NETGEAR WN3000RP User Manual

N300 WiFi Range Extender

Model WN3000RP
User Manual

April 2014

202-11346-01

350 East Plumeria Drive

San Jose, CA 95134

USA

N300 WiFi Range Extender

Support

Thank you for selecting NETGEAR products.

After installing your device, locate the serial number on the label of your product and use it to register your product at

https://my.netgear.com. You must register your product before you can use NETGEAR telephone support. NETGEAR

recommends registering your product through the NETGEAR website. For product updates and web support, visit

http://support.netgear.com.

Phone (US & Canada only): 1-888-NETGEAR.

Phone (Other Countries): Check the list of phone numbers at http://support.netgear.com/general/contact/default.aspx.

Compliance

For regulatory compliance information, visit http://www.netgear.com/about/regulatory.

See the regulatory compliance document before connecting the power supply.

Trademarks

NETGEAR, the NETGEAR logo, and Connect with Innovation are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of NETGEAR, Inc.
and/or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries. Information is subject to change without notice.
© NETGEAR, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Contents

Chapter 1 Get to Know Your Extender

Chapter 2 Install Your Extender

N300 WiFi Range Extender

Front Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Extender Side and Bottom Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

How the Extender Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

When to Use Your Extender. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Place the Extender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Connect to an Existing WiFi Network. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Find the Best Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Extender WiFi Performance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Cable a Computer or Device to the Ethernet Port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Chapter 3 Manage the Extender Network and Settings

Log In to the Extender After Initial Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Change the admin Password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Use the Setup Wizard to Connect the Extender to a Network. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Add a WPS Client to the Extender Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

View or Change Wireless Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

View or Change Advanced Wireless Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Set Up a Wireless Access List. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Set Up the Extender to Use a Static IP Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Chapter 4 Monitor and Maintain the Extender

Back Up the Extender Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Restore Saved Configuration Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Return the Extender to Its Factory Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Use the Factory Reset Button to Restore Factory Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Erase the Extender Settings and Return to Factory Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Upgrade the Firmware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

View Wired and Wireless Network Devices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Chapter 5 FAQs and Troubleshooting

FAQs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Cannot Log In to the Extender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Cannot Join the Extender WiFi Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Appendix A Supplemental Information

Factory Default Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Technical Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

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1. Get to Know Your Extender

1

This chapter covers the following topics:

• Front Panel

• Extender Side and Bottom Panels

• How the Extender Works

• When to Use Your Extender

For more information about the topics covered in this manual, visit the support website at

http://support.netgear.com.

Firmware updates with new features and bug fixes are made available from time to time on

downloadcenter.netgear.com. Some products can regularly check the site and download new

firmware, or you can check for and download new firmware manually. If the features or behavior
of your product does not match what is described in this guide, you might need to update your
firmware.

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Front Panel

The front panel has LEDs.

N300 WiFi Range Extender

Router
Arrow
LED

Router Link
LED

Power LED
WPS LED

Figure 1. Extender front panel
Table 1. LEDs

LED Description

Router Link LED

The connection between the extender and the router or access point.

• Solid green. Best connection.

• Solid amber. Good connection.

• Solid red. Poor connection.

• Off. No connection.

Client
Arrow
LED

Client Link
LED

Client Link LED

Power LED

WPS LED

Router Arrow and
Client Arrow

The connection between the extender and a computer or mobile device.

• Solid green. Best connection.

• Solid amber. Good connection.

• Solid red. Poor connection.

• Off. No connection.

• Solid amber. The extender is booting.

• Solid green. The

• Off. The

• Solid green. WiFi security is enabled (WPA or WPA2).

• Blinking green. A

• Off. WiFi security is not enabled.

If the Router Arrow or Client Arrow LED blinks, see Find the Best Location on
page 12. If no arrow LEDs are lit, the extender is in a good location.

extender is powered off.

extender is powered on.

WPS connection is in progress.

Get to Know Your Extender

5

N300 WiFi Range Extender

Extender Side and Bottom Panels

The side panel has buttons, and the bottom panel has the Factory Reset button and an
Ethernet port.

