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WalterSu's avatar
WalterSu
Initiate
Apr 24, 2020

Disabling 802.11ax on Nighthawk Mesh Wifi6 router (MR60)

Hi all,

 

I have just installed a Nighthawk Mesh WiFi6 router and one satellite. All my devices connected easily, but neither of my Windows laptops could see the network SSID. After searching the interwebs, I discovered that older Intel wifi drivers don't support 802.11ax and so I was able to update one of the laptops with newer drivers and it now connects fine.

 

Problem is one laptop is locked down by an IT group and updating drivers isn't an option. I guess my option is to disable 802.11ax on the router, bummer for me, but in the routerlogin.net admin pages I cannot find an option to disable 802.11ax as has been mentioned for other Nighthawk routers (the non-mesh router).

 

Does anyone know how to disable 802.11ax on a Nighthawk Mesh Wifi6 (MR60) router?

 

Thanks for any pointers,

Walter

2 Replies

  • akong's avatar
    akong
    Guide
    May 29, 2020

    Hi Walter, use your browser to connect to the MR60 and also make sure you have the latest firmware.  Under ADVANCED, Advanced Setup, Wireless Settings, uncheck "Enable AX" to see if it disabled Wifi 6 features.  Don't count on this to correct your issue with older Wifi NICs depending on how old the NIC is.  Note that not all wifi5 NICs are created equal.  

    • WalterSu's avatar
      WalterSu
      Initiate
      May 29, 2020

      Thanks so much for the reply, I should have posted a follow-up. 

       

      We were able to get the IT department to update the network drivers in the PC and that worked. However, the router and satellite were terribely unstable (particularly with my Macbook Pro). I replaced the Netgear devices with Synology devices and now my Wifi is rock solid, very similar performance to the Netgear devices so I'm super happy with Synology. Netgear equipment returned for a full refund.

       

      I do appreciate your help in any case.

       

      Cheers!