I have an issue that is driving me crazy. Or crazier.

We recently had a full upgrade of all our Comcast provided equipment in
our house. It involved a new signal booster amplifier, two new, higher
bandwidth distribution amplifiers for the gazillion cable TV outlets in
the house and a new combination modem/wireless router.

We have a large house and the Comcast tech suggested getting a Netgear
WiFi extender to give the router more range. I purchased and installed
the extender. The extender adds another WiFi signal that has the same
name as the router except it has "ext" at the end of the name.

So, now the computers see two network connections available. "HomeXXXX"
and "HomeXXXX.ext"

The router signal was the stronger of the two from where I normally use
my laptop. So, I tried connecting to "HomeXXXX" and it would connect to
the router, but with no Internet access. Said "Local only".

I tried connecting to the weaker "HomeXXXX.ext" (extender) signal and it
worked fine. Local and Internet access.

Went back to the original router network signal ... Local only .. no
Internet.

I tried all the standard stuff, power down, power up of computer,
router, and even depressed the "reset" on the router. Same results.
Could only get Internet access on the extender's signal.

After about four days (and totally unrelated, I think) the new
modem/router that Comcast had installed **** the bed. The "on-line"
light would never stay on as it should.

After talking to Comcast tech help, I returned it to the local Comcast
service center and exchanged it for another one. Hooked it up, went
through the startup procedure and everything worked again normally. I
could connect to either the router directly or the extender signal and
both gave Internet access with no problems.

It all worked fine like this for about a week. About 2 hours ago, I
lost Internet access again on the router signal connection. Local
access only. Yet, when I connect to the extender's signal, I get both
local and Internet access.

Again tried the re-boots and resets. No change. I even "deleted" the
router connection and had to go through the process of re-installing the
security WPS number to connect to it again. But it still only gives
"Local only" meaning the computer is connected to the router but the
router can't connect to the Internet. When I connect to the extender's
signal (HomeXXXX.ext) everything works fine ... local and Internet access.

I can' make any sense out of this. The extender signal is nothing but a
"repeater" of the router's signal to my understanding and the extender
depends on the router for an Internet connection. So why can I connect
to the Internet with it but only get a "local network" connection when I
try the router's signal?

Any insight would sure be appreciated. This is driving me nuts.