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Forum Discussion
Best way to setup a wireless bridge R6100 with C7000
I have a Netgear R6100 Wireless AC router thats laying around. I would like to put it to use. My main router is a two-in-one Netgear C7000 modem router. What's the best way to connect the R6100 to the Nighthawk SSID? There are a few options in the Wireless Bridge settings. In order to use WEP, I would have to enter 4 encryption keys. Currently, it's connected, but only in Wireless N mode. My main router has the same SSID for both N and AC bands. I have tried this numerous ways, by selecting the 5 gig radio option in the R6100 bridge settings and it doesn't connect. The only way I can get the R6100 to connect to my main router is in 2.4 mode. There are 5 connection options in the R6100 bridge mode settings. I wanted to use WEP, but I have no idea where the encryption keys are in the C7000. There's a pin or a push button.
3 Replies
- Unfortunately, "bridge" has several meanings in computer networking, so it's unclear which one you mean. Netgear commonly uses "wireless bridge" to mean a device that connects an Ethernet device to Wi-Fi. I'm not sure if the R6100 supports this mode.
Another meaning for "wireless bridge" is Wi-Fi to Wi-Fi bridge, aka a repeater. If this is what you are looking to do, then the R6100 does support WDS. Unfortunately, WDS is a poorly defined repeater protocol. Netgear's implementation, at best, supports WEP. WEP is fundamentally insecure. Any hacker worth his/her salt can crack it in seconds. Yes, seconds.
My advice is to not bother with WDS. If you need a repeater, then get a repeater. Don't try to use a Netgear router as one. Of course, repeaters are also terrible, but to each their own.- First of all, we are not talking about every type of bridge in computer networking. We are talking about extending WiFi coverage with a wireless bridge. If you are not familiar with how to do that, you shouldn’t of replied. Either way, I figured it out and now have all 5000 square feet of my home covered. Thanks anyway smart guy.
Can you provide me the details of how you did this? I had two Airport extremes prior, one was the main home router from ISP and the other was connected via ethernet to be a WiFi extender for the lower levels of the house.
I now have an R6100 (laying around like you had) and bought a new Nighthawk x10, now think I probably should have bought the Orbi. I cannot seem to get the x10 and the R6100 to play nice together. I cannot use wifi as the "bridge" link, its too far from the x10. I need to configure the R6100 to be an ethernet connected repeater. I also have a TCP Link Outdoor unit that works fine in this configuration and needed no adjustments when changing from the AE to the x10 (using same SSID and passwords as AE used).
Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!
Happy New Year.