Power On/Off button
WPS button

Factory Reset button
Ethernet port

Figure 2. Extender side and bottom panels

How the Extender Works

The extender increases the distance of a WiFi network. The extender connects to your
network’s WiFi signal and it broadcasts its own WiFi signal. When you are too far away to
connect to your network’s WiFi signal, you can connect to an extender WiFi signal instead.

WiFi Range
Extender

Boosts the range of your
existing WiFi and creates
a stronger signal in
hard-to-reach areas.

Existing WiFi

Sometimes your router
does not provide the WiFi
coverage you need.

Figure 3. The extender WiFi signals reach areas outside of the range of your router

Get to Know Your Extender

6

N300 WiFi Range Extender

When to Use Your Extender

NETGEAR recommends that you connect to the extender only when your WiFi network
connection is poor. Data traffic routed through the extender is inherently slower than traffic
routed directly from the network.

Get to Know Your Extender

7

2. Install Your Extender

This chapter covers the following topics:

• Place the Extender

• Find the Best Location

• Extender WiFi Performance

• Cable a Computer or Device to the Ethernet Port

2

8

N300 WiFi Range Extender

Place the Extender

NETGEAR recommends that you place the extender near the router during initial setup. Then
move it farther away from the router as needed to increase the area that has a WiFi signal.

 To place the extender:

1. Place your extender in the same room as your WiFi router

2. Plug the extender into an electrical outlet.

The Power LED
button.

lights green. If the Power LED does not light, press the Power

.

Connect to an Existing WiFi Network

To extend the range of your WiFi network, you must connect the extender to your existing
WiFi network. You can connect with WPS or with NETGEAR genie Smart Setup.

Connect with WPS

Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) lets you connect the extender to a secure WiFi network without
typing the network name and password. The WPS button is a physical button on the router or
access point.

WPS does not support WEP network security. If you are using WEP security, see Connect

with NETGEAR genie Smart Setup on page 10.

 To connect with WPS:

1. Press the WPS button on the side panel of the extender.

The WPS LED

2. Within two minutes, press the WPS button

The WPS LED on the extender lights solid green, the Router Link LED
the extender is connected to your existing WiFi network.

Note: If the Router Link LED does not light, try again. If it still does not light,

see Connect with NETGEAR genie Smart Setup on page 10.

3. On your computer or wireless device, find the new extender network name.

The extender’s wireless network name (SSID) changes to your existing WiFi network
name, with _EXT at the end of the name.

For example:

• Existing W

• New extended network name. MyNetworkName_EXT

blinks.

on your router or access point.

lights, and

iFi network name. MyNetworkName

Install Your Extender

9

N300 WiFi Range Extender

4. Connect your existing WiFi devices to the new extended network.

Use the same WiFi password that you use for your WiFi router.

5. Unplug the extender and move it to a new location closer to the area with a poor WiFi signal.

The location that you choose must be within the range of your existing WiFi router
network.

6. Plug the extender into an electrical outlet and wait one minute.

The Power LED

lights green. If the Power LED does not light, press the Power

button.

7. Use the Router Link LED on the front panel to help you choose a spot where the

extender-to-router connection is optimal.

Connect with NETGEAR genie Smart Setup

You can use a web browser to connect to the extender and set it up.

 To connect with the browser-based Smart Setup:

1. Use a WiFi network manager on a computer or mobile device to find and connect to the

extender WiFi network.
After the connection with the computer or mobile device is established, the Client Link

LED

2. Open a web browser window from the same computer or mobile device.

The browser takes you directly to NETGEAR genie smart setup.

Note: If you are not automatically directed to NETGEAR genie, launch a web

lights solid green.

browser and enter www.mywifiext.net in the address field. Enter

admin for the user name and password for the password.

3. Select a WiFi network to extend and click the Continue button.

4. In the Password field, type the network password (also called passphrase or security key)

and click the Continue button.

Install Your Extender

10

N300 WiFi Range Extender

5. In the Name field, type a name (SSID) for your new extender WiFi network and click the

Continue button.

Note: You can use the same security settings as your existing network by

selecting the check box.

The settings are applied and the following screen displays:

6. Use a WiFi network manager on the computer or mobile device to connect to the extender’s

newly created WiFi network.

7. Enter your password.

8. Select the check box and click the Continue button.

Install Your Extender

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