn off the Netgear device, is the Time Capsule operating correctly?


Did you remember to reset the Time Capsule back to factory default settings......before.....you hooked it up to the new modem? That reset is always necessary whenever you change the modem or ISP.

Oct 19, 2016 1:39 PM in response to richardmcgonagle

Then, you have a question for Netgear support.


There are no settings on a Time Capsule that would tell it to connect to a Netgear extender....or any other extender for that matter. It's all up to the Netgear to connect to the Time Capsule wireless network.


The only advice that we could suggest would be to reset the Netgear device(s) back to their factory default settings and then set them up again.

Oct 19, 2016 2:46 PM in response to richardmcgonagle

Range extenders come in all sorts of guises..


The best ones, will do WDS which allows a system to fully integrate the extender..


Apple routers use a variant of WDS to extend by another Apple router.. but it is a closed system. You cannot use WDS between brands generally and certainly NOT with apple routers.


Then you have your standard universal repeater. These are much poorer as they pick up a signal and use it effectively to connect to another router. There are huge numbers of rules .. for example not all repeaters work with WPA2 security. In fact most older ones do not.

Step 1 is to make sure your wireless name on the Apple router is short, no spaces and pure alphanumerics..

eg TCwifi

The password must also be pure alphanumeric mixed case and numbers.. no special characters.


Step 2. I recommend you start with no password at all.. ie no security and see if you can get the setup to work.

Remember Netgear extenders will be designed to extend netgear routers and you might need to set the IP manually .. by default the TC will have 10.0.1.1 IP with range of 2-200 for dhcp. The netgear will definitely use 192.168.x.x with the extender needing IP set in the range of the TC. Read the manual for that.


Step 3. Once you get it working without wireless security.. you are then ready to see how well it copes with WPA.. try WPA2 Personal with rules as in step 1.. if that fails try the lower security WPA1/WPA2.

If both fail your Netgear products will not work without WEP which is no longer viable security for wireless unless you live 2km from human habitation.. in which case you may as well go back to step 2.. and use none.


Alternatives.


1. Buy more airports.. they are simple to setup to extend wireless.

You don't need expensive AC model extreme or TC.. you can buy Express or older model Extreme.. the Gen5 work very well if you can pick them up second hand.


2. Run ethernet to other areas of the house and plug the extenders in if they do WAP mode (most do).

Expensive but this is the best.. an alternative is to use powerline extenders. They do work for many people very well.. but power cabling in the house is not certain.. one person gets 50Mbps through the same adapters as another person gets 5Mbps.


3. Use your existing DSL modem router in wireless router or WAP mode plugged into the TC. I am guessing this is a netgear brand .. hence the netgear extenders. It can be used in WAN bypass mode if it is older model without WAN port or WAP mode. Google it but if you need help I can give you the details. The extenders can then work as before and it will work alongside the TC wireless. Since this is only 2.4ghz you might need to do some channel configuration but that is not hard.

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Connect NetGear N300 range extender to Airport Time Capsule.

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