Fios extender not working...

I recently got Fios at my house. They came and installed the router - and were supposed to bring an extender with them. They did not. They sent one out later (after repeated calls). It showed up without a ethernet cable to connect to the router(as it is supposed to). So I had to go out and get one. So I'm starting a little annoyed.

I go through the steps. When I get to the end - I place my extender about 30' away from the router - and initially get the white light, but after a few minutes - I get a solid yellow light. According to the manual - the light should either be white, blinking fast yellow or blinking slow yellow. I don't have any of these options.

I call tech support - and walk through a bunch of ways of trouble shooting, including resetting router, extender, moving extender closer and further away.

Eventually tech support says my only option is to hardwire the extender to the router. Which seems crazy to me. It seems to me like something is wrong with the extender. Has anyone run into this, and or have any suggestions aside from hard wiring the extender?

thanks.

Accepted answers

Cang_Household

Some corrections and extensions on Dexman's answer.

An E3200 cannot be wirelessly backhauled to a CR1000A is due to both technical and administrative constraints. CR1000A broadcasts one 5GHz band and one 6GHz band, while E3200 broadcasts two 5GHz bands. While it is technically possible to establish a wireless backhaul on the 5GHz band, this would leave CR1000A with no 5GHz band to serve 5GHz client devices. There are client device capable of 6GHz, but those are minorities right now.

When E3200s are installed with a CR1000A, the preferred backhaul should be coax instead of Ethernet. While it is true that MoCA adds a 3ms ping, it supports a multigigabit uplink of 2.5Gbps, as opposed to a 1Gbps Ethernet link. CR1000A is a 10Gbps capable router and is designed for the multigigabit Fios rollout up to 8.2Gbps in the near future. To not introduce bottlenecks in the path to the Internet, a higher uplink speed should always take precedence over a lower uplink speed.

A mesh system is perhaps worse than a system with multiple Fios Extenders backhauled with coax. Each mesh node introduces a 3ms ping. So if your path to the edge router traverses two nodes wirelessly, you would get an additional delay of 3ms + 3ms = 6ms! Fios Extenders, when backhauled with coax to the edge router, have a maximum delay of 3ms for the MoCA signal translation.

All comments

Cang_Household

None of the Fios extenders since the launch of Fios service is capable of being wirelessly backhauled until E3200. E3200's wireless backhaul ability is also now removed when a CR1000A is present instead of a G3100.

It is likely that you have an E3200 with CR1000A, which is coax or Ethernet backhaul only due to technical and administrative constraints.

To backhual an E3200 wirelessly, you need a G3100 instead of CR1000A. Even this, I would strongly recommend against a wireless backhaul due to bottlenecking the speeds.

fiosquestioner

thanks for the info - I'm checking the models I have.

It appears like the router I was given is the CR1000A, and the extender is the E3200. So you are correct! Thanks.

So given that I have a CR1000A for the router - supplied by Verizon. What/how can I get a wireless extender to extend the range of my wifi?

And lastly - I am relatively new to all this - so am a bit confused by all you wrote about backhaul etc.

dexman

There is an extender designed to connect to the new router via WiFi:

https://www.verizon.com/support/residential/internet/equipment/network-extender/wi-fi-extender-mini

Having said that, Cang Household is spot on... WiFi should be the ultimate last option to connect an extender to a router.

Radames45

I have a Verizon Cr 1000a and recently brought a Verizon Wi-Fi extender model E3200.

I already have the cr1000a set up and working fine. I connected the Wi-Fi extender to the router. It connected to the internet and works fine. Both solid white lights. Then when I unplug the Wi-Fi extender and move it upstairs to my room and plug it in, the Wi-Fi extender blinks white then changes to solid yellow. What am I doing wrong ?

please help.

dexman

The only way to connect the E3200 to the CR1000A is by using an Ethernet cable.

If an Ethernet cable is being used at the final location, check to make sure that the all cables are plugged in.

Radames45

So there is no way for me to have the Wi-Fi extender in a room different from the router?

dexman

Yes, but the E3200 needs to connect to the 1000A via an Ethernet cable. WiFi and coaxial cable won't work.

The E3200 will connect to the G3100 via Ethernet, coaxial cable or WiFi.

[Deleted User]

I would like to thank everyone for taking the time to post your comments and opinions related to this topic. This topic has been thoroughly discussed and will now be closed. Please feel free to open a new thread for further discussion. Thank you.

Gue224

Just got mine, the same way. As long as it is connected to the router via ethernet it works. If disconnected an used as a wireless extender, which was the whole idea, solid green light comes on. It will not connect to the router and not provide Wifi. No solution yet.