I'm afraid of the answer I'm going to get...but can you configure smart light bulbs with the Nighthawk MR60? They almost all require 2.4ghz (at least to initially connect). This also requires the mobile device with the configuration app to also be on 2.4ghz, at least temporarily. It doesn't look like you can disable the 5ghz wireless network on the MR60, or force a mobile device to use the 2.4ghz band. Which means, smart bulb users may be in trouble?

Appreciate the sentiment, but many low-cost IoT devices use a low-cost wifi chip. That's what makes them low-cost. And note that this is only an issue for initial setup - once you have connected one of these low-cost IoT devices with their low-cost wifi chips to your mesh network, everything is fine. This is only an issue for the initial configuration. Googling around shows a few possible solutions, including: Using an old phone or tablet that is 2.4GHZ only for the initlal configuration.Walking far away until your mobile device switches to the 2.4GHZ network.Turniing off your wifi and creating a wifi network with the same name on a mobile hotspot. Typically, mobile hotspots on phones are 2.4GHZ. Then use another device for the initial configuration. Turn off the mobile hotspot and re-enable your mesh wifi.

I Found That You Need To Use 2.4 mhz, I Have An Older Tablet That Connect's With 2.4. Once You Connect The Smart Bulb You Can Use Other Devices Even If They Are On 5 mhz.

Totally understand. It's just that many of us are new to mesh networks and are surprised to find this feature can actually work against us when we have a variety of smart devices. For example, I came from a previous Netgear router where you can combine the 2.5 and 5 GHZ bands into a single SSID but still manually disable each. Not a mesh network, obviously. Sometimes, cutting edge can put us a bit too far advanced of the environment it's operating in. :)

paulz Yes and no. The problem does go ways beyond of the initial IoJ discovery. In a Mesh environment, additional APs can become available at any time adding coverage to the SSID Mesh, offering much better signal level for the wireless clients. Because these IoJ device WiFi clients are much to cheap, they won't take care about the neighbourhood information distributed offering alternate APs on air, they won't automatically re-iterate the situation, they won't re-associate to better AP. With a mobile device like an old tablet or notebook which does come and go to the network this isn't a big issue - it will most likely re-associate to the temporarily best radio on every reconnection. More static infrastructure devices like smart lights (switches, bulbs, ...) or e.g. wireless printers/scanners it's becoming much more critical. These devices will remain up 24*7, except of a power failure virtually never - so these IoJ will never re-associate and take any advantage of the Mesh system.

I ended up buying Phillips Hue as it had a hub, it would not work with LIFX, but the hub connected no problems, the light bulbs talk to the hub, everything worked. I have no patience for workarounds, it should just work

How to conifgure smart light bulbs with Nighthawk MR60

11 Replies

dacker
Aspirant
Aug 02, 2020
I'm having the same problem with a Wi-Fi camera. Setup is supposed to be done by connecting your smartphone to a 2.4GHz access point because 2.4GHz is the only band the camera supports, and completing setup with an app.

I too cannot find any way to temporarily disable 5GHz so I can execute the installation. This, I now recognize, is a major ommission by Netgear. I've never had a router or AP where this could not be done.

I had someone suggest disabling "Smart Connect," however, I cannot find any such feature in the browser-based setup. It is mentioned in the MR60 datasheet but is not mentioned in the MR60 users manual.
- schumaku
  Guru - Experienced User
  Aug 04, 2020
  dacker wrote:
  This, I now recognize, is a major ommission by Netgear.
  No, much more it's a problem your camera maker or the OPs IoT garbage must resolve. Complain with them. All the LAN and Wi-Fi interfaces are connecting to the very same network, the very same broadcast domain, the very same IP subnet. There is _no_ reason for such a requirement!
  
  It's completely irrelevant if a device does only support 2.4 GHz, only 5 GHz, or is an Ethernet connected device.
  - italianbeef
    Star
    Aug 04, 2020
    Appreciate the sentiment, but many low-cost IoT devices use a low-cost wifi chip. That's what makes them low-cost.
    
    And note that this is only an issue for initial setup - once you have connected one of these low-cost IoT devices with their low-cost wifi chips to your mesh network, everything is fine. This is only an issue for the initial configuration.
    
    Googling around shows a few possible solutions, including:
    
    Using an old phone or tablet that is 2.4GHZ only for the initlal configuration.
    Walking far away until your mobile device switches to the 2.4GHZ network.
    Turniing off your wifi and creating a wifi network with the same name on a mobile hotspot. Typically, mobile hotspots on phones are 2.4GHZ. Then use another device for the initial configuration. Turn off the mobile hotspot and re-enable your mesh wifi.
schumaku
Guru - Experienced User
Aug 04, 2020
italianbeef wrote:
Which means, smart bulb users may be in trouble?
No, the smart bulb makers are in trouble. They have to fix their rubbish discovery App and process, they need to learn about basic networking!

Complain with the supplier and the makers/manufacturer of this IoT blubs!
Gillian37
Initiate
Mar 04, 2021
I ended up buying Phillips Hue as it had a hub, it would not work with LIFX, but the hub connected no problems, the light bulbs talk to the hub, everything worked. I have no patience for workarounds, it should just work

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How to conifgure smart light bulbs with Nighthawk MR60