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Forum Discussion
MR70/MS70, no wired backhaul?
I am trying to get wired backhaul to work. Wirelesly the satellites are found. They connect and show up in the admin ui as connected wirelesly. When I plug in a network cable to the satellite the led stays blue. However, the satellite can't be found anymore in the admin interface, let alone seeing a status which says the connection is wired. Also, visiting the satellite status page shows there is no connection. This is when they are located next to eachother.
Taking the satellite to another room and connecting it to power and ethernet results in an orange led and no signal. I have tried syncing directly with network cable, syncing wirelessly and then plugging in a network cable. Also tried rebooting after syncing. Changed network cable. Don't have the originals anymore though. The satellites are connected through a 16 port Netgear 1gbbs switch and a PfSense router, which correctly supplies all devices with an ip address. All web interfaces are available.
Does anyone have an idea where to go from here?
25 Replies
Is the MS directly connected to the back of the MR or is there a LAN switch in between?
Make sure the LAN switch that connects with the MS satellites, is directly connected behind the MR router, not behind the PfSense router:
What CAT# LAN cable are you using? CAT6 UTP is recommended.
Firmware loaded on the MR and MS?
At first, to the switch. But later on I tried directly to the MR and they were actually connected. Thanks for the link. I have searched, but found a different article from Netgear also. This one was unknown to me. My config is like this picture only with added pfSense router on the same switch, Nighthawk in AP mode:
Only difference being that the MR70 WAN port is used. Sounds counter intuitive, I know, but that's what the user manual indicates. Besides that I actually tried the LAN port and the MR indicated there was no internet connection. Firmware is latest, UTP is CAT6 and now proven to work ;)
At first, I didn't try directly but I now did and it worked. My config is like this picture only with added pfSense router on the same switch, Nighthawk in AP mode and cable in the WAN port as per the manual:
To set up the router as an AP:
1. UseanEthernet cable to connect the Internet port of this router to an Ethernet port
on the other routerYes I could test that. Are you saying that the MR70 actually needs to sit between the pfSense router and the gigabit switch that distributes my network?
Yes, Any and all MS ethernet connected need to be behind the MR router, then the MR router connected to the host router, MR in router or AP mode. If a switch is needed, since the MR is limited on LAN ports, then LAN switch sits in between the MR and any and all connected MS satellites.
Then that might be the problem. I will test tomorrow with the extra switch. If that's the solution I'll see if I can play with VLAN's and just connect the MR to the switch with 2 cables. The cable to the WAN port in the regular LAN (VLAN0 or whatever) and the other in a seperate switch port in, eg, VLAN10. And then another port on the switch in VLAN10 for the satellite.
It would answer the questions in my head why the manual would want you to use the WAN port even though it needs to communicate with the satellites and the rest of the LAN. Sounds like a missing piece of the puzzle that's actually not written down anywhere and of which I thought, but couldn't imagine to be so...
NG keeps the WAN port for either mode as the primary port for connecting to a host router or ISP modem/ONT. Even in non mesh systems, WAN port IS required for AP mode. Been like this for a long time now.
How I have operated my MK and Orbi mesh systems and all work well with satellites connected behind the MR router and using a ethernet switch. No VLAN configurations needed.
