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Forum Discussion
I'm trying to connect an old RBS50Y in extender mode to the RBRE960
My system: RBRE960 connected ans AP to the main router, a Ubiquity EdgeRouter 12P. DHCP is served by Pihole.
I'm trying to connect an old RBS50Y in extender mode to the RBRE960. I 'm following the procedure and go to connect to NETGEAR_EXT and then go to 192.168.1.250 to do the setup.
Done the "Smart" setup several times but each time I finish with the magenta light, meaning it didn't connect to the router. Sometimes it afterwards turns to blue, then nothing.
In noticed that at exact time, two SSIDs are broadcasted (which also is not normal because I specified I wanted only 2.4G, but OK) and the RBS50Y shows up in the DHCP lease table, showing it was at least some time showing up in the host router.
When I try to set it up manually, I can configure the broadcasted SSID, but I can't find where to configure the host SSID to connect to?
Does this RBRE960 - RBS50Y work? I read something about Orbi AX above? What are these?
3 Replies
Thank you all. I finally got it working. I had to switch it a couple of times between Orbi Satellite mode and Extender mode before it actually worked and went through the whole process. Also you need to be patient, it takes a LOT of time, even more than with other Orbi units ;-).
Didn't have to load any FW, extender mode was already built into the FW I have.
The critical point is that you cannot configure it fully manually, as I like to do. You HAVE to let this "Genie" thing do its thing to select and connect to a host SSID. If you choose manual setup, you can configure the broadcasted SSIDs but there is nowhere an option to say which host SSID you want to extend. At least nowhere I searched ;-).
The whole setup is imho rather clumsy and buggy, but OK, I finally got managed to set it up the way I wanted: just une single 2.4 SSID broadcasting.Does this RBRE960 - RBS50Y work? I read something about Orbi AX above? What are these?
Yes, the RBS50Y in Extender Mode should connect to any WiFi router from any brand. "AX" is used in the Community Forum to describe Netgear's WiFi6 routers.
What happens when this suggested procedure is used?
https://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/RBS50Y/RBS50Y_QSG_EN.pdf
i.e. Ensure that the RBS50Y is in Extender Mode, place it close to the router, and use the Sync buttons to connect.
You have to have the Extender Mode firmware loaded on the RBS50Y to ensure it will connect to the Orbi host system:
https://kb.netgear.com/000065169/Which-Orbi-routers-and-satellites-are-compatible
Have you tried setting this up with the 960 RBS turned OFF and the RBS50Y near the RBR, or is same room as the RBR960?
