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Stay Connected: Pairing Wi-Fi extenders to your router

May 14, 2024

As a broadband solutions provider, RURALBAND desires to offer members with the best customer experience possible. Each month, we will provide members with resources, tips, and tools on how to troubleshoot some of the top issues you may experience with your wi-fi enabled devices in this “Stay Connected” feature. Check out this month’s latest tip below.

Have you ever had the issue of pairing an extender to your home or business router?  To connect your Wi-Fi extender to your router, we recommend that you follow these general steps:


  1. Start by selecting a location for the extender and connect it to a power source. Note that once initial connectivity has been established, you can unplug and move the extender elsewhere to test and optimize its performance, if it remains within range of the router.

  2. Once your extender is powered on, walk over to your router and find the round button labelled “WPS”. This stands for wireless Protected setup, which is how two wireless devices without keyboards can securely connect to one another. Press and hold this button for five seconds- once you release, it should start a flash a yellow/amber color. This indicates that a 120 second timer has begun.

  3. Walk back over to your extender and press its WPS button for five seconds. It should start to flash and attempt to connect. Once it connects, you will see the escalating “bar” lights labelled “Wi-Fi Backhaul” lit. An optimal level is 3-4 lit green bars. If the top bar is lit red, this indicates that the extender is too close to the router, and that you should move it further away for better extension performance.

  4. The router has two band width 2.4 and 5ghz, the 5ghz is the fastest but has less range. Members can login into the router by typing the Ip address into the browser of the computer using the login information on the sticker located on the side of the router. Click on the ssid section to change the Wi-Fi name and password. Members can also use the Command IQ app to change the Wi-Fi name and password.



For more information about troubleshooting your devices and RURALBAND’s internet packages, visit RURALBAND.coop.

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