Two e3200 extenders, bad wifi performance?

Question

I have recently added a second e3200 extender to my network.

Both of them are connected via cable - originally there was a cable straight from the main router to the first e3200, now there's a cable coming out of the main router, 1-to-2 splitter, cable to each e3200.

Both extenders seem to be connected and paired - white lights on the front, green lights on the back next to the cable.

I can connect a laptop to the LAN1 ports on both extenders and get decent performance from each of them, so I believe the cable connection is solid.

I can get good wifi performance when close to the main router, and next to the original e3200, but not when next to the new extender.

When I connect a browser to the main router and log in, it only shows me one extender in its Network devices menu, which is apparently the new e3200 - it logs me in with the password  for that one.  I do see both extenders in the global Devices list, though.

Any ideas on what to check?

eric_b2 · Accepted Answer

For troubleshooting these types of issues, I like to use an app on my iPhone called Wi-Fi Sweetspots.  (I'm not related to the app in any way).  Once installed, connect to your Wi-Fi, then completely disable Wi-Fi on your phone.  Stand next to the router that you're testing,  and turn Wi-Fi back on.  Next, launch Wi-Fi Sweetspots.  It will show you the speed of the connection between you and the access point that you're connected to.  For the extender, you can start to move around and find out if it drops, improves, etc. as you can farther away and closer to the other devices.  Your connection from the original point shouldn't really drop until you're standing very close to the next access point.  Once that happens, you should see a spike in speed since you should now get connected to the next point.  There are likely other free tools out there that can do this for Android, etc.  Don't use SpeedTest since that's testing your connection to the Internet and not the Wi-Fi signal strength.