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mophilly's avatar
mophilly
Aspirant
Nov 29, 2021
Solved

What does the RBRE960 "Enable IoT" option do?

I have a number of small service devices, like a doorbell, outdoor lighting controllers, and so on, that are connected to my home network. I have an AXE11000 WiFi Mesh System (RBRE960) installed and ...
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  • mophilly's avatar
    mophilly
    Aspirant
    Nov 29, 2021
    Blanca_O wrote:

    Hi mophilly

     

    Welcome to NETGEAR Community!

     

    The links below may help out: 

     

    What are the benefits of WiFi 6E?

    What are the key features of the RBKE960 series?

    What is required to use WiFi 6E?

    How do I enable or disable the Internet of things (IoT) network on my Orbi WiFi 6E System?

     

    Hope this clarifies your concern. Should you need any further information, please do not hesitate to let us know. 

     

    Regards,
    Blanca
    Community Team

    Thanks. All good links, but aren't germane to my questions. The documents I have reviewed, which includes the suggestions you offer, didn't get to the technical detail I need to complete my configuration.

    There was an post here for a little while that had the appropriate responses, but that post is no longer in this thread. 

    • CrimpOn's avatar
      CrimpOn
      Guru - Experienced User
      Nov 29, 2021

      Was this the post you saw before?

       

      The User Manual describes the IoT option starting on page 57:

      https://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/RBKE963/RBRE960_RBSE960_UM_EN.pdf 

       

      This Orbi model, like the previous models, has two radios for user devices (one 2.4G and one 5G) and one 5G radio for the 'backhaul' link between Orbi units.  (It also has a fourth radio for the 6E band should the customer have any device that supports that band.)

       

      On the user radios, the Orbi broadcasts different SSID's (on the same radio channel) for device connection:

      • A primary SSID, which is the same on both 2.4G and 5G bands
      • An optional Guest SSID, which is also the same on both 2.4G and 5G bands.
      • An optional IoT SSID, which has a bunch of options which should satisfy all those customers who demand to "separate 2.4G from 5G".

      Technically, the Orbi creates different MAC addresses for each SSID on each channel by slightly changing the actual hardware MAC address.  So, if a person were to look at the WiFi management frames, he would see beacon frames for the primary SSID, and (if they are enabled) also for the guest SSID and for the IoT SSID.

       

      The IoT SSID will have to be different from the primary or guest SSID for devices to see it as a different network.

       

      To use this new IoT capability, every IoT device that is currently connected to the primary or guest SSID would have to be reprogrammed to use the IoT SSID.

       

      Would be interested to know if you find this new capability useful.

      • TC_in_Montana's avatar
        TC_in_Montana
        Virtuoso
        Nov 30, 2021

        The biggest benefit I can see from this extra "network" is the ability to set up an SSID (network) that you can turn on or turn off either the 2.4GHz band or 5GHz band when connecting IoT devices.   Unfortunately, there are some IoT bands that require your smart phone/tablet/PC to be connected to whatever band (2.4/5) the IoT device uses for connectivity.   With the Orbi broadcasting the same SSID on both bands, some IoT devices balked during setup if the devices being used to set them up were not connected to the correct one.   

         

        One of the items always requested was the ability to turn off one or the other band or separate 2.4GHz/5GHz bands temporarily.  This IoT band option allows for that.   You can select (and change) whether it broadcasts on the 2.4GHz band, 5GHz band, or BOTH.   You can change it as necessary during setup of IoT devices to ease setup of those IoT devices.

         

        Please note that devices on the IoT band are NOT ISOLATED from the other devices on the network.   These devices still get addresses in the same range (192.168.1.2 - 192.168.1.254) as the other devices on your main network.